Less deer were harvested across Wisconsin during the state’s opening weekend of the gun season, but that is not necessarily true in Door and Kewaunee counties.

Hunters have harvested 89,203 deer since Saturday’s opener, including 49,038 antlered deer. That’s 1.8 percent less than 2023 and almost 4.7 percent below the five-year average. Hunters harvested 1,190 deer in Door County and 886 deer in Kewaunee over the weekend. Like the rest of the state, the counties saw a dip in the number of antlered deer killed (down 1.3 percent in Door County, down 3.4 percent in Kewaunee County). Still, both also saw nearly double-digit gains in antlerless deer (up 9.4 percent in Door County, up 14.7 percent), putting them ahead of 2023’s pace by three to five percent.

The Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources blamed the late opening date and the mild temperatures for the lack of deer activity. The agency hopes that snow in some parts of the state and a temperature drop could help hunters find deer more readily.

The good news is that the number of deer hunters across all license types was up slightly last year to more than 778,000. There were also no firearm-involved hunting incidents reported. The gun season for deer hunting ends on December 1st, but more opportunities will be ahead. The muzzleloader season runs from December 2nd to 11th and antlerless-only hunts will occur from December 12th to 15th and December 24th-January 1st. The archery season in many counties like Door and Kewaunee runs until January 31st.