While you may have seen less deer harvested in Door and Kewaunee counties so far this gun season, that was not the case statewide.

Preliminary figures from the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources indicate that the number of gun deer hunters in Wisconsin stayed nearly constant compared to 2024.  As of Nov. 23, sales for deer hunting privileges reached 777,843, down 0.03% from the same time last year.  Of those, 538,865 were for gun privileges only. 

In total, hunters registered 90,671 deer statewide during the opening weekend of the 2025 gun deer hunt, compared to 87,248 registered in 2024. This is a 3.9% increase from a year ago.  Hunters registered a total of 48,748 antlered deer on opening weekend, compared to 48,063 in 2024, a 1.4% increase. The antlerless harvest was 41,923, which is up 7% from last year. Locally, Door County hunters registered 80 fewer deer than last year, while Kewaunee County saw a decrease of 81 deer, both down from its 2024 opening-weekend total.

Other than a lack of snow cover and warmer temperatures in the afternoons across the southern half of the state, conditions for the opening weekend were pretty favorable for hunters.