Deer Harvest Statistics???

[lawdog]

I know the DNR will put out the statistics saying the overall harvest was the 5th highest or whatever, but does anybody know if they do it by area break down more? I'm real curious to see what zone 451 and 452 did against the same zones last year. Also what zone 4 in general did against zone 4 last year. I'm sure others would like to see this info for their areas as well, but I don't know where to find it. I've searched the DNR HSOforum and didn't see it if its there.

One thing I sure don't understand is when I looked at their deer density maps my area here in SW MN is in the lowest deer per square mile range and yet we could use a zillion tags here just like the guys in the highest populated areas. This doesn't seem to make sense...

[chucker34]

Lawdog, the article I read this weekend said they think that it might now be the 3rd or even 2nd best harvest ever depending on how the ML and bow season shake out. My home range is definitely not in line with that this year. Few people I talked to saw much of anything during gun season or had anything to show for it. But the deer are there. Saw a bunch of em bedded in the alfalfa last night. Oh, well. I 'm looking for those numbers too but I doubt they'll have them for awhile yet in report form. Maybe try e-mailing the DNR. They might share the figures for your home area. They published our's in the paper for Kandiyohi County, which was a sharp increase over last year's harvest. Still can't figure that out when no one I talked to saw or got many deer.

[bigbucks]

They would need to do it by area to mean much. Zone 4 would have to be down overall with some of the really big producing areas having been moved into Zone 2. Most of the people I talked to in 213 & 214 (formerly 413 & 414) had very good years. I would be very interested to see how much it dropped in some of the areas, like I assume it must have based on the talk here. The thing I can't figure out is there are people in our area who are talking about there not being very many deer around. I think they're smoking something... The concentration on various properties changes from year to year, seems like it doesn't always matter how many you do or don't shoot there.

I've noticed over the years that the parties who are willing to drive if necessary, & know how to do it, at least in my areas, get deer pretty much regardless of the weather. The parties who only stand hunt may sometimes get bigger deer, but they are much more weather dependent. (Who knows, maybe they get bigger deer because of the years when they don't get them because they aren't moving on their own, then they're just bigger the next year.)

[Mark Christianson]

lawdog

There are reports that break down each permit area and the harvests they have. If you look at the DNR site, look for the 2005 Harvest report for last years numbers. When the 2006 comes out, you can manually compare results by permit area.

[Mark Christianson]

Heck, here it is.

http://files.dnr.state.mn.us/outdoor_activities/hunting/deer/2005_harvestreport.pdf

[Ely Lake Expert]

Thanks for the link BLB.

The one statistic I found odd is the fact that 10-15 years ago there was consistantly over 400,000 resident hunters per year and last year 291,000. Thats alright though, more deer for me.

[Mark Christianson]

That cant be right. There have been 400,000 plus gun hunters for years. Or am I thinking of something else??? That just doesnt compute for me.

Pretty neat data in that report though regardless. Cant wait to see the 2006 data myself and compare the 3 areas I hunted. Either they were all abducted by aliens, or they are hiding in bunkers somewhere.

[chucker34]

bigbucks, you are right about that stand versus drive thing. I enjoy stand hunting and in fact believe its the only safe way to go where I hunt. I saw a nice number of deer during gun season from my stands but didn't get a shot off and relatively few during bow season. But the guys on the adjacent property who did some drives got some deer. It sounded like World War 3 - probably a couple of dozen shots - but they got a few. Will be interesting to see the final stats. All I know is northern Kandioyhi county was very slow from all of the accounts I've heard and read (registering station numbers), so the southern part of the county must have cleaned up.

[lcornice]

Quote:

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The one statistic I found odd is the fact that 10-15 years ago there was consistantly over 400,000 resident hunters per year and last year 291,000. Thats alright though, more deer for me.

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You need to look at the totals. Back when the number was 400K, it was just the regular $26 (today's price) license. Now, there is a youth license, multi-zone buck, and all-season. They basically pull from the regular license so it shows a reduction when it's really a shift to different licenses. Overall hunters number are about the same, which is 475K gun and 25K bow only.

I hope that clears it up.

[Ely Lake Expert]

Ya your right icornice. I guess I didn't look at it that closely earlier.

[lawdog]

Wow that's a lot of great info that the DNR puts out! Can't wait to compare it to this year's data. I just have a hard time believing this area was as good from what I saw myself and heard from some others (although I did hear a few guys seeing lots of deer too I guess)...

[chris63]

The guy who now owns the Conoco on hwy47&18 by Millelacs told me this year Saturday opening morning only had registered 25 animals by noon compared to over 200 same time last year!c63