Bow season prospects bright with deer hunt opportunities
MADISON — Wisconsin bowhunters enter a lengthy deer season Saturday with an abundance of opportunities.
The state's deer herd is at near record levels and harvest tags are plentiful.
"We estimate the deer population at 1.5 million to 1.7 million," said Keith Warnke, big game specialist for the Department of Natural Resources. "That's down slightly from last year. We believe we are on the right side of record deer populations. They are coming down."
Bowhunters registered 116,010 deer in 2007. Gun deer hunters added 402,563.
The DNR's goal is to reduce the herd to 700,000 heading into winter, a level unlikely to be reached.
"We went into this past winter with about 1.1 million deer, about 45-50 percent above goal," Warnke noted.
Archers in northeastern and northcentral counties are expected to encounter the lowest deer densities with east-central and southern
counties the most abundant, he said.
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