Waupaca County among harvest leaders

By Greg Seubert

Hunters harvested almost 5,000 deer in Waupaca County during the state’s annual nine-day gun deer hunt that ended Nov. 28.

That’s according to preliminary numbers from the state Department of Natural Resources.

Waupaca County’s total of 4,968 deer included 2,346 bucks and 2,622 antlerless deer. The county harvest’s total is third behind Marathon (6,208) and Shawano (5,446).

Preliminary totals for other area counties

• Outagamie County: 1,855 (869 bucks, 986 antlerless).

• Portage County: 3,920 (1.774 bucks, 2,146 antlerless).

• Shawano County: 5,446 (2,478 bucks, 2,968 antlerless).

• Waushara County: 3,433 (1,640 bucks, 1,793 antlerless).

• Winnebago County: 965 (515 bucks, 450 antlerless).

Harvest numbers for all 72 counties can be found here.

Other DNR stats

• Hunters registered 175,667 deer during this year’s hunt, including 84,952 bucks and 90,715 antlerless deer.

• Since archery seasons opened Sept. 18, hunters have registered 270,046 deer statewide, showing the growing influence of earlier seasons on the cumulative harvest.

• Sales for gun, bow, crossbow, sports and patron licenses reached 808,224. Of that total, 564,440 were for gun privileges, including gun, patron and sports licenses. The year-to-date sales for all deer licenses are down 1.5% from the same time last year.

• Hunters purchased 60% of licenses online, with the remaining 40% sold in-person through transactions at DNR license agent locations. Deer hunting license and harvest authorization sales will continue throughout the remaining deer hunting seasons.

• Compared to 2020, the total gun deer harvest was down 7.9% statewide, with buck harvest down 1.3% and antlerless harvest down 13.2%.

• The Northern Forest management zone showed harvest increases from 2020 for antlered and antlerless kills, while the other three zones showed declines in harvest. The Central Forest (-3.0%) and Central Farmland (-8.9%) had similar declines in total harvest from 2020 levels, while the Southern Farmland showed a larger decline in total harvest of 17%.

• Adams County led the Central Farmland Zone with more than nine deer registered per square mile, Vernon County led the Southern Farmland Zone with almost six deer registered per square mile, Oneida County registered the most per square mile in the Northern Forest Zone at 4.5 and Eau Claire County in the Central Forest Zone reported almost 3.5 deer per square mile.