Deer hunting forecast is middling

More than 400,000 deer hunters are preparing for the firearms deer season that opens Saturday, Nov. 9, offering opportunities to spend time outdoors with friends and family, find adventure and put venison in the freezer.

Minnesota Department of Natural Resources wildlife staff are reporting that there should be good opportunities to harvest deer in most areas, although numbers are still down in the northeastern part of the state.

Despite a mild 2023-24 winter, deer populations in the northeast region are still low and will take multiple years to recover from several severe winters in prior years. The best deer harvest opportunities in the northeast part of the state will be in the southern portion of the region, Carlton County and south, where deer numbers are higher.

In addition, the highest deer numbers are expected in areas of mixed habitat of open fields and forest. Scouting for local pockets of deer will improve hunter success. Hunters in far northern areas will again have fewer opportunities to harvest antlerless deer, and in some areas hunters will only be allowed to harvest bucks. This will give local deer populations in these northern areas a chance to grow where their numbers are below goals established through the public deer population goal setting process.