Hunters of all ages journeyed into the outdoors with family and friends over the weekend for another nine-day gun deer opener in Wisconsin.
Acording to the Wisconsin DNR, hunters throughout Wisconsin have done an excellent job of learning new rules and regulations, and electronic registration has provided added convenience while keeping time-honored traditions intact.
As of Saturday morning, 828,664 licenses had been sold statewide, compared to 816,292 at the same time last year.
Electronic deer registration through the GameReg system allows for up-to-date preliminary registration numbers on the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources’ website throughout the nine-day gun deer season. As of noon on Monday, registration total was 115,971.
In Lincoln County, hunters registered a total of 876 deer over the weekend. That included 652 bucks and 224 antlerless deer. Last year saw 722 total deer registered in Lincoln County over the opening weekend, with 594 bucks and 128 antlerless. The opening weekend buck harvest is up 9.76 percent from last year and the antlerless harvest is up 75 percent.
Hunters must register their deer by 5 p.m. the day after harvest in 2015, as opposed to 5 p.m. the day after the nine-day season closes in years past.