Mixed Bag for Northern Wis. Hunters | News

It was a mixed bag for hunters in northern Wisconsin during the nine-day gun season, with harvest totals up in some counties and down in others.

Ashland, Burnett, Iron, and Sawyer counties saw harvest declines when compared with 2011, while the harvest was up in Bayfield, Douglas, and Washburn counties.  The 14 percent decline in Iron County was the third-largest decline in the state, behind Oneida County (down 26 percent) and Vilas County (down 22 percent).

The harvest was down 1 percent across the DNR's 18-county northern district.

Statewide, the DNR's tally showed hunters killed 243,739 deer between Nov. 17 and Nov. 26. That's up 7.7 percent from last year's preliminary count of 226,260 deer. The final count for the 2011 season was 257,511 deer.

The DNR says 633,460 people bought a license in 2012, up from 621,375 last year. According to the preliminary count, 2012 hunters killed 114,822 bucks, up 12 percent from a year ago.

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