Minnesota deer hunters connected early and often to push the harvest on opening weekend

Minnesota deer hunters got off to a fast start on opening weekend of the firearms season, emerging from the woods Saturday and Sunday with a harvest easily exceeding the five-year average.

“If my predictions hold true, we’ll be 5 percent or 10 percent higher,” said Paul Burr, acting big game program director for the Department of Natural Resources. “It was cold, but not too cold and it was windy, but not too windy. I’m also glad the rain held off.”

Based on early deer registrations, Burr estimated Monday that hunters tagged 60,000 to 65,000 whitetails during the two busiest hunting days of the year. Typical of opening weekend, when many hunters wait for a shot at a buck, about 69% of registered deer were adult males, he said.

The results, to be finalized Wednesday, will go a long way towards defining this year’s whitetail season. The first two days of the statewide firearms season accounts for 35% or more of Minnesota’s annual deer harvest. The nine-day season ends Sunday, but the annual deer hunt carries on in various forms until Dec. 31. Last year’s total harvest was 170,679 deer, up 12,000 from the year before.

Burr said the upward trend is related to greater deer abundance following back-to-back mild winters. Leading up to this month’s firearms opener, archery hunters and youth hunters this fall killed around 25,500 deer — up more than 10% from a year ago.

He said hunters have been seeing more deer, even in the northeast region, where whitetail scarcity is still a concern of many hunters. In the northeast region on opening weekend, Burr estimated registrations to be at least 10% higher than last year. In the state’s southeastern region, the harvest on opening weekend was about 20% ahead of last year, he said. Hunters had less success in the northwest and southwest regions, where the DNR estimated single-digit increases in the whitetail harvest.

DNR license sales data shows participation in deer hunting is slightly ahead of last year, Burr said. In a typical year, more than 400,000 people will purchase a license to hunt deer in the state.

Nearly 100 cases of CWD were documented in Minnesota deer last year, the highest number on record and surpassing the previous high by about a third.

Since the first case of the neurodegenerative disease was confirmed here in 2002, about 400 deer have been catalogued with CWD, according to state records. About six cases have been documented so far in 2025, the DNR has reported.

The DNR’s enforcement division reported one hunting accident over the weekend. Northwest of Thief River Falls, a hunter suffered a gunshot wound to his thigh while taking a break on opening day.

According to Marshall County Sheriff Jason Boman, two brothers laid their guns in the back seat of their vehicle and piled other gear on top of the firearms while they rested. They were removing their gear to hunt again when one of the guns went off accidentally and shot the 25-year-old brother in his upper thigh.

DNR conservation officer Nick Bruesewitz of Karlstad responded and reported that tourniquets were used to control the bleeding before an emergency vehicle took the hunter to a hospital in Thief River Falls.

The agency reported that Gov. Tim Walz celebrated the opener in Goodhue County. He was hosted by Dan and Mary Lundell on their land near Cannon Falls. The governor spent the morning in the woods but did not harvest a deer, the DNR reported.