Wisconsin's annual 9-day gun deer season kicks off Saturday

WISCONSIN (CBS 58) -- The nine-day gun deer hunting season kicks off Saturday, Nov. 18 and it brings a great deal of responsibility.

"Treating every firearm as if it’s loaded, you know, always point the barrel, the mussel in a safe direction, be certain of your target and what’s beyond it and then keep your finger away from the trigger,” said Bret Owsley, the southern district wildlife supervisor at the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources (DNR). 

For some businesses, this time of year is their busiest.

"Oh yeah, we've been very busy, especially at nighttime," said Jennifer Peterson, assistant manager at The Range of Richfield. "We're pretty much booked every half hour starting at 5 o'clock until like 8 o'clock."

Peterson said hunters, some as young as 13 accompanied by their parents, stop by and practice before heading out to the woods.

"Show them how to zero in their scope, make sure they go up or down to where it needs to be at the crossings," she said.

According to the Associated Press, higher kill numbers were reported last year in comparison to 2021 in Wisconsin.

Deer hunting has been a long-time tradition in Wisconsin, but experts say fewer hunters are actually out and about in the woods.

License sales were down 1.6% last year, according to AP, something Owsley confirmed has become a trend in recent years.

"For the last several years we’ve seen about a 2% drop every year for hunting license sales,” he said. "What you see is the baby boom generation picked up hunting like no other generation before or after that and now, that generation is starting to age out.”

While many factors are at play each season, experts say this year's early start date should provide more daytime deer movement related to their mating period, which peaks in early November. The season comes to a close on the evening of Sunday, Nov. 26.