Minnesota’s deer harvest trending well ahead of 2025

Archery kill up 53% from last year thus far

St. Paul — Wildlife managers from the Minnesota DNR expected hunters would shoot more deer this year, and early harvest numbers this fall have supported that theory.

The statewide youth deer season and the early antlerless hunt in select deer permit areas ran Oct. 15-18, while the archery season opened on Sept. 19. Through Sunday, Oct. 18, Paul Burr, deer coordinator for the DNR, said hunters have combined to shoot 24,170 deer.

Comparing that number through the same time last year is not exactly apples to apples. Last year’s archery season started almost a week earlier, on Sept. 13, compared to this year. Yet total harvest is up about 19% from 2025, accounting for those offset dates.

“At the last day of youth/early antlerless compared to last year, we’re up 19%,” Burr said. “But last year still has like an extra seven days compared to this year and we’re still ahead. So it’s going to be even more.”

Antlered bucks make up only 32% of the total harvest right now, but that’s to be expected with harvest from the early antlerless season playing heavily into the totals.

Archers also often shoot more does than bucks overall. Last year, Minnesota bowhunters shot 16,415 antlerless deer and 13,628 bucks. Total buck harvest (106,437) still greatly outnumbered antlerless harvest (79,931) by year’s end after all seasons were complete.

“It’s kind of been a trend since I think the early 2000s where we’ve kind of switched from favoring more bucks over antlerless deer,” Burr said of Minnesota’s trends. “That’s a trend kind of nationwide in a lot of states… I would expect to see kind of that same proportion (this year).”