Hunters see mixed activity as gun deer season continues

WINNEBAGO COUNTY, Wis. (WBAY) - Wisconsin’s 2025 gun deer season is off to a strong start.

The DNR reported Tuesday that more than 90,000 deer were harvested during opening weekend, a slight increase from last year.

Statewide, buck harvest is up about 1.4%.

Opening weekend of Wisconsin’s gun deer hunting season is winding down, and for Winneconne hunter Gary Herlache, this week brought the moment he’d been waiting for.

Tuesday morning in heavy fog, Herlache finally spotted a buck on his property 206 yards out, the farthest shot he’s ever taken.

“Well, I could just barely make out the antlers on it so it was in that thick of fog and I was joking with her saying, good thing I just had that cataract surgery otherwise I wouldn’t have seen the antlers,” Gary Herlache of Winneconne said.

Dozens of hunters like Herlache stopped by Beck’s Meat Processing in Winnebago County to have their deer processed.

“I was pretty excited. This was my first deer this size,” Travis May of Oshkosh said.

May shot a nine-point buck Monday evening, 160 yards out. He said he noticed fewer shots fired around him this year.

“So, like out by me, I hunt in Waushara County, so it’s uh you don’t, you know they don’t have as many people out there to push the deer around, so they just kind of get comfortable and just kind of stay where they are,” May said.

DNR officials say this season license sales are holding steady and are nearly identical to last year.

Early indications show similar harvest patterns to last year, but snow arriving this week could significantly boost hunter success going into the second weekend.

“In the right place at the right time, and you have a good habitat, there’s definitely deer around. So that being said, you know, deer are not scattered on the landscape evenly; they are distributed somewhat patchy, so you might be in a spot where you see a lot and you might be in a spot where you don’t see many at all,” Josh Jackl, a wildlife biologist for the Wisconsin DNR, said.

And while some hunters say they’re seeing fewer deer on the move, others, like Herlache, are proof that the right moment can come when you least expect it.

“Happens to be the first buck I saw of the gun season so I’m pretty happy about that,” Herlache said.