Deer Hunting Season Forecast in Wisconsin

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Keep all the factors in mind. Even with increasing deer populations in many units, hunter success during the gun season can vary based on a wide range of factors. Hunter effort, weather events, rut activity, hunting pressure, and stand site locations in addition to deer numbers can all play influential roles in whether or not individual hunters see and harvest deer.

Don't let deer distribution get you down. Deer are not distributed evenly across the landscape and their movements vary greatly from one day to the next. Some hunters simply have access to better hunting and more deer. While some hunters will see lots of deer, their neighbors may struggle to even see deer for a variety of reasons.

Stay for more days. Of course, spending more days hunting means more deer opportunities. But there's been an increasing trend of hunters spending fewer days in the field than in years past. So now's the time to take advantage of staying more than just opening weekend — you'll be glad you did.

Keep hunting after the weekend. Although deer sightings can be fewer after opening weekend, there are still deer to be hunted and the later part of the season can be more relaxing than the high pressure of opening weekend.