REGIONAL— Hunters have registered a few more bucks over the opening weekend here in the North Country, at least as compared to the previous two years— and that’s a sign that deer numbers may finally be on the upswing after last year’s record mild winter.
Through the Monday following the Nov. 9 opener, hunters had registered 1,450 bucks in the nine permit areas tracked annually by the Timberjay. That’s up from the 1,326 bucks registered at the same point in the season last year.
The number of antlerless deer registered by hunters in those same permit areas declined over last year, but that’s primarily a reflection of the lower number of antlerless permits issued by the Department of Natural Resources. Hunters in the area had registered 253 antlerless deer as of Monday, compared to 398 last year at this point.
Wildlife managers typically look at buck registrations as the best way to gauge changes in the deer population.
Most of the gains in the buck harvest came from three permit areas. PA 178 saw the biggest jump, with hunters registering 493 bucks through the first Monday compared to 385 at the same point last year. Hunters in PA 109 registered 125 bucks, up from 99 in 2023, while hunters tallied 181 bucks in PA 176 compared to 163 last year. Most other permit areas reported very similar numbers to last year, although PA 177, normally one of the more productive permit areas in the region, saw another decline, with hunters registering just 141 bucks, compared to 173 at the same point last year.
While buck registrations were down over the opening weekend in PA 177, DNR conservation officer Sean Cannon, who serves the Cook area, said hunters he’d spoken to reported seeing more deer than last year, even if buck numbers were down slightly. PA 177 includes farm country in the Little Fork River valley in and around Cook, extending east to the easternmost point of Lake Vermilion.
Looking ahead to the second weekend, the forecast calls for mostly cloudy conditions with highs in the mid-40s and lows either side of freezing. The average high for the second weekend is 35 degrees with an average low of 16.