Minnesota deer hunters had a good year in 2025.
Paul Burr is the DNR Acting Big Game Coordinator…
“This year we had a really good year as far as harvest goes, we ended up with just over 186,000 deer harvested, which was 9% ahead of last year across the entire state, no matter what region you’re looking at. We saw a boost in numbers compared to last year and even compared to the five year average. We’re still ahead of that.”
Burr says weather could be a factor in the increased harvest numbers…
“I think the deer herd overall has been doing really well these last couple of years, predominantly because of the mild winters. We’ve had very, very mild winters, two consecutive ones in a row. And when that happens, the deer population tends to be bolstered. You got more deer around. Hunter success usually goes up.”
Burr says about half of all the deer taken last fall were harvested over the first two weekends of the firearms season.
