When Does Minnesota Deer Season Open - T-Tees - Your Answers Await, Life's Questions Unraveled

DULUTH — Minnesota’s firearms deer season starts Nov. 4 when more than 400,000 hunters are expected to be afield, with more deer this year for hunters in central and southern portions of the state and another lean year with fewer deer expected in the Arrowhead.

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The firearms deer season is Nov. 4-19 in the 100-area units that include all of Northeastern Minnesota. The 200-units season runs Nov. 4-12 with the 300-units season Nov. 4-12 and again Nov. 18-26. The muzzleloader season runs Nov. 25 to Dec. 10.
Shooting hours each day are a half-hour before sunrise to a half-hour after sunset.
The state’s shotgun-only deer hunting zone remains in place; no changes have been made.
All 13 deer management units that begin with the number 6 — area 679 around Grand Rapids, 604 around Brainerd, 684 around Bemidji and 661 west of Crookston — are considered chronic wasting disease surveillance zones with restrictions against feeding deer at any time of year, a ban on the use of deer attractants and special requirements for having deer tested. All deer shot over opening weekend must be tested. (Deer baiting when hunting remains illegal in all areas and seasons.)
Deer carcass movement restrictions are in place in all 13 of the 600-numbered CWD zones. Hunters are not allowed to bring whole deer carcasses outside the management zone until a “not detected” test result is received. The restrictions apply to all deer, including fawns. If hunters do not submit their deer for sampling or want to transport it outside the CWD management zone before getting a test result, they must debone or quarter their deer, and properly dispose of the head and spinal column inside the zone.
CWD sampling options include requesting a mail-in kit before hunting or using kits obtained but not used last year. Hunters also may participate in the partner sampling program where taxidermists and venison processors have agreed to take samples to be submitted to labs. Hunters can also make an appointment to have their deer sampled at Minnesota DNR area wildlife offices. Contact information is available at dnr.state.mn.us/areas/wildlife/index.html .
There were 456,008 deer hunters in Minnesota in 2022, including archery, youth, firearms and muzzleloader, who registered 172,265 deer statewide. That was down from 184,690 deer registered in 2021 and the lowest since 173,213 in 2016.
In most years, about half the deer shot during the season are shot on opening weekend. This year, that will likely be nearly 90,000 deer, depending on the weather. About 70% of the harvest occurs in the first four days of the season.
Adult female white-tailed deer weigh about 145 pounds on average and males weigh about 170 pounds. The biggest white-tailed deer ever recorded in Minnesota was a 500-pound buck.
A whitetail’s home range is about 1 square mile in forested areas.
If you don’t get a deer, you aren’t alone. Fewer than 1 in 3 Minnesota hunters do. In 2022, 32 % of all Minnesota hunters successfully harvested a deer (including archery and muzzleloader) statewide. But, the success rate was only 23% for the 100-series management areas in Northeastern Minnesota during the 2022 firearms season.
The average hunter spends five days afield during Minnesota’s firearms deer season.
A legal buck is a deer having at least one antler 3 inches long. Buck fawns, sometimes called button bucks or nubbin bucks, are not legal bucks.
Resident firearms deer licenses are $35 in 2023; nonresident licenses are $185. You can buy them at dnr.state.mn.us/licenses/online-sales.htmlm , at 888-665-4236 and at retail stores across the state that are license agents.
Resident hunters at least 84 years old can shoot a deer of either sex in any permit area.
A deer license bought after the opening day of the season is valid starting the next day after it is issued, but not on the day it is issued.

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New this year, hunters who use ground blinds on public lands must display a swatch of blaze orange or pink on the top of the blind during any firearms deer season that is visible from all directions, or a patch of blaze or pink on each side of the blind that are each at least 12 inches by 12 inches.

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All hunters and trappers in the field during an open firearms deer season must display blaze orange or blaze pink on the visible portion of the person’s cap and outer clothing above the waist, excluding sleeves and gloves. Blaze-orange or blaze-pink camouflage patterns are allowed but must be at least 50% blaze orange or pink within each square foot.

Whitetail deer have “dichromatic vision,” meaning they only see in two colors: blue and yellow-green. Humans have three types of color receptors — red-, blue- and green-sensing cones — in our eyes, but deer only have two.

So, deer are essentially red-green colorblind, meaning that rather than “seeing” reds and oranges the way we do, deer simply experience them as shades of green. Since deer have proportionally more blue-sensing cones, it does mean that they can see shades of blue really well. So maybe rethink wearing blue jeans while out hunting.

Hunters who are participating in state park hunts, or hunting in state Scientific and Natural Areas, are now required to use nontoxic ammunition . Bullets, slugs, muzzleloader ammunition and other single projectiles must be made entirely of non-toxic material approved by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, such as copper.

The regulation was postponed last year due to a shortage of nontoxic alternatives. It is part of a larger movement away from lead ammunition to keep spent lead away from eagles and other critters and to prevent lead fragments from contaminating venison consumed by people.

Minnesota deer hunters who lose track of a wounded deer now have the option of calling in trained tracking dogs to find the animal. Minnesota lawmakers in 2019 passed a new law that allows the use of trained dogs, on a leash, to find wounded game.

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There are more than three dozen trackers across the state who have trained their dogs to find downed deer and bears. You can find one close to you by going to minnesotatrackingdogs.com . Most trackers offer their services for free but accept donations to cover expenses like gas. Others charge $50-$100 per recovery.

United Northern Sportsmen’s Club rifle range is opening the range to the public for deer rifle sight-in before deer season starts.

The rifle range will be open every day from Oct. 28 to Nov. 3. The cost is $5 per gun. The range is open from 8 a.m. to a half-hour before sunset. Check at the clubhouse before shooting. There will be range officers present at all times.

The club is normally open only to members except during the deer rifle site-in. If you want to join and shoot anytime, annual dues are $35 per person or $62 for a family. The club is located about 20 miles north of Duluth on Island Lake along St. Louis County Highway 4.

In Superior, the George Constance Sr. Memorial Rifle Range on Douglas County Highway Z is now open to the public daily until Wisconsin firearms deer season from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. It’s free, but donations are accepted. For more information, call 715-395-5691.

The ” News Tribune Trophy Room” had a banner year for open-water fishing photos, with dozens of anglers sending in photos of happy people with big fish. Now we’re looking for photos of your big buck, or maybe a brace of grouse or mallards or an elk you shot in Montana.

Send those trophy photos to [email protected] and we will publish them online in our “Trophy Room” slideshow and in print each Saturday in the News Tribune’s Northland Outdoors section.

Minnesota deer hunters can use an online log, located at mndnr.gov/mammals/deer/management/hunter-field-log.html , to report wildlife they see while hunting. Data from the observation logs help the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources estimate population-level trends for deer and track wildlife distribution for other species across the state.

Using a mobile device or desktop computer, hunters can enter information on the online log about the wildlife they see each day of hunting, including deer, turkeys, bears, fishers and other species. They’ll also be able to report specific information about any deer they harvest. Hunters are encouraged to fill out a report after each hunt, even if they don’t see any deer that day. The online questionnaire will be available until Jan. 15.

Hunters can find deer hunting information at dnr.state.mn.us/hunting/deer/index.html .

Hunting season questions can be fielded by the DNR Information Center at 651-296-6157 or 888-646-6367 from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. weekdays and 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. Saturdays.

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To report a violation in progress, call the Turn in Poachers line at 800-652-9093.

Hunters who harvest deer, bear or turkey must sign into the Minnesota DNR’s electronic license system when registering a harvest at mndnr.gov/gameregistration .

Deer can also be registered by calling 888-706-6367 or in person at designated registration stations. For a list of those locations, go to dnr.state.mn.us/hunting/stations.html .

For more information, go to mndnr.gov/regulations/hunting .

Your deer license and site tag come as a two-part form. The upper half is the site tag for tagging the deer in the field. The lower half is the deer license and registration slip. Hunters must do the following:

Detach the site tag from the deer license/ registration slip.
Before moving the deer, the hunter whose name is on the license validates the tag by using a knife or similar sharp object to cut out the notches indicating the month, date and time of day the deer was killed.
Be careful: If more than one month, date or time is cut out or marked, the tag becomes invalid.
You don’t need to tag the deer immediately if you are manually dragging it out of the woods. However, the tag must be attached to the deer — at the base of the antler or through a slit in the ear or lower leg — if the deer is being moved in a vehicle, ATV or trailer, and must remain on the deer while at any camp or residence until it is processed.

Recreational use of off-highway vehicles will be restricted on some state forest trails and access routes during the upcoming firearms deer hunting season, according to the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources.

The restrictions, which do not apply to state forest roads, aim to protect recreational riders from potentially unsafe riding conditions and to minimize the potential for conflicts between deer hunters and recreational riders.

Vehicles affected by the restrictions include all-terrain vehicles, off-highway motorcycles and registered off-road vehicles, such as four-wheel drive trucks. At certain times of day, these restrictions do not apply to vehicles being used by a licensed deer hunter in conjunction with deer hunting.

Licensed deer hunters may still use restricted routes in conjunction with their hunting activity during the following time periods:

Before legal shooting time.
From 11 a.m. to 2 p.m.
After legal shooting hours.

For more information, visit mndnr.gov/OHV/Closures.html .

Sharp knife
Headlamp with fresh batteries
Thin rope to use as haul line at deer stand, heavier rope and harness for dragging deer out
Tree-stand safety harness
Compass (know how to use it) and GPS
Signed hunting license
Rubber gloves for field-dressing deer
Toilet paper
Small survival kit in quart-size zip-top bag that includes two 50-gallon garbage bags (for emergency shelter), waterproof matches or lighter, whistle and energy bars.
Small folding saw for clearing brush
Plastic trail-marking tape for tracking deer.
Pelvic saw for field dressing deer
Water bottle
Grunt call
Cough drops
Cellphone, charged but turned off
License!