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Tom Bahti: Much goes into deer kill numbers in Wisconsin from year to year

The two deer carcasses in this story clearly demonstrate the difference in fat reserves on bucks and does going into a winter, with adult does almost always being in better body condition than bucks by late November. This photo is of a 2 1 ⁄2-year-old buck shot on Nov. 18, 2023 – opening day. There is hardly any fat reserves left on the carcass following the buck’s rutting activities. (Photos by Tom Bahti)

During my decades working as a wildlife biologist for the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources, there were few things that kept me up at night. However, the week before the nine-day gun opener, I would spend an inordinate amount of time watching the weather predictions for opening weekend while keeping my fingers crossed.
Not withstanding the deer population, few things impact the gun deer harvest like the weather on the opening weekend. There’s a number of other factors that certainly enter into the final kill, but the weather on Saturday and Sunday plays a huge role.

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