Commentary: Time to remove Minnesota’s ‘aggregate’ bag limit for deer

Many states might have a deer-hunting law or two that leave hunters scratching their heads. But, for the most part, regulations are created for good reasons.

Take bag limits, for instance. Estimating deer populations is no easy task, but we do a pretty good job here in Minnesota by breaking down our deer permit areas based on habitat types. Habitat availability varies across individual DPAs, but it beats having regulations set on a county-by-county basis.

A mix of population models, harvest data, and input from the public and area wildlife managers is used by the DNR to set bag limits. Nothing is a perfect science when it comes to this, but overall it’s a good model.

I typically don’t have a problem with Minnesota’s deer-hunting regs, but I came upon one recently that makes little sense and contradicts the messaging hunters hear from DNR deer managers. It’s worth pointing out.

The statewide bag limit for deer in Minnesota is five, but it’s incumbent upon hunters to make sure they do not shoot more deer than allowed within an individual DPA. Filled your three-deer bag limit in one DPA? You have to move to a different area if you want to continue hunting. Makes sense, and that’s the boat I found myself in late this past season.

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My family loves venison, so I’m appreciative of the opportunity to use bonus tags on antlerless deer. This helps fill our freezer and allows me to strategically play a role in managing multiple high-deer-density properties by taking does where needed.

That’s what I did, taking two does with the use of bonus tags on separate properties within the same DPA, while shooting a buck with my bow in early November to reach the three-deer limit.

This DPA in central Minnesota is one of two three-deer-limit zones where I do the bulk of my bowhunting in Minnesota. The other is DPA 281 in the southwest. I sought to purchase another bonus tag and try to take a doe from DPA 281, where I had yet to shoot a deer this year.

DPA 281 – located along the Minnesota River, including the city of Granite Falls – became a three-deer-limit zone this fall because deer managers determined the two-deer limit of previous years was not bringing deer populations down to goal levels.

It’s not uncommon for me to see 10 to 15 does and fawns on late-December hunts while hunting in areas of woody browse and bedding – not the late-season food plots or leftover corn and bean fields where deer really herd up in high numbers. Doe-to-buck ratios strongly favor does in this DPA, so I like to harvest an antlerless deer on this property each season.

I read the regulations, but didn’t see my question answered under the subheads related to “bonus permits” and “statewide bag limits for deer.” (It turns out the issue is addressed in a side paragraph next to a table on DPA management designations on Page 74 of the regs).

Out of an abundance of caution, I emailed the DNR, saying I was tagged out in one three-deer DPA. So, I can hunt in a separate three-deer-limit DPA and use a bonus tag, right?

The answer was “no,” due to what’s called the “aggregate bag limit.”

Turns out, once I filled my three-deer limit in one DPA, I was not allowed to take another deer from any other three-deer-limit DPA in the state. The same applies for a hunter who reaches a limit in a two-deer area: no more hunting that season in any other two-deer-limit DPAs.

In order to use another bonus tag, I needed to move to a five-deer-limit DPA or to a two-deer-limit DPA, I was told.

How is it possible that the rule allows me to take a doe from a two-deer-limit zone with lower deer densities, but a separate three-deer limit area is off-limits? No one was able to give me a good answer.

The good news? I was told that DNR staff with the big-game program agree it’s a rule that should be changed. But removing the aggregate bag limit has to be done via the “permanent rulemaking process,” which I’m told is lengthy.

“To change the permanent rule, the revisions must go through DNR leadership, the Attorney General’s Office, the Governor’s Office, an administrative judge, the Revisor of Statutes, and others for approvals,” a representative with the DNR big-game program wrote in an email. “While we do not have a set timeline on when the permanent rule will be finalized, we are currently revising our permanent rule, and it is under internal review. Keep an eye out for that.”

I realize this is an issue that will not affect most hunters. Harvest statistics show year after year that a majority of successful hunters shoot only one or two deer a year, even when the opportunity is there to harvest more.

But that’s why I found this rule frustrating. Every year, deer managers tell hunters that they need to shoot more does in high-deer-density areas. Some even warn that if hunters don’t start acting, state agencies will need to find other ways to manage overpopulations.

A lack of doe harvest is a problem in many parts of the country, but the National Deer Association recently singled out Minnesota as one of eight states that badly needs to boost its doe harvest.

We can’t have deer managers encouraging hunters to take more antlerless deer and then have a rule on the books that hinders our ability to do just that in three-deer-limit DPAs. The aggregate bag limit needs to be eliminated so hunters who want to help manage doe numbers across multiple properties have the tools to do so.