There are significantly fewer oranges during Wisconsin’s annual gun deer hunt, but 553,652 license buyers were still able to bring home more venison than a year ago.
However, for the second year in a row – the first time in over 40 years – the Flaming Orange Army failed to record 100,000 whitetails on its opening weekend. DNR deer program specialist Jeff Pritzl said part of the reason is a change in hunting intensity, with about half of the state’s deer hunters being in the woods in the months before the November opening of gun season.