SHAWANO COUNTY, WI (WTAQ-WLUK) – The first chance to pursue that trophy deer is quickly approaching.
The gun hunt is more than a month away, but the archery and crossbow seasons start Saturday, September 18th.
Deer managers say another relatively mild winter means there are plenty of animals on the landscape.
“That usually means that the does (young deer) are in good shape to raise fawns, so that increases fawn survival rates to a certain degree, and on the buck side of it, antler development tends to be a little bit better too, because the deer are putting less energy into restoring their body from the winter, which means they can put more energy into their antler growth,” said Jeff Pritzl, DNR State Deer Program Specialist.
That buck fever is contagious at The Reel Shot archery store in Appleton. Hunters are buying bows and getting equipment ready for opening day.
“Tune ups, new strings and cables, just getting bows set up. And these guys are waiting until around three days ahead of time to get it all done, but we’re getting some stuff out as fast as we can,” said Mike Williams, The Reel Shot Hunting manager.
Williams tells FOX 11 there are about 25 bows waiting for repairs.
“We’ve been telling guys for weeks, bring your stuff in now, so we can get to it. Right now, if you come in, you’re looking at four weeks out to get stuff done.”
At the DNR office in Howard Pritzl tells FOX 11 the season brings excitement.
“It’s only going to get better as the fall goes. All the arrows this year are pointing to what should be a really good fall.”
The archery and crossbow season runs through January 9th, 2022.
The DNR says there are about 250,000 crossbow and archery hunters, compared to about 600,000 gun hunters.
