Wisconsin opening-weekend deer kill numbers are down 12%

Hunters registered 102,903 deer through the first two days of the 2017 Wisconsin gun deer hunting season, a 12% drop from last year, according to information released Tuesday by the state Department of Natural Resources.

License sales lagged, too, with the agency reporting 582,800 sold through opening weekend of the hunt, down from 587,440 in 2016.

The state's nine-day gun deer season opened Nov. 18 and runs through Nov. 26.

Breezy conditions with precipitation were reported Saturday across the southern part of the state, while the north was dry. Temperatures statewide were above freezing for most of opening day.

The opening weekend kill included 59,142 bucks (down 9% from 2016) and 43,761 antlerless deer (down 15%).

Regionally, only the northern forest was up (11%), another sign deer numbers there have rebounded after three mild winters and several years of "buck only" regulations in many northern counties.

Marathon County had the most deer registered, 3,671, with Shawano (3,618) and Waupaca (3,529) rounding out the top three counties.

The DNR investigated three nonfatal hunting incidents opening weekend, one each in Brown, Forest and Shawano counties.

Preliminary data for the entire nine-day season is expected to be available early next week.