I mentioned before that it seems like we did more shooting in the 80s and 90s than we do now. Especially more shoot and miss. Some of what I realized was that we had more hunters in the 80s and 90s and that had a lot to do with how much shooting actually occurred. Made me curious though, about deer harvest numbers in MN going back as long as I’ve been hunting.

1980s – 1990 Harvest Numbers

I started with the 1980s and found this report that goes from 1983 to 1990. It’s interesting how much of a jump there was in 1990. Through those years in the 80s, the numbers remain fairly constant. It’s a MN DNR (Minnesota Department of Natural Resources) report and can be found here.

https://www.lrl.mn.gov/docs/pre2003/other/910609.pdf

1990 – 2005 Harvest Numbers

Then I found a MN DNR report that covers 1990 – 2005. This one is a little easier to read. You can see the dip for 96-97-98. Two of those years had no doe permits because of the harsh winters we had in the mid 90s. It’s also interesting to see the increase in muzzleloader hunting harvest that was starting to take off by 2005;

https://files.dnr.state.mn.us/recreation/hunting/deer/2005_harvestreport.pdf

I looked to see how many licenses were actually purchased, not just deer harvested. The number of licenses purchased has really taken some wide swings in the 2nd report. The number of licenses purchased in the mid 90s compared to the registered % is high. The number of licenses sold is really high compared to the later 90s and going forward to 2005. That’s what I felt applied to our hunting crew. We did have more hunters in those years and the success rate was probably higher for us too.

2006 – 2014 Harvest Numbers

2006 – 2014 saw some wide swings in harvest numbers around the state and it looks like 2014 was low, it was even compared to the mid 80s, which my memory says were good years for our hunting camp. But then my memory is not guaranteed.

2015 – 2021 Harvest Numbers

2014 was a definite dip in the harvest. Licenses purchased overall declines as time goes on. Success percentages seem to remain the same though.

I can get lost in numbers and comparing this to that. Reading different articles published in outdoor magazines and even mainstream newspapers, it’s really obvious that there are always going to be variations around the state. Minnesota covers a lot of ground with landscapes that change from prairie and farmland to rolling hills and woods. We’ve seen differences in harvest numbers even from camp to camp when we are all in the same Area. That’s part of the thrill of the hunt.