MN DNR Wishing you a safe and enjoyable deer season

Wishing you a safe and enjoyable deer season

For all the nearly half a million firearms deer hunters out there, we wish you a safe and enjoyable deer season. Firearms deer season begins a half-hour before sunrise on Saturday, Nov. 9.

However you enjoy the season – whether it’s spending time with friends and family, finding adventure outdoors, putting venison in the freezer or all of the above – you’re also helping keep deer populations in line with population goals across the state.

Your deer hunting license dollars pay for wildlife management, public land maintenance and conservation officers throughout Minnesota. Thank you, hunters!

Make safety your first priority

Follow the

basic rules of safe firearms handling

. If you are using an elevated stand, wear a safety harness and follow other

safety guidelines

.

How to register your deer

Hunters are required to register every deer they harvest before processing, before antlers are removed and within 48 hours after taking the animal. Hunters can register deer online, via phone or in person.

Information from deer registration is essential to the DNR’s ability to track and manage deer populations.

Detailed registration instructions for all methods are

available on the DNR website

.

Key 3 for CWD: What to know for firearms season

This weekend kicks off firearms season! If you’re hunting in the central, north central or southeast, plan ahead and check out the

sampling and testing webpage

for all the details. The key three things to remember are:

Register your deer.
Bring your deer to a sampling station.
Keep the carcass in the CWD zone until a “not detected” test result is received (this does not apply to the central surveillance area)

Want to make the sampling process faster? Go the extra mile and follow these tips:

Have the deer’s head accessible for staff. (E.g., head facing toward truck’s tailgate, not on top of vehicle or under gear; not wrapped in tarp.)
Have your blue hunting license ready and know your harvest location: township, section and range.

north central MN map of carcass disposal locations

Carcass disposal locations available

Hunters who harvest deer in north central and southeast Minnesota during firearms deer season will have dumpsters available in a variety of locations to dispose of carcasses after completing deer registration, chronic wasting disease sampling and removing the meat.

Locations of the dumpsters are posted on the DNR website for these zones:

southeast map of carcass disposal locations

Hunters can check online to determine whether a disposal location has a quartering station.

The DNR encourages hunters to use the dumpsters to meet carcass movement restrictions and limit possible disease spread.

How to quarter, cape and get deer sampled for CWD

Hunters preparing for the firearms deer season can find videos about how to get their deer sampled for CWD, as well as how to quarter a deer, cape a trophy deer and remove lymph nodes from a deer on the DNR website on the

CWD video page

.

Outside of a CWD zone, but still want to get your deer tested?

Hunters can pay to have their own tests done by submitting a lymph node sample to either University of Minnesota’s Veterinary Diagnostic Laboratory or Colorado State University Veterinary Diagnostic Laboratories, which will do individual testing for a fee.

Go online

to find more info on how to collect lymph nodes and submit for sampling.

Get deer harvest numbers

Looking for deer harvest numbers?

This year, we’ll be posting regular updates online – we even have an interactive map so you can geek out even more!

Check it out on the

deer reports and statistics webpage

.

Call for hunting photos!

We loved seeing photos from your deer season last year, so we’re asking again! Once you’re back from deer camp, please send the

Minnesota Wildlife Facebook page

a direct message with your favorite photo from your time in the woods or the field, and include your name and a description of the photo. We’ll compile an album of photos captioned with your name and stories after firearms season. Check out

last year’s album

for inspiration.

Get CWD testing details

Here’s when and where Minnesota deer hunters must bring their harvested deer to sampling stations to be tested for chronic wasting disease. Find area-specific information on the DNR website at the following links.

Saturday, Nov. 9, and Sunday, Nov. 10 (firearms season opening weekend):

Saturday, Nov. 23, to Sunday, Nov. 24 (B season opening weekend):

All deer seasons:

Carcass movement restrictions are in place in disease management and control zones, and hunters cannot move whole deer carcasses outside of these zones until a “not detected” CWD test result is received.