Minnesota Monday: 10 Facts About Deer Hunting

This past week was the rifle season for deer hunting in central Minnesota. For nine days hundreds of thousands of men, women, and youth take to the fields and forests of Minnesota and harvest over 100,000 deer. It's quite an event!

I don't know of anyone in Minnesota whose life isn't impacted by deer hunting. It's a family tradition for many of us, with tales of deer hunting camp told for years. I still hear stories about my great-grandfather, who passed away when I was young. It's a great time for multi-generational gatherings--even if you don't hunt. Just this year my twelve year-old niece and nephew hunted with their dads.

In honor of deer hunting, I thought I'd share ten fun facts I discovered about deer and hunting on the Minnesota DNR website.

• Adult female white-tailed deer weigh about 145 lbs., males 170 lbs. – the average weight of female and male humans.
• The biggest white-tailed deer ever recorded was a 500-pound Minnesota buck.
• A whitetail’s home range is about one square mile.
• Minnesota’s deer population is about 1 million deer. Texas is No. 1 with 3.5 million deer.
• Last year’s total deer harvest was 186,000.
• Minnesota has averaged deer harvested 200,500 deer during the last five years. The Midwestern state with the largest deer harvest is Michigan at 425,000.
• More than 725,000 deer hunting licenses and permits (all types) were sold in 2012.
• Nearly 500,000 deer hunters in Minnesota.
• Salaries, wages, business owner income – $127 million.
• Number of directly supported jobs – 3,760.

Your Turn: Do you hunt? How popular is deer hunting where you live?