In Minnesota's individual deer registration records, 44.9% of the year's 146,341 firearm deer in 2025 list either Saturday, Nov. 8, or the following day, Sunday, Nov. 9, as the kill date. Those dates mark opening weekend for the statewide firearms hunt. The denominator is the year's full firearm harvest, including 10,802 deer registered ahead of opening day during earlier seasons. Across permit areas, adult males accounted for between 41.2% and 86.2% of registered deer. That range describes harvest composition; it does not measure the sex balance of the herd. This year's statewide hunt begins on Saturday, Nov. 7.
KEY FINDINGS
- For firearm hunters, 44,314 registered deer list Nov. 8, 2025 as their kill date; another 21,412 list Nov. 9. Together, they represent 44.9% of a season total of 146,341 firearm deer.
- Saturday, Nov. 15 ranked third in firearm harvest, with 13,359 deer registered for that kill date. Weekend kill dates account for 68.4% of the full firearm total.
- An additional 10,802 firearm registrations list deer killed ahead of Nov. 8 during earlier-opening seasons. Gun hunting had therefore already begun that year before the statewide season started.
- For the 59 permit areas recording 1,000 or more deer, adult males represented 41.2% of registrations in area 645 and 86.2% in area 197, the low and high ends of the range. The statewide figure was 57.1%.
IThe two days
The first weekend accounted for 44.9% of registered firearm deer
Each deer registration gets a separate row in the feed, identifying the weapon, permit area, sex, age class and date of the kill. The firearm tally rose sharply during the first weekend of November's statewide season in 2025, then fell fast. For Saturday, Nov. 8, hunters using firearms registered 44,314 deer. That was when the firearms hunt began statewide. Sunday, Nov. 9 added 21,412 deer. Combined, those dates account for 65,726 deer: 44.9% of the season's 146,341 firearm registrations and 35.3% of the 186,333 registrations across all weapons.
Numbers plunge after opening weekend. The opener's total exceeded the combined tally for the following two days: Sunday's 21,412 and the 10,298 for Monday, Nov. 10 add up to 31,710. Over Tuesday to Friday, November 11 to 14, daily totals ranged from Wednesday's 5,357 to Friday's 7,650. The next Saturday, Nov. 15 brought 13,359 registrations, placing it third among the year's busiest days. The tally for Sunday, Nov. 16 was 9,550.
Saturday and Sunday together account for 68.4% of firearm registrations over the full season. With opening day landing on Saturday, the surge matches both the start of the statewide hunt and weekend timing.
IINot the first day
The denominator behind 44.9%
The total of 146,341 firearm deer includes all firearm seasons shown in the data, rather than just the statewide opener. Kill dates for 10,802 of those deer come before Nov. 8. Nearly all were taken Oct. 16 to 19, which the DNR's 2025 season list identifies as the youth and early antlerless hunt dates. The statewide firearms season began Nov. 8, but hunters had already had gun seasons that year. With the 10,802 removed, those two days account for 48.5% of the 135,539 firearm deer registered on or after Nov. 8.
Season length varied across the statewide hunt. The DNR's schedule for 2025 set the 100-series permit areas, along with 604, 679 and 684, for November 8 to 23. For the 200-series permit areas and the remaining areas named by the agency, dates were November 8 to 16. The late firearms hunt in the southeast took place November 22 to 30 in specified areas, including 642 to 649. Muzzleloader dates were November 29 to December 14. According to the DNR, a single statewide firearms license has now taken the place of the former A and B licenses. The registration feed lists muzzleloader separately as a weapon category.
Swipe table to see every column
| Weapon | Deer registered, 2025 season | Share |
|---|---|---|
| Firearm | 146,341 | 78.5% |
| Crossbow | 14,939 | 8.0% |
| Vertical Bow | 14,838 | 8.0% |
| Muzzleloader | 10,215 | 5.5% |
Of all deer registered during the season, 78.5% fall under firearm. Because that weapon accounts for such a large share, its surge over two days also stands out in the state's overall season.
IIIAdult-male share
Permit areas varied between 41.2% and 86.2% in the adult-male portion of registered deer
With all weapons included, adult males made up 57.1% of Minnesota's 186,333 deer registrations. Shares varied widely across permit areas. For the 59 areas recording 1,000 or more deer, the low was 41.2% in area 645, with 1,722 registered. The high was 86.2% in area 197, with 1,097 registered.
Swipe table to see every column
| Deer permit area | Deer registered | Adult-male share |
|---|---|---|
| 645 | 1,722 | 41.2% |
| 642 | 2,077 | 41.9% |
| 649 | 3,805 | 43.8% |
| 643 | 3,469 | 44.1% |
| 646 | 2,831 | 44.7% |
| 110 | 1,210 | 81.2% |
| 171 | 1,165 | 82.3% |
| 156 | 1,899 | 83.3% |
| 178 | 1,521 | 84.4% |
| 197 | 1,097 | 86.2% |
These shares describe the deer harvested; they do not measure the balance of sexes in the living herd. They reflect hunters' choices within the rules governing which deer they could take. According to the DNR, firearm and muzzleloader hunters in antlerless lottery areas may take one deer. That deer must be a buck that is legal to take; the exception requires the hunter to apply for and receive an antlerless permit through the lottery. Where few such permits are issued for firearm and muzzleloader hunting, registrations during those seasons will tend toward more bucks. The combined-weapon table's shares also reflect archery regulations, the local herd and hunters' decisions. We did not link the table's 10 areas individually to their regulation categories. As a result, we cannot attribute any given share to a specific rule.
A pattern matches the season schedule, though we ran no further tests of it. Each of the five areas with the lowest shares, 642 and 643, along with 645, 646 and 649, appears in the DNR's schedule for 2025 under both the shorter statewide hunt, November 8 to 16, and the late southeastern hunt. Each of the five areas with the highest shares, 110 and 156, together with 171, 178 and 197, belongs to the 100 series, whose season lasted November 8 to 23. Our buck-to-doe fingerprint paper explains why a clear reading of these harvest ratios requires the particular state's regulations and past record.
IVMethod and limits
The registration feed's coverage and limits
We saved the Minnesota DNR's individual deer registrations from its feed for the 2025 season, a dataset containing 186,333 rows. Our paper The Perishable Record describes the reason for saving them: the state replaces this snapshot of the current season annually. We use the kill dates reported there. Delayed registrations or corrections to the data can shift a few deer from one day's tally to another.
The feed's weapon label "Firearm" covers early hunts, the statewide hunt and any later hunts using firearms. These totals tally registered deer; they do not count hunters in the field or give success rates. Nor does harvest measure the population. A large tally for a kill date indicates that many registered deer were taken then, without revealing how many remained alive. All weapons contribute to the permit-area table, but an area must have 1,000 or more registrations to appear. Areas below that cutoff are excluded. The adult-male percentage measures how much of the registered harvest was classified as adult male. Permit regulations vary from area to area.
VThe 2026 opener
Use your permit area's season dates to plan
This year's schedule comes from the DNR's deer page, checked September 29, 2026. Areas in the 100 series, together with 604, 679 and 684, have a November 7 to 22 season. For the 200 series and the remaining areas listed by the agency, the season lasts November 7 to 15. Southeastern areas have their late hunt November 21 to 29; muzzleloader dates are November 28 to December 13. Saturday, Nov. 7 marks opening day. The following Saturday falls on Nov. 14.
Plan your hunt using the season dates for your own permit area. Statewide totals mix areas whose seasons run for different lengths. The 2025 record shows deer registrations were heaviest early: hunters registered 65,726 deer over opening weekend, followed by much lower counts during the weekdays. The season still had hunting left after that first weekend, with 13,359 deer registered on the second Saturday. In a 200-series area, Nov. 15 and 16 in 2025 fell on the statewide season's final weekend. A 100-series area had one more week after that. If you have just two days to spend in the woods, opening weekend had the most deer registrations in this record. The feed does not show whether that weekend offered the best hunting or put the most other hunters around you.
Use the adult-male percentage to prompt a check of local regulations. Before reading a high percentage as a chance at bucks, find out whether that permit area uses an antlerless lottery. Use 2025 for your baseline. The DNR's page for 2026 also says the statewide repeal of the shotgun zone has taken effect. Our data from 2025 cannot address that change.
NOTES AND SOURCES
- Reference: Minnesota DNR's hunting calendar for deer, 2025 (archive dated 2025-10-13).
- Registration data for harvested deer from the Minnesota DNR.
- The records group deer registrations using the kill dates reported in the data. Delayed registrations or corrected data can shift counts across a few days.
- The adult-male percentage describes registered harvest rather than the living herd's balance of sexes. Regulations for permits vary across areas.
Fully Drawn Research is an independent data analysis desk, not affiliated with any state wildlife agency, transportation agency, mapping provider or outfitter. Fully Drawn Research is an independent data and analysis desk. This paper reports FDR's analysis of public agency data. Harvest figures describe animals reported or estimated as harvested, not population size, and reflect hunter effort and regulations as well as animal numbers.
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