So far this fall, after four mornings and roughly 16 hours in the deer stand chasing Minnesota whitetails with a bow and arrow, I've seen 10 deer.
    That's a pretty good average if you ask me and I have a feeling it's going to be a another great season for my crew and I. In fact, it should be a lot like last year where we didn't see a lot of deer but four out of six of us bagged deer.
   Of course, not everyone in northern Minnesota is going to have a great season this year. In some places, especially the further north you go, hunters probably won't see a lot of action.
    But what is "a lot" of action?
    If you're comparing harvests from year-to-year, last year's total kill (firearms, archery and muzzleloader) of 192,331 deer was just about average for what we've seen in Minnesota over the past dozen years.
    Still, for some, it wasn't good enough.
    In fact, enough people clamored and complained after last year's season to get the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources to hold what they call citizen-lead roundtables to discuss the deer herd and set population goals for the second time since the mid-2000's.
    The groups, made up of hunters, farmers, landowners and other residents, ultimately told the DNR they wanted to see more deer in certain permit areas.
    The first time the DNR held this goal setting process was from 2005 to 2007. At that time, many in the state were demanding the population be down-sized and ultimately it was determined that the DNR would attempt to lower populations about 20 percent in certain places using a combination of liberal license options (one to five deer per hunter depending on location) and special seasons and hunts.
   That system plus a handful of bad winters pretty much put the herd at or near the acceptable levels set during the first roundtable go around. Today, the DNR says about 70 percent of permit areas are at or near goals.
    Which leads us back to 2012 and the question about whether or not there are too many, too few or just enough deer out there.
    Ultimately, we won't know what kind of season 2012 will turn out to be until December but if I had to guess I would say hunters will down between 185,000 and 205,000 deer.
    And that seems like plenty to me.
    Oh, I know, it's not like the Golden Years of deer hunting in Minnesota - 2002 through 2008 when hunters bagged record numbers of deer - and some will grumble that the DNR doesn't know what they are are doing. During those years the tallies looked like this:
  • 2002: 222,050 deer.
  • 2003: 290,525 deer.
  • 2004: 260,604 deer.
  • 2005: 255,736 deer.
  • 2006: 270,778 deer.
  • 2007: 260,434 deer.
  • 2008: 222,837 deer.
    But those numbers aren't the norm. In fact, 2011 was closer to what we have come to expect as a typical deer hunting season. The numbers were in line with these years:
  • 2010: 207,313 deer.
  • 2009: 194,186 deer.
  • 2001: 217,452 deer.
  • 2000: 211,777 deer.
  • 1994: 193,826 deer.
    And, of course, 2011's numbers were much, much better than 1996, 1997 and 1998, which followed two extremely harsh winters that devastated portions of the Minnesota deer herd. In 1996 hunters harvested 157,317 deer. In 1997, they harvested 143,327 deer. And in 2008 they harvested 158,854 deer.
    Those are what I would call bad years where there weren't enough deer.
    One thing to note - and something that leads me to believe this year will be a good season -  in northern Minnesota three out of the last five winters have been considered severe or moderately severe and our deer harvest has remained about the same throughout that period. I think that says a lot about the DNR's management of herd.
    If you ask me, it's working.
    See you in the woods.