More than 400,000 deer hunters are preparing for the firearms deer season, which opens Saturday, Nov. 8. The season offers opportunities to spend time outdoors with friends and family, find adventure and put venison in the freezer.

Deer hunting is the primary tool Minnesota Department of Natural Resources uses to manage deer populations, and hunters help keep deer numbers in line with population goals across the state. Managing deer populations contributes to the overall health of Minnesota’s landscapes, natural systems and economy.

DNR wildlife staff report that there should be good opportunities to harvest deer in most areas.

Hunters should know the deer permit area number for where they plan to hunt prior to buying a license and ensure they understand chronic wasting disease regulations and sampling requirements and options for that area. Hunters can find these details using the DPA lookup tool (mndnr.gov/deerhunt). Hunters should also note that the shotgun zone remains in place for the 2025 deer season.

Deer hunters in all CWD management and surveillance zones are required to have deer one year or older sampled for chronic wasting disease during the opening weekend of the firearms A season Saturday, Nov. 8, through Sunday, Nov. 9, and during late CWD hunts Friday, Dec. 19, through Sunday, Dec. 21. In CWD management zones, carcass movement restrictions apply during the entire deer season. Additional information about CWD requirements and sampling can be found at the Minnesota DNR’s CWD webpage (mndnr.gov/cwd).

Northeast deer report

Deer populations in most of the northeast region of Minnesota remain low. The best deer harvest opportunities in the northeast part of the state will be in the southern portion of this region, where deer numbers are higher.

In addition, the highest deer numbers are expected in areas of mixed habitat of open fields and forest. Scouting for local pockets of deer will improve hunter success. Hunters in far northern areas will again have fewer opportunities to harvest antlerless deer, and in some areas, hunters will only be allowed to harvest bucks. This will give local deer populations in these northern areas a chance to grow where their numbers are below goals established through the public deer population goal setting process.

A new change in the northeast is to DPA 183, which has been split into DPA 153 on the west and DPA 154 on the east. This change was made to better accommodate differences in the deer population across the permit area.

Hunters should also know that CWD sampling will be mandatory during the opening weekend of the regular firearms deer hunting season in two CWD management zones (DPAs 604 and 679). The city of Grand Rapids hunts also have mandatory sampling of all deer one year of age or older taken in any season.

Deer hunting information is available on the Minnesota DNR’s deer hunting webpage (mndnr.gov/hunting/deer).