Deer season opens today

The biggest hunting weekend of the year is unfolding today across Nebraska's countryside.

The state's nine-day firearm deer season opened 30 minutes before sunrise. An estimated 70,000 deer hunters will be in the field and are expected to bag 30,000 deer before the weekend is over, according to the Nebraska Game and Parks Commission.

Six thousand more deer permits were sold by the end of October than the same period last year.

"That means more hunters and that's a good thing,'' said Kit Hams, the Game and Parks big game manager.

Hunters bagged about 55,500 whitetails and mule deer during last year's firearm season. A record 80,500 deer were killed during archery, firearm and muzzleloader seasons last year.

Nebraska's white-tailed deer herds are healthy and growing. There are an estimated 300,000 whitetails in the state, plus about 100,000 mule deer in western Nebraska. There are deer in all 93 counties and crop damage complaints and deer-vehicle collisions have increased along with the deer population. Hunting is the state's primary method of managing the deer populations for the health of the herds.

In an effort to thin the whitetail population, especially in eastern Nebraska, more than 90,000 antlerless whitetail bonus tags are available to hunters.

"We've got more deer in eastern Nebraska than we want,'' Hams said. "If hunters fill their tags, we'll have permits remaining in many areas, especially antlerless permits.''

The state allows more hunting of whitetails than mule deer because the mule deer population is more fragile.

Deer and turkey hunters will be in the field at the same time this year. In the past, turkey season was closed during the firearm deer season. All turkey and deer hunters are required to wear hunter orange for safety.

Deer taken during the firearm season must be checked at manual check stations. Electronic checking is not available for the firearm season.

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