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Archery deer season opened statewide Oct. 1 and is open through Nov. 14, then reopens Dec. 1 through Jan. 1.
Find out what to expect for this year's deer hunting seasons, including harvest reporting, disease monitoring and regional forecasts, in the 2022 deer hunting preview.
Before you head into the field, be sure to check the latest hunting regulations in your area by looking at the 2022 Hunting Digest.
Download digests
For on-demand digest access that travels where you do, without the need for internet access, download DNR hunting and fishing digests right to your phone through the DNR Hunt Fish mobile app!
Starting with the fall 2022 deer seasons, online harvest reporting is required for all hunters who successfully take a deer.
You will have up to 72 hours after taking a deer to report your harvest, and there are two ways to do it electronically:
Answers to frequently asked questions about deer harvest reporting are available.
The reporting process is outlined in this video. Assistance for those experiencing technical difficulties or needing help with a submission will be available at a variety of locations around the state or by calling 517-284-9453 during normal business hours.
The sections below refer to specific pages of the 2022 Hunting Digest for more information on these topics.
Baiting and feeding
Baiting and feeding is banned in the entire Lower Peninsula and the Core Chronic Wasting Disease Surveillance Area in the Upper Peninsula.
- Exception: During the Liberty and Independence hunts only, hunters with disabilities who meet specific requirements may use bait in areas where baiting is banned. See pages 43-44.
- See pages 56 and 61-62 for additional information about the baiting and feeding bans.
Universal antlerless license
- Universal antlerless deer licenses may be used on public or private land in any deer management unit open to antlerless hunting. See pages 47-48.
- Some hunters in the Upper Peninsula (DMU 351 and 352) will need to have an access permit along with a universal antlerless deer license to hunt antlerless deer. See pages 60-61.
Antler point restrictions (APR)
- Mainland Lower Peninsula hunters may harvest an antlered or antlerless deer with deer or deer combo licenses during archery, firearm and muzzleloader seasons.
- Be sure to check the APR chart before heading out this year:
- Lower Peninsula APR chart, see pages 53-55.
- Upper Peninsula APR chart, see pages 58-59.
This firearm deer hunt for hunters with qualifying disabilities will take place on private lands, and some public lands requiring an access permit, Oct. 13-16.
During this hunt, a deer or deer combo license may be used for an antlered or antlerless deer. Antler point restrictions do not apply. A universal antlerless deer license or deer management assistance permit may be used to take one antlerless deer only, if issued for the area/land being hunted. The bag limit for this season is one deer. All hunters participating in this season must wear hunter orange.
Additional details can be found on page 44 of the 2022 Hunting Digest.
Deer stations: Disease sample submission sites
Our new harvest reporting system should make it easier for you to understand if you are in a location where the DNR is looking for volunteers to submit their deer for testing. If you are in one of the disease surveillance zones, you will see a message on the harvest report confirmation page asking you to submit your deer head for testing, along with locations where you can submit your deer head or sample for testing. The submission is not required for a reported harvest but is strongly encouraged to help meet our disease surveillance goals. You can also find a list of disease sample submission sites.
Check stations will be focused in places where we need to gather physical samples for bovine tuberculosis (bTB) and chronic wasting disease (CWD). This allows us to maximize our use of staff resources for disease surveillance purposes. Harvested animals must be reported using the online harvest reporting system.
CWD surveillance and testing
Support from hunters and landowners in this year’s CWD surveillance counties is needed to inform the state’s CWD surveillance plan. Early detection of the disease is an important part of the state’s management philosophy.
Hunters who harvest a deer in Clinton, Dickinson, Eaton, Gratiot, Ingham, Ionia, Jackson, Kent and Montcalm counties, where CWD has previously been detected, can submit deer heads for testing via a drop box or submit lymph nodes with a free lymph node shipping kit. More information on this program is available on the CWD info for hunters webpage.
Testing in Isabella and Hillsdale counties, the state’s other two counties where CWD has been detected, is available to hunters at an area disease sample submission site.
Testing for a fee
In the remainder of the state, if you want your deer heads tested for CWD, you may submit them to a participating U.S. Department of Agriculture-approved lab at any time for testing. You will be charged a fee to have your deer heads tested. See more information about testing for a fee.
The goal of our check stations has changed dramatically, and with that comes a transformation to a slightly different name – simply “deer stations.”
In the early days of deer check, the herd was much smaller, with fewer than 100,000 deer harvested in the early 1970s. But the herd was growing, and deer were not nearly as abundant as they came to be in the 1990s, when nearly 600,000 deer were taken, or even today, when we settle closer to 400,000 deer harvested annually.
Careful monitoring of deer herd growth and harvest was necessary as the deer herd was much smaller. The information collected during those earlier years was important for monitoring the growth and expansion of the herd and formed the basis for many management recommendations during that time.
We are no longer worried about a deer population collapse, with the high number of deer throughout much of Michigan and a declining hunter base. The information collected at deer stations today does not have as much management value as it did 50 years ago.
Today’s deer stations are primarily focused on disease monitoring, which we feel is important for our deer herd now and into the future. We still operate “check stations” in locations where we have disease concerns, but the objective of our check stations has changed.
In addition, 2022 is the first year with mandatory harvest reporting. The information collected is primarily a replacement of the deer harvest survey that has been mailed to hunters for decades. Because of the work done previously at check stations, we can estimate age structure of the harvest from all deer reported through our new online system (expected to be several hundred thousand deer), compared to the 10-20,000 we typically would see at check stations.
Contact the DNR Wildlife Division at 517-284-9453.
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