Looking forward to deer season

Hunters reviewing the 2024 Minnesota hunting regulations will find season details in most areas of Minnesota similar to what they were last year, including northern areas with lower bag limits intended to increase deer populations.

We’re looking forward to fall! The sights, sounds and camaraderie of deer season are cherished traditions for many Minnesotans. As you prepare for hunting season, please consider taking someone new out hunting this season. Hunting experiences can be even more meaningful when shared.

Here are some key deer season dates:  

• Deer hunting licenses can be purchased starting today, Aug. 1.
• Archery – Saturday, Sept. 14, through Tuesday, Dec. 31
• Antlerless lottery deadline – Purchase your license by Thursday, Sept. 5
• Youth and early antlerless – Thursday, Oct. 17, through Sunday, Oct. 20
• Firearms – Saturday, Nov. 9, various closing dates depending on location
• Muzzleloader – Saturday, Nov. 30, through Sunday, Dec. 15
• Late CWD – (DPAs 605, 642, 643, 645, 646, 647, 648 and 649) Friday, Dec. 20, through Sunday, Dec. 22.

Deer season specifics for each deer permit area can be found on the Minnesota DNR website. Electronic copies of all 2024 Minnesota hunting regulations are available now online and printed copies will be available by mid-August wherever licenses are sold. Regulations translated into Hmong, Karen, Somali and Spanish will be available later this fall.

DPA designation change overview

Ninety-nine DPAs keep the same designation as the previous season. Thirty DPAs, primarily in the northern portion of the state, have lower bag limits that will reduce the harvest of antlerless deer, with the intent of increasing deer populations. No DPAs have increased bag limits this year. 

Mild conditions this past winter were favorable for white-tailed deer, but looking over the next several years, northern deer populations will need multiple mild winters to recover after the severe winters in 2021-2022 and 2022-23.

Have you ever wanted a deeper dive into the thought that goes behind each DPA designation? Check out the detail pages for your DPA, or others, by clicking on a DPA in the DNR interactive deer map, and selecting “View Report.” You can also find these reports through the make your deer hunting plan webpage.

Image: Hunter success rate and hunters per square mile in DPA 240 last year.

Antlerless lottery deadline is Sept. 5

Firearm and muzzleloader hunters who want to harvest antlerless deer in a DPA designated as antlerless permit lottery need to purchase their license by Thursday, Sept. 5. Hunters who purchase their license by Sept. 5 are automatically entered into the lottery for the DPA or special hunt area they declare. Hunters in DPAs 235 and 251 are especially reminded to apply for the antlerless permit lottery, because these DPAs were either-sex last season and are designated antlerless permit lottery this season. No application is needed to take antlerless deer in permit areas with either-sex, two-deer limit, three-deer limit, or five-deer limit designations.

Photo courtesy of Niki Hultman

CWD sampling continues

Hunters should check the requirements and available sampling options for the DPAs where they hunt. Hunters can find DPA-specific information by visiting the make a plan tool. Hunters are required to have deer one year old or older sampled for CWD in all CWD management and surveillance zones during the opening weekend of the firearms A season (Nov. 9-10). In all areas outside CWD management and surveillance zones, or in these zones outside of opening firearms weekend, hunters can have their deer sampled for CWD too, if they choose.

Multiple CWD sampling options are available to hunters. Certain sampling options are available all season long, including mail-in kits and the partner sampling program. Hunters can request a mail-in kit before hunting or use kits hunters obtained but did not use from previous years. Visit the Minnesota DNR website throughout the deer season for the most up-to-date information, to find sampling locations or to request a mail-in sampling kit.

This year, the Minnesota DNR has dissolved four CWD surveillance zones in southeast Minnesota to focus surveillance efforts on remaining management zones in the southeast. DPAs 233, 255, 293 and 341 no longer have CWD sampling requirements. DPA 642 (previously DPA 342) has been added as a management zone in southeast Minnesota due to a positive detection of CWD during the 2023 firearms season.

Carcass importation ban sees changes

For those hunting outside Minnesota, legislation passed in 2024 made changes to the carcass importation ban. Hunters may bring whole cervid (i.e., deer, elk, moose) heads, with or without neck and hide attached, into the state if they are taken to a licensed taxidermist within 48 hours of entering the state. Taxidermists will be required to use an approved lined landfill for their biological waste, reducing the risk of spreading wildlife diseases like chronic wasting disease.

Additionally, hunters who harvest a deer within Minnesota’s CWD management zones are allowed to bring intact heads from deer, with or without the hide and neck attached, outside of the CWD management zone if they are delivered to a licensed taxidermist within 48 hours of leaving the management zone.