You or Your Companions Cause 85% of Wisconsin's Deer Season Shootings

   Though Wisconsin’s firearms deer seasons are safer than ever, we can still expect just under seven shootings and one or fewer fatalities between Nov. 21 and the end of the year.

   According to annual records kept by the Department of Natural Resources from 2009 through 2025, Wisconsin averaged 6.5 shootings and 0.6 shooting fatalities during its nine-day November season, 10-day muzzleloading season, and December’s antlerless-only seasons.

   Those 17 years of DNR data documented 10 gun-related fatalities in 111 shootings during 32 days of deer hunting annually. In fact, Wisconsin suffered no fatal shootings during nine of the past 17 gun-deer seasons: 2024, 2023, 2019, 2018, 2017, 2016, 2014, 2013 and 2011.

    The deadliest deer season in recent years was 2015, when three hunters died from gunshots. One hunter died from a gunshot in seven recent deer seasons: 2025, 2022, 2021, 2020, 2012, 2010 and 20009.

   For perspective, from 1950 to 1964, Wisconsin averaged 40 shootings and eight shooting fatalities annually during deer season. The state’s most deadly gun-deer seasons were 24 shooting deaths in 1914, and 13 fatalities in 1959 and 1970.

   The 2009 to 2025 data reinforce a few facts about modern deer hunting:

   First, the most dangerous hunting tactic is deer drives, in which walking hunters (drivers) try to push deer past stationary hunters (standers). Drives accounted for 25 (22.5%) of the recent shootings, but none were fatal. A common factor was a stander not staying at their assigned post, or a driver straying from their designated route.

   Second, each hunter is their own worst threat, followed closely by their companions. Combined, they account for nearly 85% of Wisconsin’s deer-season shootings from 2009 through 2025.

     Wisconsin recorded no fatal shootings during nine of its past 17 gun-deer seasons from 2009 through 2025. Further, 45% of shootings those years were self-inflicted, and 40% involved hunting companions.     — Patrick Durkin photo

   Of those 111 shootings, 50 (45%) were self-inflicted gunshots and 44 (39.6%) were shots fired by someone in the same group. Only 13 shootings (11.7%) involved hunters unknown to each other.

   The most unlikely shooting victim is someone not hunting. That happened only four times (3.6%) those 17 years. Fortunately, none was fatal:

   -- On the morning of Nov. 19, 2023, a 62-year-old man in Adams County was hunting from his vehicle on private property when he fired his .30-06 rifle at a dog he mistook for an antlerless deer. His bullet struck the thigh of a 47-year-old woman, who was walking the dog.

   -- Late afternoon on Nov. 18, 2018, a 61-year-old farmer was checking his cattle in Polk County when he awoke to find himself on the ground. He had been knocked unconscious moments before. He didn’t report the incident until a month later when his doctor diagnosed a head bruise as a possible grazing wound from a bullet. The shooter isn’t known.

   -- At 10:23 a.m. on Nov. 20, 2016, a pickup drove past a group of hunters as they conducted a drive on public land in Taylor County. Two antlerless deer ran past a 13-year-old girl, who fired at them with a .243 Winchester rifle. A bullet entered the truck’s cab through the back window, grazing the truck passenger’s head near his left ear.

   -- At 1:04 p.m. on Nov. 23, 2013, an 88-year-old man was in his home in Monroe County when a bullet fired by an unknown shooter penetrated the house and struck him, breaking skin and causing a bruise.

   Similarly, only one Wisconsin shooting fatality the past 17 years involved hunters who didn’t know each other. That occurred at 4:18 p.m. on Nov. 23, 2015, when a 56-year-old man was still-hunting through pine trees in Waushara County when he heard two shots. A 7-mm bullet fired by a 22-year-old man struck him in the lower chest, killing him.

   The other nine fatalities from 2009 through 2025 resulted from four self-inflicted gunshots and five fired by hunting companions. The self-inflicted deaths happened this way:

   -- In the late afternoon of Nov. 22, 2025, a 24-year-old man was hunting from a tree saddle in Fond du Lac County when he accidentally shot himself in the chest with his 12-gauge shotgun.

   -- On Nov. 22, 2020, a 65-year-old man tripped while stepping out of his ground blind in Door County, firing his shotgun into his chest.

   -- On Nov. 29, 2015, a 50-year-old man in Marathon County was found dead from a chest wound caused by his .25-06 rifle.

   -- At 6:30 a.m., on Nov. 21, 2009, a 36-year-old man was using a rope to raise his loaded 12-gauge shotgun to his treestand in Rock County when it fired. The slug entered his lower abdomen and came out behind his left shoulder.

   Of the five fatalities involving hunting companions, four resulted from careless gun handling in each other’s presence.

  -- On the morning of Nov. 20, 2022, an 11-year-old boy in Green Lake County was killed when a 41-year-old man unloaded a .300 Winchester Magnum rifle while placing it in their vehicle. The rifle fired, striking the boy’s chest.

   -- At 4:23 p.m. on Nov. 23, 2021, a 65-year-old man in Iron County knocked over his rifle, causing it to fire when it hit the ground. The bullet struck his 65-year-old companion’s chest.

   -- At 9 a.m. on Nov. 22, 2015, a 39-year-old man on a ladder was handing a loaded rifle to a woman, 35, seated above in a treestand in Columbia County. The .308 lever-action rifle was pointed at him when it fired, fatally striking him near an armpit.

   -- At 12:20 p.m. on Dec. 24, 2010, while ending their hunt in Rock County after several hours in a light snow, a 30-year-old man told a 12-year-old boy to hand him his rifle. He told the boy the safety was on, but the rifle fired, sending a .30-06 bullet into the man’s abdomen.

   The final same-group tragedy occurred Nov. 19, 2012, in Douglas County when a 31-year-old man spotted a deer and raised his rifle. He fired one shot after thinking he saw a deer in his riflescope. When he went to look for the deer, he found his 27-year-old companion lying dead with a .280 Remington wound to his head.

   Though most hunters involved in those 111 shootings passed the state’s hunter-education program, they all violated at least one of the DNR’s “TABK” gun-safety rules:

   -- T – Treat every firearm as if it were loaded.

   -- A – Always point the muzzle in a safe direction.

   -- B – Be sure of your target, and what is before and beyond it.

   -- K – Keep your finger outside the trigger guard until ready to shoot.