Photo by Ron Sinfelt.

Last year’s archery deer season was the best ever in Minnesota’s history, and this year’s outlook is just as good, if not better. A total of 25,350 deer were arrowed in 2006, which is an increase of almost 10 percent from the record-breaking 2005 season.

“That’s two straight years breaking the archery harvest record, and with a robust deer population, it could happen again this year,” said Department of Natural Resources’ Big-Game Program coordinator Lou Cornicelli.

The outlook in Minnesota’s forest region is very good, according to Mark Lenarz, wildlife research biologist at the DNR’s Grand Rapids-based Forest Research Group.

“It was another mild winter last year, and survival, by and large, was good throughout the forest region,” Lenarz said.

The population in the northern third of Minnesota has either remained steady or declined slightly, but is still above what the DNR considers to be an ideal number of deer. In the middle third of the state -- known as the “transition area” -- deer populations are steady or have increased from last year. Lenarz said those numbers indicate the need for an increased harvest, which translates into additional opportunities for hunters this year, but especially bowhunters.

Minnesota’s farmland region has a similar situation, in that deer populations are in need of additional harvest.

“In the northern part of the farmland region, which is part of the transition zone, we have high deer densities, and we are trying to increase the average harvest and slow growth rates,” said Marrett Grund, the DNR’s Farmland Deer Project leader. “In the true farmland area of the state, deer densities are declining, and we are trying to reduce the antlerless harvest.”

Grund said bowhunters kill some deer from the farmland region, but the numbers are minimal compared with the rest of Minnesota.

“The number of archers has not increased dramatically, and the antlerless harvest is roughly the same now as it was 10 years ago,” he said.

A healthy deer population is certainly helping keep harvest levels high, but bowhunters are especially benefiting from the All-Season License option that was started a few years ago.

“We’re selling more and more of those licenses, and I think it’s adding some archers to the ranks of hunters because there are more opportunities to hunt,” Cornicelli said.

With an All-Season License, you can hunt in each the bow, firearms and muzzleloader seasons.

“There were three tags for All-Season License holders last year, allowing bowhunters to shoot a doe before moving on to hunting bucks,” he added.

Hunters purchased only 2,384 All-Season Licenses in the first year of the program back in 2000. That number doubled in 2001, and then shot up to over 22,000 in 2002. Around 60,000 All-Season Licenses have been purchased in each of the last two years, and similar numbers are expected this year.

“Having a third tag allowed hunters to be less selective, because with such a long season and healthy population they had almost as much time as they wanted to harvest a deer,” Cornicelli said.

Another possible reason for the increasing number of bowhunters and rising success rate is that archery technology continues to improve. Longbows and recurves with wood or aluminum arrows were the mainstay for many years, but the latest in compound bows and carbon arrows has given bowhunters a leg up on the older technology.

“I’m a longbow hunter myself, but you peruse the magazines and see what’s available to archers today. This is not your father’s Oldsmobile,” Cornicelli said.

In addition to better bows and arrows, the modern array of blinds, tree stands, sights and other equipment has given bowhunters an advantage they didn’t have just a decade ago. However, Cornicelli was quick to point out that no matter what the technology is, a well-placed shot is still required.