It may sound like a cliche, but these truly are the good ol' days of Minnesota deer hunting with regard to the opportunities available to hunters and the success rate hunters are enjoying with firearms, archery and muzzleloaders.

The 2007 deer season was the fourth best in Minnesota history with a total registered harvest of 260,434. It missed the mark of third best by only 170 deer, the slimmest of margin by any calculations when dealing with numbers that large.

There are many arguments out there about the quality of bucks available to hunters today compared with years past, but surveys show that most of us are out there for meat and a good time with friends and family. If we see a trophy, that's great, but we still have a good time harvesting does and small to medium-sized bucks.

To those who measure a successful hunt by the ability to take a deer, any kind of deer, then we are truly in the midst of the best deer hunting ever known in state history. To prove that point, hunters have taken more than 200,000 deer each of the last eight years, and the last five years constitute the top five all-time seasons.

A healthy herd and mild winters is the predominant reason why the numbers have been so good for the last decade plus. The harsh winter of 1996 is a thing of the past and even though the winter of 2007-08 was a bit harsher than we've had in a while, snow depths and low temperatures never reached the same extremes. The exception to that are a few areas in the Arrowhead region, but reports indicate that any effect on the herd was minimal.

TOP SPOTS TO HUNT

Hunters enjoyed a 41.6 percent success rate last year, meaning that almost half of all tags purchased were filled. Hunters in the old Zone 1 had the highest success percentage but also had three weekends to hunt. The lowest success rate came in season 4A. Firearms hunters had a 37.1 percent overall success rate.

The Minnesota Department of Natural Resources compiles tons of statistics based on hunter-reported harvest information and has the files available in spreadsheet form. Harvest numbers are organized by permit areas and not counties, because many permit areas are situated in multiple counties.

Statistics can be part of a solid deer-hunting game plan, but they should definitely not drive where you are going to go hunting. The accompanying tables showing the top areas to hunt are based on last year's harvest information. It doesn't mean these areas are going to repeat as top performers nor does it mean you should avoid them because of the perception that all sorts of hunters are going to flock to the areas.

One table shows the total harvest rate per square mile by permit area, meaning those are the parts of the state where more deer were taken than anywhere else. It's a good statistic, but it is derived by dividing the number of deer taken by the size of the permit area. Is it useful? Perhaps. Just bear in mind that those are not necessarily the top five places to hunt. Still, it is interesting to analyze.