Fewer deer bagged to start season

Counts for opening weekend of deer season in Vernon County took a dramatic downturn in 2007.

Hunters harvested 466 antler bucks, 97 button bucks and 307 does this past weekend for a total of 870 deer.

Those numbers pale in comparison to 2006, when there were 1,270 deer bagged including 614 antler bucks, 137 button bucks and 519 does.

"We will probably pick up next weekend if the temperatures go down. I would say it was probably like that throughout the state last weekend," said Shawn Pennington, State Conservation Agent.

Pennington pointed to hot and windy conditions on Sunday coupled with the fact that the last couple of years there were a few pockets of 2-3 square-mile radiuses in Vernon County where deer were hit with EHD and the area is still recovering from that.