Hunter numbers

How many hunters are expected to take to the woods in hopes of bagging a trophy buck?

The data from the D-N-R shows that the number of licensed gun hunters each of the last six gun deer season has been remarkably steady.

Until 2003 the number only went up or down by less than one percent each year.

Chronic Wasting Disease took a toll in the number of hunters in 2002. 70,000 hunters stopped hunting that year. In the years following only 25,000 have taken the sport back up.

The drop in hunters was 11 percent from the peak in 2000.

And it's stayed down 8 percent.