Summer is winding down and fall is approaching. You've sweated out the last several months anxiously awaiting the arrival of cooler weather and even more important, Wisconsin's archery deer season. With luck, the arrows you've been flinging around in the backyard are consistently finding the bull's-eye and you're ready for the real thing.

So how does the coming season look? Pretty good if 2007 is any indicator. Let's take a closer look.

OVERALL HARVEST NUMBERS
Wisconsin bowhunters harvested a record 116,042 deer, breaking the previous record set in 2006. The bow kill represented 22 percent of the 518,573 deer killed last season by both gun and bow.

Of the 116,042 deer shot during the 2007 archery season, 38,013 were antlered, representing 33 percent of the total bow kill and the eighth highest number of bucks ever taken during Wisconsin's archery season. The number of antlerless deer taken during the 2007 bow season was 78,029, breaking the 2006 record of 73,837.

"The fourth highest year as far as licensed archers in Wisconsin was 2007," DNR big-game biologist Keith Warnke said. "The high number of licensed archers contributed to the record archery kill. But the main contributing factor for the record harvest is probably the increase of Earn-a-Buck units from 2006 to 2007. Many archers went out in the woods early to earn their buck sticker so they could shoot a buck later in the archery season or during the gun season."

DEER MANAGEMENT REGIONS
The WDNR divides the state into five deer management regions. Let's take a look at how archers fared in these regions last year because you can expect similar results in many of these areas again this year.

Southern Farmland
This region generally consists of DMUs south of a line from Sheboygan to LaCrosse and includes all CWD units. The five DMUs with the highest number of bow kills were units 67A, 69, 76ACWD, 77C and 68A, respectively. The units occupy large portions of Marquette, Fond du Lac, Sheboygan, Jefferson and Washington counties. The percentage of bucks killed in four of the top five DMUs ranged between 19 percent and 29 percent, but Unit 69 was much higher, with 49 percent of bow-killed deer having antlers. Unit 69 includes most of Sheboygan County, the eastern half of Fond du Lac County and northern Washington County.

When looking at the region in its entirety, the five units with the highest percentage of bucks killed by bow were units 69, 72, 73B, 73D and 74B, with the percentage of bucks ranging between 46 percent and 57 percent. Interestingly, three of these top five units border the Mississippi River in Grant and Crawford counties. (Continued)

Most non-CWD units in the Southern Farmland Region will have a similar hunting season format as 2007, except units 72, 73B, 73D and 74B, which will move from herd control status to Earn-a-Buck units.

Western Farmland
This region generally consists of units in west-central Wisconsin, including units 15, 16, 21, 22, 22A, 23, 23A, 59A, 59B, 59C, 59D, 59M, 60A, 60B, 60M, 61 and 61A. The five DMUs recording the highest number of bow kills were units 61, 59C, 59B, 59A and 23 occupying all of Buffalo County and large portions of Trempealeau, Jackson and Dunn counties. The percentage of bucks killed in four of these top five DMUs ranged between 19 percent and 32 percent, but Unit 59A was much higher, with 50 percent of bow-killed deer having antlers.