"The big day": Minnesotans hit the stands for opening day of deer season
HASTINGS, Minn. -- Deer hunters throughout the state of Minnesota took to the outdoors Saturday for their first chance at taking a shot in 2022.
The Minnesota Department of Natural Resources says close to 400,000 people could try their luck during this year's season. The department is hopeful at least half of them are lucky enough to land at least one deer, reducing the population by 200,000.
"This is the big day for a lot of Minnesotans," said DNR Area Wildlife Supervisor Bob Fashingbauer. "Basically, it's population control. Hunting is the main tool that DNR uses for deer population control."
On Saturday, Fashingbauer and a DNR team manned a Chronic Wasting Disease test site in Hastings. The area is one of a number in the state where CWD is a concern. For hunters, this means they're allotted up to five deer.
"The goal is to keep tabs on the amount of CWD in the landscape," Fashingbauer said. "Once it's here, you can't really get rid of it, but you can keep the prevalence of the disease down."
Deer hunters slowly made their way through the checkpoint Saturday morning. Tom Mike of Hastings said he landed his deer within the first hour of hunting.
"It's so quick, you don't think about it," Mike said. "There's no time to get nervous. As you see them walking right down the trail, it comes to you. It turned and gave me a nice shot. Wasn't that far away so it was pretty easy."
Mike, like many, says he enjoys the hunt, but also everything that comes with it.
"It's not about the kill, it's about the stories, the friendships and the history about it for us," he said. "It's the comradery, being with other guys you hunt with. Telling the stories. Some guys you hunt with, you only see them during deer season. You only see them during hunting, you get together and you talk about what your life is doing and stuff like that."
Others, like Ray Angerman of Hastings, say the joy of hunting is passing it off to the next generation. On Saturday, Angerman took down a doe alongside his granddaughter Hannah.
"I think I'll do it for a long time, just because it's fun to do," Hannah Angerman said. "We cut it up ourselves and it's fun to do that."