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This weekend鈥檚 weather was favorable for the start of the firearms deer hunting season.

While some hunters would like a little snow cover to make tracking easier, moderate temperatures and mostly dry conditions were in their favor.

Erik Thorson is the wildlife supervisor for the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources鈥� Park Rapids area office.

鈥淚t was decent conditions for the opening weekend,鈥� he said. 鈥淭he weather was quite a bit better than last year when we had high winds for the last half of the opening weekend, which made it difficult for hunters. Some places had a little rain on Sunday, but it came later in the day. The temperatures this weekend and next week are pretty good for hunting. You don鈥檛 want it too hot because that reduces deer movement, but you don鈥檛 want it too cold because that reduces the amount of time hunters stay in their stands. A good equation for hunting is that it鈥檚 warm enough for deer to stay out there and cool enough for deer to move. It鈥檚 helpful to have snow for tracking, but recently that hasn鈥檛 happened so people get used to no snow during deer hunting.鈥�

Contributed / Erik Thorson

Thorson reported that, during the mandatory days for submitting samples to test for chronic wasting disease (CWD) on Nov. 4-5, the Park Rapids station received 77 samples, Akeley 143, Lake George 79 and the station at the north entrance to Itasca State Park had 91.

鈥淭he Bemidji station where I worked only received 198 samples for the first two days,鈥� he said. 鈥淭hat鈥檚 up from 144 last year, so it seems like a better harvest so far this season. There was a high percentage of bucks, which isn鈥檛 surprising for the opening weekend. Hunters said there was a lot of rutting activity. There is more daytime activity during the peak of the rut. In a one-deer area, people are more likely to put their tag on a buck. If they don鈥檛 see a buck, they will often wait until the end of the season to fill it with an antlerless deer.鈥�

He said samples from large bucks are the best for CWD testing.

鈥淭hose older bucks tend to roam more and are more likely to have the disease, so those are high value samples,鈥� he said.

Hunters may also bring in deer for sampling during the rest of the firearms season, if they would like. Stations are located at the Park Rapids Area DNR Wildlife Office, Akeley Cenex, Lake George Community Park and the Rock Creek General Store near the north entrance to Itasca State Park.

For more information about CWD, visit mndnr.gov/cwd.