Wisconsin
After 50 years, excitement still burns for start of Wisconsin gun deer season | Paul A. Smith
Even after 50 years of participating in the Wisconsin gun deer hunt, outdoors editor Paul A. Smith still looks forward to the season’s opening. This 2025 edition runs Nov. 22 to 30.
What to know about the 2025 Wisconsin gun deer hunting season
The Wisconsin gun deer hunting season traditionally begins on the Saturday before Thanksgiving and runs for nine days. This year’s season is Nov. 22 to Nov. 30.
This year will mark my 50th gun deer hunting season in Wisconsin.
And while five decades is a substantial chuck of time, it’s a relatively small fraction of the state’s regulated deer hunting, dating to 1851, according to the Department of Natural Resources.
And it’s infinitesimal when you acknowledge Native Americans have pursued deer for thousands of years in the area we now call Wisconsin.
But my personal experience and the much longer history of deer hunting in this region have one thing in common: change.
I clearly recall my first deer hunt near my boyhood home in Racine County. The area was “shotgun only” in those days.
Racine County didn’t have many deer in that era. But no matter the low odds of success, to me the chance to hunt deer was priceless. My father answered my pleas and obtained permission for us to hunt on a farm in Yorkville.
In the days before that season we went to R&W Supply in downtown Racine and bought paper slug cartridges to shoot out of our 12-gauge shotguns. The smoothbores were primarily used for ring-necked pheasant hunting.
I could barely sleep the night before that first season and I’m sure it was one of the rare days of my youth when I was up before the rest of my family.
We set out before dawn, wearing red stocking caps and carrying a knapsack with a couple sandwiches and a thermos of hot chocolate, and set up along a fenceline. To the east was a picked corn field, to the west an oak woodlot.
As the day brightened, I watched every leaf of corn flip in a light breeze. Could it be a deer?
But by noon no whitetail had been seen.
The highlight – and believe me it was exciting – was the finding of a deer track frozen in mud along the field edge.
I would end up hunting more than 10 deer seasons before I’d put a tag on a deer.
Over 50 seasons I’ve been privileged to hunt from suburban woodlots to coulees in the Driftless Area to pine forests in Jackson County to mixed farmland areas in Marquette and Waupaca counties to the big woods of northern Wisconsin.
So many things have changed over the decades, from the deer population to the hunting regulations to hunter tactics and preferences.
Not only is the deer population higher than at any point in my life, it has substantially shifted in abundance to the south.
The Department of Natural Resources estimated Wisconsin had a record-high 1.825 million deer after the 2024 hunting seasons.
That total included record highs in the central agricultural and southern agricultural zones, as well as increasing numbers in the central and northern forest zones.
That same Racine County farm I hunted 50 years ago is now a subdivision. But it features a plentiful deer population and offers no legal hunting.
Compared to the 1970s, hunters now can pursue deer many more days of the year, essentially from mid-September until early January. Most agricultural deer management units have a firearm deer hunt from Christmas to New Year’s and an extended bow season to the end of Janauary.
But more of us now hunt on private land than when I started, too.
And hunters are pickier about what they shoot. It used to be most hunters would shoot the first legal deer that presented itself. Now many wait for a mature buck.
There are now fewer hunters than just a couple decades ago, too.
Combined with action by politicians in 2011 to prohibit the two most effective tools the DNR had to increase antlerless deer kills (Earn-A-Buck and an October gun hunt), the deer population is swelling.
Another notable issue that came on the Wisconsin deer hunting scene in recent decades is chronic wasting disease. Since it was announced in 2002, the fatal prion disease has spread in distribution and increased in prevalence. While it has not been found to affect human health or livestock, experts advise hunters to test their deer and not eat meat from a CWD-positive animal.
There was no similar disease present when I started hunting.
Taken together, that’s a lot of change in 50 years.
Am I still as excited as I was when I was 14? You betcha.
Over the years I’ve made an effort to share stories with you from deer camps throughout the state.
This year I’m privileged to be hunting with a multi-generational deer camp in Waupaca County. I bought a Stormy Kromer to fit in with their camp photo tradition.
Given the camp’s location in a deer-rich region, I expect to see more than a deer track.
What hasn’t changed over the decades are three things I cherish: the camaraderie of fellow hunters; the chance to harvest wild, nutritious, sustainable food; and the opportunity to add another chapter of experience in the great Wisconsin outdoors.
The forecast for opening weekend is good but with little to no snow on the landscape statewide.
For Tomahawk, for example, Saturday should be partly cloudy with zero chance of precipitation and a high of 42 degrees Fahrenheit.
It would be optimal for hunters to have a cover of white to help see and track deer. But the temperatures will make it relatively comfortable to spend hours in the field, if not all day, and shouldn’t pose meat spoilage problems.
I’ve killed one antlerless deer so far this year, with my bow on private land in Waukesha County. I hope to take several more before the season is over.
We’ll see what opening weekend in Waupaca County holds for me and my group.
If you are participating in the 2025 Wisconsin gun deer hunt, I wish you a safe and successful season.
If you care to share your experience, please email me at psmith@jrn.com.
Residents can attend the July 16 meeting in Sheboygan or submit written comments by email to NOAA.
Wisconsin Shipwreck Coast National Marine Sanctuary has 36 shipwrecks
Discover the history, shipwrecks and impact of the Wisconsin Shipwreck Coast National Marine Sanctuary, established to protect maritime heritage in Lake Michigan. This video was created by the Wochit AI tool.
Wochit
SHEBOYGAN – Residents can attend or comment on an upcoming meeting of the Wisconsin Shipwreck Coast National Marine Sanctuary Advisory Council scheduled for July 16 in Sheboygan.
The gathering will take place from 6 to 8 p.m. at the Sheboygan County Museum, 3110 Erie Ave., according to a community announcement. Members of the public are invited to attend and observe discussions.
The agenda includes routine council business, updates from working groups, community reports and briefings from NOAA staff on sanctuary programs, research and upcoming events.
Public can provide comments during meeting
A public comment period is planned for about 7:50 p.m., giving attendees a chance to share feedback directly with council members.
Those unable to attend may submit written comments by email to jean.prevo@noaa.gov, according to the announcement.
Council shares updates on sanctuary programs
NOAA’s Office of National Marine Sanctuaries will provide updates tied to the Wisconsin Shipwreck Coast National Marine Sanctuary, including research initiatives and community engagement efforts.
More information about the council and its activities is available online at sanctuaries.noaa.gov.
This story was created by reporter Nida Tazeen, NTazeen@usatodayco.com , with the assistance of Artificial Intelligence (AI). Journalists were involved in every step of the information gathering, review, editing and publishing process. Learn more at cm.usatoday.com/ethical-conduct.
Wisconsin
A Wisconsin family is suing Target after their 10-month-old died from swallowing a water bead
A Wisconsin family lost their ten-month-old daughter after she swallowed a water bead. They blame Target and the water bead manufacturer for her death.
This week, Taylor and Tyler Bethard filed a lawsuit against Target in Hennepin County, claiming that the company failed to warn them and other customers about the dangers of a water beads product that used to be sold exclusively at Target.
Water beads are marketed as toys that come with sensory kits or craft sets, but data shows the products are prone to injuring young children. The polymer material is extremely absorbent, allowing water beads – which are often colorful – to expand around 100 times their original size when they interact with water or liquid. This presents a hazard for kids; the United States Product Safety Commission states that between 2017 and 2022, there were 6,300 water bead-related ingestion injuries that required treatment from emergency departments across the country.
In 2023, a 10-month-old girl died. Her name is Esther “Jo” Bethard. According to court filings, Taylor Bethard found her daughter unresponsive in her crib on the morning of July 7, 2023, after she had suffered symptoms of a stomach illness overnight. Medical examiners told the family that her death was caused by swallowing a single water bead.
The Bethards had purchased a Chuckle and Roar water bead set in the spring of 2022 for Esther Jo’s older siblings, never intending for the infant to interact with the water beads.
Target and the Chuckle and Roar manufacturer, Buffalo Games LLC, mutually agreed to pull the product from the shelves in November of 2022. Court records show an email exchange between Buffalo Games and a product safety employee at Target where the manufacturer noted that while their water beads had met safety standards at the time, they wanted to “avoid any future unintended misuse of the product.”
That conversation was prompted after Buffalo Games was informed that an infant required surgery after ingesting a water bead from the Ultimate Water Beads kit. Target agreed to end sales, indicating that this would be classified as a “safety removal.”
The Bethard’s lawsuit alleges that Target clearly knew how dangerous these water beads could be, but failed to warn them or other customers. Target stopped selling the product about eight months before Esther Jo died. Daniel Mann, a personal injury attorney representing the Bethards in this case, said that Esther Jo would still be alive if Target had acted.
“With all this information Target didn’t do anything to reach out to the family or other consumers to let them know about this problem,” Mann said, “I think 10/10 people would say Target had a responsibility to do more than what they did, which was nothing.”
A spokesperson for Target said that they would not comment on ongoing litigation, but the company had already responded to an identical complaint filed by the Bethards in the State of New York. In 2025, the Bethards sued both Target and Buffalo Games in Erie County, N.Y., because that was where the manufacturer was based. In response to the lawsuit there, court filings show that Target denied the allegations that they knew of an extraordinary danger posed by the water beads and failed to notify customers.
The complaint was dismissed against Target in New York, Mann explained, due to jurisdiction. This lead to them refiling in Hennepin County this week.
In a statement to WCCO on the new legal action, a Target spokesperson said “We extend our deepest sympathies to those affected by this tragedy, and we worked closely with the manufacturer of the product at the time the incident occurred.”
Taylor Bethard, Esther Jo’s mother, has lead the charge to ban water beads entirely. Her efforts lead to the United States Consumer Product Safety Commision recalling the more than 52,000 Chuckle and Roar Ultimate Water Beads Activity Kits that were in circulation. The recall took effect in September of 2023. Target, Walmart and Amazon announced that they would stop marketing water beads to children.
Bethard is also working with Wisconsin U.S. State Senator Tammy Baldwin to establish federal legislation to permanently outlaw all water beads. This past spring, the CPSC established new legal guidelines that restrict the size of water beads to try to ensure high safety standards.
(WLUK) — Wisconsin State Patrol troopers are teaming up with truckers to better spot dangerous driving behaviors.
The annual Trooper in a Truck initiative kicks off next week in Wisconsin.
Troopers will ride along with with semitruck and bus drivers to use the higher vantage point to spot dangerous driving behaviors, especially near commercial motor vehicles.
Troopers will be looking for risky driving behaviors, including distracted driving, speeding, following too closely and seatbelt violations. When an officer identifies a violation from the truck or bus, they will radio to patrol cars in the area for appropriate enforcement action.
Drivers can expect to see Trooper in a Truck enforcement in the following areas:
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