Photo by Mark Werner

If you haven't filled a tag by December, don't put away your deer knife just yet. You still have an excellent chance of putting venison in the freezer, especially if you are willing to hunt in Region 3.

It will be legal to hunt whitetails with firearms in 16 southern counties from Dec. 2 through Jan. 1, 2006. Every county in the region on both public and private land will be open to a special expanded muzzleloader hunt during Dec. 2-18. This hunt, in Region 3 only, is a week longer than normal this year -- lasting for 17 days instead of 10 -- to increase the harvest of antlerless deer. From two-thirds to three-fourths of the whitetails killed in Region 3 during past seasons have been antlerless, according to the Department of Natural Resources.

Both unused buck and doe tags are valid during this blackpowder season. Antlerless tags must be valid for the county you will be hunting in.

From Dec. 19 through Jan. 1, centerfire shotguns and handguns in addition to muzzleloaders will be legal for deer hunting on private land only in 16 southern Michigan counties where deer numbers are considered too high by the DNR. Only antlerless deer are legal during this hunt. Hunters must possess an antlerless permit valid for the county in which they are hunting to shoot does and fawns.

The bulk of the counties where the DNR hopes to boost the deer harvest on private land among gun hunters during late December are in the Southwestern District. They are Kent, Ottawa, Barry, Calhoun, Kalamazoo, Branch and St. Joseph counties. Five counties in the South-Central District are open to the extended firearms antlerless hunt -- Hillsdale, Lenawee, Jackson, Washtenaw and Ionia. Four more counties will be open to the late-season hunting opportunity. Two are in the Southeastern District -- Oakland and Lapeer. The final two -- Tuscola and Sanilac -- are in the Saginaw Bay District.

Since only private land is open during this late-season firearms hunt, it's important to obtain permission to hunt ahead of time, if you don't already have access to a parcel of private land. DNR biologists in these districts may be able to direct hunters to farmland where property owners want help reducing deer numbers.

Based on final DNR harvest estimates from the 2004 muzzleloader season, the potential for the extended frontloader hunt in Region 3 to significantly increase the deer harvest in that portion of our state is excellent. With the 10-day season length that has been in effect for years, the blackpowder deer harvest in southern counties went up by 12.1 percent in 2004 compared to 2003. An estimated 28,482 bucks and does were bagged by muzzleloader hunters in Region 3 last fall versus 25,404 the year before.

The bulk of the kill during the 10 days in 2004 was composed of 21,556 antlerless deer versus 19,265 does and fawns taken in 2003. The tally of antlered bucks for last fall's muzzleloader hunt in Region 3 was 6,926 compared to 6,139 in 2003.

Deer numbers continue to be strongest in Region 3. That's the only region in our state where late-season hunting success increased last year. The harvest decreased in Region 1 and Region 2.

The greatest increase in the muzzleloader deer harvest, percentage-wise, during 2004 was in the Southeastern District. The kill went up by 25 percent in those counties from the year before. The harvest was composed of 3,424 bucks and does compared to 2,740 for 2003.

The counties that compose the Southeastern District are Genesee, Lapeer, St. Clair, Oakland, Macomb, Wayne and Monroe. As already mentioned, Lapeer and Oakland counties have the highest deer numbers in that district.