SHEBOYGAN, Wis. (WHBL) - 756 deer were harvested in Sheboygan County over the weekend, with the season officially getting underway Saturday morning. That number is up from last year’s opening weekend, when 631 deer were taken. Almost 135,000 deer were killed statewide over the weekend. The DNR says weather helped the hunt, with mild temperatures throughout the state, although many hunters would have preferred a light dusting of snow for tracking purposes.
Wisconsin has recorded its first shooting death of a deer hunter in three years. Officials at Fort McCoy said 22-year-old Thomas Stamborski,of Milwaukee, was found dead of a gunshot wound in a designated hunting area of the Army base near Sparta. The incident happened on Saturday. The fort said the victim was a civilian who was not connected with the Defense Department. The Army’s Criminal Investigation Command is investigating. Fort McCoy officials said they issued two-thousand permits on 46-thousand acres of land that were opened to deer hunting. The D-N-R had gone two straight years without a hunter being shot to death - the first time that’s ever happened. Only three November gun seasons in the last 160 years did not have a fatal shooting in Wisconsin. At least three hunters died during this season’s opening weekend. The other two were reported earlier. 51 year old Shaun Lemanskim of Green Bay, died after he fell from a tree-stand in the Marathon County town of Cassel west of Wausau. And 51 year old Steven Jackson, of Antigo – the head of the Langlade County Forestry Department – was found unresponsive Saturday evening in a wooded area near Gleason. Foul play has been ruled out, but the death is still being investigated.