Courtesy Photo | A successful hunt is shown Nov. 23, 2025, during the 2025 gun-deer season at Fort...... read more read more
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Wisconsin’s and Fort McCoy’s 2025 nine-day gun-deer season took place Nov. 22 to 30, and hunters saw some warmer weather to start the season and ended the season seeing 313 deer harvested.
There were 167 Chronic Wasting Disease samples (54 percent of harvest) taken, said said Wildlife Program Manager and Biologist Kevin Luepke with the Fort McCoy Directorate of Public Works Environmental Division Natural Resources Branch. Permit quota for 2025 was 1,800. Permits issued were 1,798. Permits purchased were 1,364. Bonus antlerless tag quota was 450 tags. Bonus antlerless tags issued were 450 tags. Bonus antlerless tags purchased were 244.
Also, Fort McCoy Hunting, Fishing, and Trapping Rules and Regulations (Fort McCoy Regulation 420-29) were signed and approved on Nov. 17, just before the season. The regulations were distributed and made available to the public.
Luepke said overall the deer herd looked to be in good condition heading into the season.
“There (were) no new cases of Epizootic Hemorrhagic Disease … reported or found this fall,” Luepke said. “In addition, Fort McCoy has only had the one positive Chronic Wasting Disease case from the 2024 Archery season. Through the 2024 gun-deer season, when a majority of the CWD sampling occurs, no additional CWD positive results were received.
“During the fall of 2025, there were no additional CWD positive results received from the youth gun-deer, gun-deer for hunters with disabilities, or early archery seasons,” Luepke said.
“We have also seen lower fawn numbers this summer, so our herd recruitment has been a bit lower than normal. The acorn production is higher than last year (little to no acorn production in 2024). 2025 has not seen a bumper crop of acorns by any means, but there has been some acorn production associated with white and black (scrub) oak,” he said.
For the 2025 gun-deer hunt, the deer data collection point was also in full operation on South Post in the same location just off Highway 21 as previous years. Hunters were required to bring their harvested deer through the deer data collection point. Biological data was collected, Chronic Wasting Disease (CWD) sampling offered, and a dumpster was available to discard any carcasses. Collected CWD samples were sent to the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources, and all successful hunters were encouraged to have their deer tested.
“That biological data we collect at the station is important to evaluate the herd health and calculate the installation deer population,” Luepke said. “We also collect lymph nodes for CWD testing.”
Fort McCoy’s deer population continued to show it had larger bucks available to hunters, as well, Luepke said.
“There were several big bucks that came through again this year,” Luepke said.
Learn more about deer hunting at Fort McCoy by visiting the installation iSportsman page at https://ftmccoy.isportsman.net.
Learn more about Fort McCoy online at https://home.army.mil/mccoy, on Facebook by searching “ftmccoy,” on Flickr at https://www.flickr.com/photos/fortmccoywi, and on X (formerly Twitter) by searching “usagmccoy.”
Also try downloading the My Army Post app to your smartphone and set “Fort McCoy” or another installation as your preferred base. Fort McCoy is also part of Army’s Installation Management Command where “We Are The Army’s Home.”
(The Directorate of Public Works Environmental Division Natural Resources Branch contributed to this article.)
| Date Taken: | 12.13.2025 |
| Date Posted: | 12.14.2025 00:36 |
| Story ID: | 554110 |
| Location: | FORT MCCOY, WISCONSIN, US |
| Web Views: | 17 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
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