Deer hunters are preparing to shoulder their weapon of choice and fan out en masse across Kanabec County and the surrounding region for this weekend’s long-awaited firearm opener.

State wide, Minnesota’s Department of Natural Resources (DNR) anticipates approximately 500,00 hunters will harvest somewhere around 200,000 deer this year. While the archery season has been open since early September, more hunters are expected to take aim during this Saturday’s opening of the firearm season than any other day of the year. Temperatures are forecasted to be in the 60s, mixed with sun.

The high concentration of hunters in local woods this weekend prompted Kanabec County Sheriff Steve Schulz, an avid hunter himself, to remind those looking for a trophy this weekend to be especially aware of their surroundings and practice sound gun safety.

“Every year we hear about injuries in the woods during hunting season,” Sheriff Schulz said. “While I hope everyone has a successful hunt, it's important to think safety first at all times.”

Zone 157 and its two-deer limit encompasses much of Kanabec County. Large swaths of southern Kanabec County, however, fall into zone 225 – which has been classified as an intense harvest zone and allows hunters with bonus permits to take up to five deer.

With only a few days until deer hunters clad in blaze orange take to the woods in hopes of harvesting the deer of their dreams, it also means that the Minnesota Deer Hunters Association (MDHA) will be once again collecting deer hides for the Hides for Habitat Program.

Local MDHA members are encouraging all deer hunters to donate their hides to the MDHA Hides for Habitat program. The hides will be sold and the money raised by the Snake River Chapter of the Isle, Ogilvie and Mora area will return to the area to be used to send youth to educational camps to learn safety, ethic, outdoor skills, ecology, biology and other outdoor techniques.

The local chapter(s) also routinely donate money to be used to support public hunting land and their improvement.

The familiar plastic red or black boxes will be deployed to a wide variety of local businesses for area hunters to drop hides off at. Hide collection boxes are located at the following locations:

Schmidty’s, S&R Mart and Federated Coop in Ogilvie as well as McBee’s on Ann Lake. At Staqtion 65 in Brunswick, At BP, Fleetgo, Jerry’s Bait and Glen’s Tire in Mora. North of Mora boxes can be found at Bowe’s Landing and the Crow’s Nest on Knife Lake, the Warman Store and the 1865 Station. In Isle the boxes are located at Ilse Cenex in downtown Isle and the BP Station in Isle. Please drop off your hides at these locations and support these businesses for their continued support of this program.