New Ulm resident Darrick Postel doesn’t go far from home to deer hunt, and he doesn’t plan to do so anytime soon.

“I’ve been hunting private land near the city limits, northwest of town for a quite a few years,” he said. “Hunting was good this year. I got two smaller eight-pointers. Deer meat is always good. I turn in deer hides for gloves, cook the horns and do skull mounts.”

Postel wasn’t the only Minnesota hunter who had a successful deer season in 2025. This week the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources said the 2025 deer harvest was up 9% from 2024. A total of 186,203 deer were taken across Minnesota. The statewide harvest was 5% higher than the five-year average.

“We had a great deer harvest in most of the state this year,” said David Trauba, DNR wildlife section manager. “Hunters are critical to managing deer populations. It’s positive news for conservation when we see hunters having more success in fields and forests.”

“I think most people were pretty pleased,” said Marshall Area Wildlife Supervisor Wendy Krueger.

The deer harvest saw an increase of 6% overall across southwest Minnesota, although in some areas – like Lincoln and Lyon Counties – the increase was a little more.

In deer permit area 288, which includes most of Lyon County, a total of 740 deer were harvested in 2025. That was an increase of about 15% from 2024, Krueger said.

“It’s a decent jump,” she said. “We’re not talking huge numbers.”

Permit area 286, which includes Lincoln County, had a 2025 harvest of 601 deer, compared to 497 deer in 2024.

Jeremy Barck, at Borch’s Sporting Goods in Marshall, said it didn’t seem like the numbers of area hunters had changed much for this year’s deer season. But, he said, “They were a little bit more successful this year.”

Permit area 290, in and around New Ulm, showed 1,254 deer harvested with 530 female adults, 598 male adults, 55 female juveniles and 71 male juveniles.

New Ulm residents like Postel agreed with the DNR assessment that deer hunting has improved in recent years. Francis Rieger, owner of R&R Bait & Tackle in New Ulm, said he did 194 deer skulls in one month.

“I got a lot of deer hides. People keep bringing deer in. Quite a few people do shotgun and bow hunting, mostly around New Ulm,” said Rieger.

Paul Burr, acting big game program coordinator for the DNR, said hunting conditions were favorable for hunters getting out and harvesting deer.

“We had cooling temperatures and limited precipitation,” said Burr. “It also helped that deer populations have continued to rise over the past couple years, thanks in part to mild winters.”

In the Marshall area, factors like the weather and the harvest also impacted deer hunting, Krueger said. “We had two mild winters in a row,” which was good for deer populations, she said. Crops were out of the field, so deer had fewer places to hide from hunters.

Krueger said a third factor in the Lyon County permit area was that in 2025, it switched from having an antlerless deer license lottery, to having a one-deer limit of either sex. The change was meant to help even out the harvest of antlered and antlerless deer in the area, she said.

DNR deer harvest data showed that there were 236 adult female deer and 461 adult male deer taken in the Lyon County permit area in 2025.

The DNR is inviting Minnesotans to submit feedback about their experiences with deer and deer hunting on an online questionnaire. Visit the deer hunting webpage at mndnr.gov/hunting/deer. For current and past deer harvest data including an interactive map and graph, visit mndnr.gov/mammals/deer/management/statistics.html.

Fritz Busch contributed to this story.