Poor weather over the second weekend of the firearms deer season likely contributed to a slowdown in the area deer harvest, particularly for bucks, according to Tom Rusch, DNR Area Wildlife Manager in Tower.

As of the first weekend, the buck harvest was up nearly six percent in northern and central St. Louis and Lake counties, but steady rain and wind last Saturday and blustery and colder conditions on Sunday limited the time that many hunters spent in the field, and that reduced their rate of success. Deer rutting activity did pick up, according to Rusch, after more limited activity through the first week of the season.

The antlerless harvest continued well below last year’s pace, but that’s a reflection of fewer permits, said Rusch, not fewer deer.

Despite the poor weather, the buck harvest remains essentially on pace with last year. As of Tuesday, hunters in northern and central St. Louis and Lake counties had registered a total of 5,383 bucks, down just one percent from the 5,430 bucks registered during the same period last year. Meanwhile, the antlerless harvest is off 24 percent from last year’s pace. The total harvest is down 12 percent.

Those figures are similar to hunter registrations across Zone 1A (northeastern and east-central Minnesota), where the total buck harvest was 25,745 as of Tuesday, up just slightly from the 25,715 registered during the same period last year. Combined with the antlerless harvest, a total of 44,534 deer had been registered in 1A, compared to 52,030 last year.

Statewide, hunters registered a total of 131,527 deer through Tuesday, down from 142,677 for the same period last year. Overall, the buck harvest was up, with 73,626 bucks registered so far this season, compared to 68,526 last year.

Hunters should have much-improved conditions when they take to the woods this weekend. The forecast calls for partly to mostly cloudy skies with high temperatures in the upper thirties to low forties, with light southerly breezes.

The better weather should coincide with the peak of the deer rut, which will likely offer hunters their best opportunity of the season to date. In northeastern Minnesota, the 2012 regular firearms deer season ends Sunday, Nov. 18.