Paige Owens bagged this 6 x 6 mule deer with a 17-inch spread, checking it in on Sunday. (Photo courtesy of Lakers)
Jace Clevenger was one of the successful deer hunters this firearm season. He checked in this nice 6 x 8 whitetail with a 16 3/4 inch spread on Saturday. (Photo courtesy of Lakers)
Firearm deer season ends; 50 more deer checked in at Enders this year
Firearm deer season has ended across the state. Final check-ins were completed early Monday afternoon.
Lakers Bait and Tackle, in its 22nd year as a check-in site, received 386 deer. Ron Schoenberger said they saw more out-of-area hunters this season, including people from Wisconsin, Minnesota, Louisiana, Utah, North Dakota and California.
This year’s numbers are 50 more checked deer than the 2018 season for the Enders site.
Though Schoenberger said they didn’t see a lot of deer with significant mass, they had a lot of nice 5x5 and 6x6 typical deer.
“I printed off twice as many pictures as last year,” he said.
Schoenberger said 321 deer were from Chase County—271 were bucks versus 115 doe—and there were 224 mule deer compared to 161 white tail. Deer were also checked in at Lakers from Dundy, Perkins, Hitchcock, Hayes, Red Willow, Furnas and Keith counties.
Wauneta Crossroads finished with 357 deer checked, including two Monday morning.
Angie and Jesse West said they saw a mixed group of area and out-of-area hunters throughout the eight-day season.
Both sites called Game Warden John Lee for deer that didn’t look well, two in Wauneta and one in Enders.
Schoenberger pointed out that archery season is still open. Muzzleloader season will run throughout the month of December. Anterless Only Season Choice — doe or bucks with racks less than six inches — is open until Jan. 15, but hunters cannot take a deer at Enders Reservoir.
Wauneta Crossroads’ Facebook contest for the most popular deer remains open. The Wests will pick out a select group of deer for which Facebook users can vote.