 Well, the deer hunting season has become an official holiday around Minnesota and in this week's northward's adventure, Josh Peterson takes us out to take a look at some early results at this past weekend's hunt. With the first few days of the firearms deer hunting season in the books, this year so far has received mixed reviews. While some hunters had great luck hunting their prized buck, others did not. But this week's wintery weather may make conditions ideal for hunting. I think that the rut is just a little bit behind where last year was at the opener because it was a little colder at the opener last year. But I have heard a lot of reports of really nice bucks being shot. While the weather can play a major factor, early numbers are still expected to be up over last year. But it's too soon to tell. I haven't seen any numbers as of this point. I think there's still a lot of people out hunting. I know a lot of our wildlife people are down working on CWD sampling still. They won't be back until tomorrow and so I expect to get more information by tomorrow. While it's still early to get official numbers on just how successful the deer opener was from the Minnesota DNR, one indicator is to visit your local butcher shop and just see how busy they really are. At Stitsworth Meats, hunters have been bringing in their deer since opening morning. And already over the past couple of days have seen an increase over last deer season's record year. Taking them in, we're probably a little ahead of pace so last year which is one of the higher years we've had so it's been good so I'm kind of nervous to see what happens this next weekend. So far over 200 deer have been brought in to Stitsworth Meats to be processed, but with ideal hunting conditions to come later this week, they are prepared to take in more deer than ever this year. Yeah, I would say we're probably a little ahead of pace last year so every year the last two, three years have been up so we may hit another record this year. Michael Stitsworth says that every deer brought in will be made to order and return back to its original owner. He also added that with a dramatic increase over last year, this year could be one of the best for hunters. With this week's Northwoods Adventure in Bemidji, Josh Peterson, Lakeland News. If you enjoyed this segment of Lakeland News, please consider making a tax-deductible contribution to Lakeland PBS.