Online deer registration confuses hunters

Hunters liked registering in
person, telling stories of hunt

SPARTA, Wis. – Among the businesses that saw a much quieter weekend this year for Wisconsin’s deer-hunting opener, Schnitzler’s Sports Store in Sparta.

It’s one of the few places in the area hunters could still take their deer for registration with the state switching over to electronic registration this year – a change that maybe could have been explained better, says owner Dennis Schnitzler.

“Everybody thought they had to have a smart phone to do it (registration) on,” Schnitzler said. “They didn’t. A lot of people didn’t realize you could actually do it on a computer.”

Schnitzler also had a bunch of hunters who came to his place to continue the tradition of seeing what the other guy got and telling stories. Schnitzler says, for this year’s opener, he handled less than half the 400 deer registered by hunters last year.

While Schnitzler says it’s always tough to embrace change, he does believe hunters will eventually get used to electronic registration and eventually appreciate it.