It's all about the deer season experience
Deegan Pittman’s favorite part about deer hunting is all about being outdoors with family. “I like spending time with my dad and my grandpa in the woods,” Pittman, 11, of Cherry said. Pittman, the son of Dustin and Kim Pittman and grandson of Scott Zahorik, said he also enjoys learning how to track and shoot deer along with other outdoor sports such as fishing, snowmobiling and four-wheeling. The Cherry School sixth-grader is exactly the type of youth the Minnesota Department of Resources hopes will be the foundation of a new generation of hunters and outdoor enthusiasts. As the Minnesota 2026 firearms deer season opens Saturday, encouraging and recruiting young people to the lifetime sport and traditions of deer hunting is a goal of the Minnesota Department of Resources (DNR). “I would say overall, we’re still down,” Jessica Holmes, DNR Area Wildlife supervisor Division of Fish and Wildlife in Tower said of the numbers of young hunters. “I think recruitment has been down and that’s been a big focus of ours, to recruit young hunters.” However, for the Dustin Pittman and Scott Zahorik families, the northern Minnesota firearms deer season is the time of the year when lifelong memories are made
