Tennessee deer season has big opening weekend

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — Tennessee sportsmen harvested more than 17,000 deer on the opening weekend of gun season.

Harvest numbers continue to be reported, but as of Monday sportsmen had reported 17,093 deer harvested last weekend. That was 2,630 more than last year’s opening weekend.

Including the archery and muzzleloader seasons, more than 86,000 deer have been harvested in Tennessee so far.

This year, Tennessee sportsmen have one continuous gun season that will continue through Jan. 6. That replaces the two segmented hunting seasons that were in place prior to last year.

Copyright 2012 The Associated Press.