MONROE - Local motorists have seen plenty of deer on roads this fall.

Now, area hunters hope to see plenty of deer in woods and fields as the state's nine-day gun hunt season begins just before sunrise Saturday.

The Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources (DNR) estimates up to 1.7 million deer roam the fields and woods in Wisconsin. The estimated number of deer is about 100,000 less than a year ago, when hunters in all seasons killed more than 520,000 deer.

An estimated 600,000 hunters will take to the great outdoors to try their luck at landing a deer.

"The deer herd is still a good deal larger than established population goals in much of Wisconsin," said Keith Warnke, a state DNR deer expert. "It is probably the most extensive herd-control season that we have implemented."

The only part of the state with deer management units designed as "regular" this fall, meaning there are no special incentives to shoot more deer, is in far northeast Wisconsin.

Twenty of the state's 131 deer management units rate that designation. The rest either are under herd control, earn-a-buck or chronic wasting disease regulations put in place to encourage hunters to shoot more female deer.

For example, in management regions designated as herd control, hunters get a buck license, a free tag to shoot an antlerless deer and can purchase more for $2 each.

Hunters in a regular unit just get the buck tag and there's a limited number of antlerless tags, each costing $12 for resident hunters and $20 for non-residents.

The 31 earn-a-buck zones stretch from far western Wisconsin through several counties in the central regions to extreme eastern Wisconsin. Hunters there are required to shoot a doe to qualify to shoot a buck, and according to Warnke, tens of hunters already have done that, some last season.

"It's a two-season deal," he said.

For more than a decade, Wisconsin has had more deer than the DNR's management goal. It creates problems with crop damage, more car-deer crashes and changes in forests' ecosystems.

"We need to have a pretty large reduction in our deer population," Warnke said.

With so many hunters looking to land the record buck or a big doe, the DNR reminds hunters to be careful and to avoid endangering themselves and others.

According to the DNR, hunters should:

• Treat every firearm as if it was loaded.

• Always point the muzzle in a safe directions.

• Be certain of the target and what is beyond it.

• Keep their fingers outside of the trigger guard until they're ready to shoot.

- The Associated Press contributed to this report.