The Department of Conservation says hunters killed 61,446 deer on the opening weekend of the November firearms season.

That was down 12 percent from last year’s opening weekend, which with a total of 69,614 deer was the lowest opening-weekend number in more than 20 years.

Hunters came out in force later last year to still rack up the state’s third-largest deer kill. This year’s figures also could rebound.

The department says that because the firearms deer season is longer than it was 20 years ago, more hunters now wait until after the opening weekend.