Department of Natural Resources wildlife officials say hunters should find a slightly larger deer population this fall than they did last year as archery deer season begins statewide Wednesday.

"The population is up in the northern Lower Peninsula," said DNR deer specialist Rod Clute. "And although it's down in the Upper Peninsula and stable in southern Michigan, we're estimating about a 5 percent increase in deer numbers from last season."

Last year, 300,000 archery hunters spent 4.2 million days afield, taking 126,000 white-tailed deer.

Hunters are reminded that it is illegal to bait deer in the Lower Peninsula this year, following the discovery of a deer with chronic wasting disease (CWD) in a privately owned facility in Kent County. But Clute said the DNR does not anticipate the regulation change will have much of an impact on the harvest.

"Our surveys show that success rate for hunters who bait and hunters who don't are very similar," Clute said.

The second major change in regulations this fall involves antler restrictions in the Upper Peninsula. Hunters who wish to shoot two bucks in the Upper Peninsula will have to purchase the combination tag and will be restricted to one buck with at least three antler points on one side and one buck with at least four antler points on one side. Hunters who prefer to buy an archery and/or firearms license will not be subject to the antler restrictions, but are limited to one buck.

"If you take a buck during archery season on an archery license, you are finished hunting for bucks in the Upper Peninsula for the season," Clute said.

Hunters are also reminded that they can take an antlerless deer during archery season with a buck tag from a combination license or an archery license.

Archery season continues through Nov. 14, then takes a 16-day break for firearms season. It reopens Dec. 1 and runs through Jan. 1.

DNR officials ask hunters to voluntarily bring their deer to a check station, but remind hunters that a mandatory deer check is required in the nine townships in Kent County surrounding the captive deer facility that produced a deer with CWD.