ST. PAUL — Minnesota hunters have registered 111,000 deer through the third and last weekend of the firearms deer season, a drop of 31,000 from the same period a year ago.

But the lower harvest is by design. Regulations were put in place to make more deer — especially does — off-limits to increase Minnesota’s deer herd.

The state Department of Natural Resources said so far this year during special hunts and the archery, early antlerless and firearms season, hunters have killed 127,000 deer, down from the 2013 to-date harvest total of 144,000.

Additional deer will be harvested during the late southeastern season, which runs through Nov. 30, and the muzzleloader season, which begins Nov. 29 and continues through Dec. 14. The archery season runs through Dec. 31.