Wisconsin’s nine-day gun-hunting deer season ended Sunday as one of the safest seasons on record.

The Department of Natural Resources reported 19 gun-related injuries resulting in two fatalities during the season.

“Injuries and fatalities during the gun deer season are, overall, on the decline. New hunter education graduates enter the field each year, and we’re seeing the positive results of that over time,” said Tim Lawhern, hunter education administrator for the DNR.

This year, 618,945 hunting licenses were sold. Lawhern said large numbers of hunters usually precipitate injuries.

“We may never see a season when there isn’t one injury of fatality. With hundreds of thousands of hunters, it’s almost impossible to say that everyone will follow all the safety rules,” he said.

Five of the 19 reported injuries were self-inflicted, including the two fatalities.

A 48-year-old man was fatally wounded in the chest when he tried to hang his loaded gun on a tree-stand foot peg as he climbed down, and an 18-year-old man was fatally wounded when his gun discharged and shot him under the chin.

Nov. 28, a 13-year-old girl in Crawford County shot herself in the foot.

The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reported Monday a man died in Forest County Nov. 26 when he fell out of his tree stand, but since the injury was not gun-related, the DNR did not include the incident in its tally.

This season tied for the fifth-safest since 1985.