MISSOURI, USA — The numbers are in! Missouri has officially wrapped up its November portion of the firearms deer season, and officials at the Missouri Department of Conservation have listed which counties harvested the most.
Hunters across the state harvested 193,669 deer during the season that ran from Nov. 11-21, MDC officials posted on its website. Of those, 105,614 were antlered bucks, 71,974 were does and 16,081 were button bucks.
Franklin County scored the top spot for the season, with a harvest total of 4,289 deer. Close runners-up were Texas, Howell and Callaway counties with harvests of 4,208, 3,749 and 3,211 deer respectively. Those top four counties are also the top four counties for deer hunting for the entire year, according to MDC's stats.
Despite the high numbers, this year's statewide harvest total was actually lower than last year's.
"This year’s harvest total was 3% lower than last year and 2% higher than the previous five-year average," the MDC post said.
Missouri's deer harvest total for the entire year sits at 267,895, which appears to be in the range of usual statewide harvest totals dating back to 1996. The smallest recent harvest Missouri had was back in 1996 with just about 200,000 deer. In 2020, that number was closer to 300,000.
Missouri hunters still have multiple hunting seasons to look forward to, according to MDC, including:
- Archery deer hunting resumed Wednesday and runs through Jan. 15
- Late youth portion runs from Nov. 24-26
- Late antlerless portion of firearms deer season runs from Dec. 2-10 in open counties
- Alternative methods portion runs from Dec. 23 to Jan. 2
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