With only archery season still taking place in Missouri until January 15, 2006, officials are counting up the number of deer harvested this season. It appears as though this year’s numbers will be about 9% fewer than last season’s record breaking year.
Here’s a breakdown. During the urban deer hunt from October 7 – 10, hunters bagged 1,838 deer. The youth hunt from October 29 -30 registered 10,577. The regular firearms season that ran from Nobember 12 – 30 saw 205,460 deer killed. The muzzle loader season began on November 25 and ran until December 4. There were 10,115 deer taken then. Finally, the antlerless deer season running December 10 – 18 yielded 21,765 deer. Without the final numbers left in the archery season, the total is 249,912. This compared to 275,329 last year.
Officials estimate that the total deer harvest for archery will run around 30,000 bringing the grand total to around 280,000 deer.
Tom Remington
