Firearms deer harvest down slightly, but most local counties up significantly

The opening weekend of Missouri’s firearms deer season typically is when about half of the total number of deer are taken, but hunters this year faced wet and windy conditions on those first two days.

As a result, the season harvest of 176,604 deer was down slightly from last year’s 179,960.

Somewhat surprisingly, every local county’s harvest was up considerably, except one, so the overall drop in deer numbers can be attributed to other regions of the state.

Locally, hunters in Butler County took home 1,224 deer, up from 921 a year ago.

In Carter County, the number of deer taken rose sharply from 1,008 last year to 1,422 this season.

Dunklin County hunters managed to just squeak past last year’s total of 281 deer by taking 288 this season.

Reynolds County hunters also did well, tagging 1,790 deer compared to 1,347 a year ago.

In Ripley County, hunters took home 2,568 deer, a big jump from the 1,928 taken there in 2019’s season.

Wayne County hunters killed 2,642 deer, easily topping last year’s 2,262.

The only local county to experience a harvest decrease was Stoddard, and it wasn’t by much. Hunters there tagged 1,131 deer compared to 1,161 a year ago.

The top counties in the state were some of the usual suspects, including Howell with 3,496 deer taken, Franklin with 3,409 and Texas with 3,374.

Closer to home, Bollinger County hunters ranked fourth in the state with 2,786 deer taken.

Just more than 54% of the total harvest was antlered bucks, with the rest being button bucks and does. As usual, there was a bit of a late rush of doe harvests on the final day of the season as many hunters decided a doe in the freezer was better than tag soup.

It appeared most deer also had turned nocturnal very quickly, moving mostly after dark, so the numbers are a little better than expected.

Three non-fatal firearms incidents were recorded during the season, all self-inflicted.

Missouri’s record firearms deer harvest came in 2006, when hunters took 235,409 deer. The harvest has not reached 200,000 since 2012, but almost did in 2018.

Archery Season

Now that the firearms deer season is over, the archery season is back open.

Things will be much tougher for hunters now, with skittish deer and a lack of cover.

As usual, the key to late-season success will be for hunters to focus on food sources, particularly just before and after a big weather front.

The archery season continues through Jan. 15.

Youth Season, Part 2

The second segment of Missouri’s youth deer season opened today (Friday) and runs through the weekend.

All the same rules apply as during the first portion, except a young hunter is not restricted to one deer if they possess additional tags.

The weather forecast looks decent, at least for the first portion of the weekend, so success will pretty much be determined by deer movement this close to the close of the regular firearms season and how long hunters want to stay afield.

Waterfowl Draws

The Missouri Department of Conservation has taken the major step of declaring every one of its managed wetlands where waterfowl draws typically are held as red level, meaning morning procedures are very strict.

At red level areas, there is no poor line for leftover hunt positions and each one is filled by reservation only. Spots allocated to reservation holders who don’t show up simply will go unhunted that day.

Each facility will be closed to the public, so if you are drawn for a reservation, you will need to print out the green card you will be emailed and go directly to the preassigned hunting spot you are given.

Also, red level rules say non-residents cannot apply for reservations, but they can hunt with resident who do get drawn.

South Zone Open

Missouri’s South Zone duck season opened Thanksgiving Day, and with the tight restrictions at the nearby Otter Slough and Duck Creek conservation areas, I can only imagine the crowds at walk-in areas like the Coon Island Conservation Area were far worse than average.

The first segment of the South Zone season will run only through Sunday before it closes. The second portion will pick up Dec. 7 and run through the end of January.

Crappie Fishing

With the closure of the firearms deer season, a lot of folks will turn their attention back to crappie fishing.

Unfortunately, the recent rains we’ve had, especially north of here, have caused Wappapello Lake to jump up about 4 feet above normal for this time of year, and it still is rising slowly.

Prior to the rise, Charlie Brotherton said, he was getting good reports from anglers catching some nice fish.

Clearwater Lake was in a similar situation as of Wednesday, topping out a little more than 4 feet above normal.