Mid Missouri Hunting Figures

For all of you hunters out there we figured we would do a post outlining some of the facts for hunting season this year.

Mid Missouri Hunters checked approximately 1,242 deer during the Urban Portion of Missouri’s Firearms Deer Season Oct. 9 through 12.

The leader of all the surrounding counties was Boone County which had  harvest totals of 247 deer.  Followed Boone Closely was St. Charles County with 160 checked deer. Greene County was third with 139. Overall The harvest consisted of almost 80 percent does (always a good thing)

Other county harvest figures were Cass, 89; Christian, 10; Clay, 121; Cole, 39; Franklin, 86; Jackson, 85; Jefferson, 81; Platte, 93; St. Louis, 92.

This years Urban Portion harvest was nearly double last years and more than twice the 2007 harvest. Unseasonably warm weather, with daytime highs in the 70s and 80s, probably played a role in holding down deer harvests those years. Deer use less energy in warm weather and are less likely to move around, reducing their visibility making hunting much more difficult

The Missouri Conservation Commission approved the first urban deer hunt in 2003. The Urban Portion encourages hunters to shoot female deer around the states main urban centers.

Controlling deer populations in and around the St. Louis, Kansas City, Springfield and Columbia-Jefferson City areas has been more difficult than in rural areas, where hunting is more common. The growth of deer numbers in those areas resulted in increased frequency of deer-vehicle accidents and damage to landscape plantings and crops. In extreme cases, deer browsing can cause ecological damage.

*Note these figures provided by the Missouri Conservation Department*