KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Deer-hunting season wrapped up Saturday in Missouri with nearly 300,000 animals harvested, according to preliminary information from the the Missouri Department of Conservation.
There were 293,670 deer taken during deer-hunting season — including 143,049 antlered bucks, 26,559 button bucks and 124,022 does.
The total harvest represents a slight decrease, 1.19%, from the 2020-21 deer-hunting season when 297,214 animals were taken but remains about 3% above the five-year average, the state conservation department said.
“We’ve seen an increasing trend in statewide deer harvest for about the past eight years,” the department’s Cervid Program Supervisor Jason Isabelle said in a statement. “The deer population has continued to increase across much of southern Missouri at the same time that we’ve seen a population recovery in most of the counties impacted by the severe hemorrhagic disease outbreak that occurred in 2012.”
During deer-hunting season, there were 60,834 animals taken during archery season, the third-most on record.
Fall archery turkey season also ended Saturday with 2,523 turkeys harvested, a 7.4% increase from last year.
There were four firearms-related hunting incidents reported to the Department of Conservation during deer-hunting season. All were self-inflicted and one was fatal.
