Deer hunting for the youth had an early season this past weekend. With beautiful, cool weather, the harvest is considered a success, despite windy weather on Sunday.
Youth deer season began Saturday, October 31, 2020, and ended Sunday, November 1, 2020. For a more complete list of rules governing youth deer hunt, you can click here.
Statewide Results
Preliminary data from the Missouri Department of Conservation (MDC) shows that the youth harvested 15,591 deer during the early youth season. These numbers were comparable to the state’s average. MDC Cervid Supervisor Jason Isabelle said, [1]
This year’s harvest of about 15,600 deer puts us about in the middle of the range when compared to harvest totals from the past five years.
Top Counties
The Missouri counties that harvested the most deer were Franklin (which harvested 336 deer), Howell County (which harvested 324 deer), and Osage (which harvested 320 deer). Oregon County checked in 137 bucks, 18 additional button bucks, and 76 does for a total of 231 deer harvested. [2]
Seasons
Meanwhile, the archery season is still open until November 13 when it closes a short time during the firearm season. Firearm season runs November 14-24, 2020. The late youth season follows firearm season on November 27-29. Concurrently, the archery season opens again on November 25 and runs through January 15, 2021. Meanwhile, December 4-6 is the antlerless firearm season. Finally, alternative methods of deer hunting run from December 26, 2020, through January 5, 2021.
Finally
Finally, many meat processing plants are overly busy this year with beef and other livestock, so be sure to call ahead to get your appointment for deer processing.
Notes:
- ^https://www.ozarkradionews.com/local-news/young-hunters-harvest-15591-deer-during-early-youth-portion (go back ↩)
