Hunters in Texas County killed more deer in the season that concludes Tuesday than last year, figures show.
In 2011, 3,284 were downed.
The tally on Monday morning showed Texas County in second place in the state with 3,671 killed. The breakdown: 1,761, bucks; 407, button bucks; and 1,503, does.
Howell County remained in the lead with 3,706.
Hunters in Texas County will kill more deer in the fall firearms deer season that concludes Tuesday than last year, figures show.
In 2011, 3,284 were downed.
The tally on Monday morning, showed Texas County in second place in the state with 3,671 killed. The breakdown: 1,761, bucks; 407, button bucks; and 1,503, does.
Howell County remained in the lead with 3,706.
MDC Texas County resource forester and former game warden Travis Mills said it’s no surprise to see the county near the top in state rankings.
“We’ve always stayed in the top five,” Mills said. “There’s a lot of good habitat and diversity of habitat here, and that’s definitely one of the keys.”
Mills said that despite the good kill numbers, deer have proven to be difficult for many hunters to find this year.
“A lot of guys I’ve spoken to are quite frustrated,” he said. “The deer just don’t seem to be moving, and there’s really no explanation for that. Typically if there’s a full moon, deer have a tendency to move at night and lay up during the day. The moon has been sort of dark during this deer season, but the deer aren’t doing what they’re supposed to do.
“It’s normal for them to stop moving toward the end of the firearms season because they become aware of all the hunting pressure, but they’ve been that way the whole time. In fact, their movement has seemed strange for the past few years.”
Mills said it’s also no surprise that the well-publicized increase in hemorrhagic disease — commonly called “blue tongue” — has not affected this year’s harvest.
“Our deer biologist says that you usually don’t notice the decrease in deer numbers until two or three years after the disease due to a lack of reproduction,” he said. “And if that wasn’t the case, you’d see dead deer lying all over the place. If you think about it, about 4,000 deer are checked during hunting season every year in Texas County, so in my opinion a few hundred deer dying of blue tongue isn’t going to have much of an effect.”
Mills said that although hunting is not inherently dangerous to humans, last week’s accident that resulted in the death of a woman hunting in Texas County is a reminder that because guns are involved, the potential always exists.
“I hope that sort of reawakens everybody,” he said. “Hunting is statistically a lot safer than other sports, as far as injuries and fatalities to participants, but you can never be too careful, and it’s when you let your guard down that something can happen.”
Additional information was added to this story at 10:02 a.m. Monday.