Texas County’s deer harvest increased 37 percent on opening weekend from last year — despite nasty weather on Sunday, the Missouri Department of Conservation said.
The count in the county was 1,745, an increase of 470 from last year’s opening weekend. The breakdown: Bucks, 975; button bucks, 175; and does, 595.
Statewide, the kill numbers also were up significantly. The Missouri Department of Conservation reported that hunters checked 91,460 deer during the opening weekend of fall firearms season. Top harvest counties for the opening weekend were Franklin with 1,839 deer checked, Howell with 1,793, and Callaway with 1,791.
Last year’s firearms opening weekend deer harvest was 61,446. Other recent prior-year harvest totals for firearms opening weekend were: 2012: 69,614; 2011: 89,728, 2010: 97,856, and 2009: 86,202.
Here are the totals by hunting portion and county.
MDC also reports that there were three deer-hunting incidents over the weekend with two being fatal. One death was in Ste. Genevieve County where a heater in a hunting blind exploded, killing the hunter. The second involved a fall from a tree stand in Crawford County. A third non-fatal incident involved a hunter in Phelps County shooting himself in the leg while loading his rifle.