Hunters in Texas County killed more deer than other county in the state during the first weekend of the fall firearms deer season, the Missouri Department of Conservation said.
Preliminary figures show that deer hunters in Missouri harvested 97,171 deer during the opening weekend. Of those, 53,359 were antlered bucks, 10,320 were button bucks and 33,492 were does.
Top harvest counties for opening weekend were Texas County with 2,184 deer checked, up about 25 percent from 2014 when nasty weather fell on Sunday; Howell County with 1,959 and Franklin County with 1,899. Last year’s first weekend kill was 1,745 in Texas County.
Last year, hunters checked 91,460 deer during the opening weekend of the 2014 November Portion of Firearms Deer Season.
The November portion of the fall firearms deer season continues through Nov. 24. Archery deer hunting opens again from Nov. 25 through Jan. 15. The firearms antlerless portion will run Nov. 25 through Dec. 6. The firearms alternative methods portion is Dec. 19-29 followed by the firearms late youth portion Jan. 2-3. Missouri’s early youth weekend ran Oct. 31 and Nov. 1. The firearms deer urban zone portion ran Oct. 9-12.