Nearly 275,000 deer taken in record Missouri harvest

Plentiful deer, plentiful permits and more hunting days combined to produce a record harvest of 273,905 during Missouri’s firearms deer seasons.

The figure is 19,538 more than the record set last year. The season consisted of five portions totaling 36 days. Last year’s firearms season ran 34 days in five segments.

Hunters killed 934 fewer deer during the antlerless portion than in 2003. However, record harvests in the other four portions propelled the harvest to a record.

This year’s total of seven nonfatal and one fatality for all five portions of firearms deer season are below the 25-year averages of 11.6 and 1.6/State official Rick Flint noted that with more than 480,000 permit holders, the state’s deer hunting accident rate is .0017 percent, or one accident per 60,000 hunters.

“Deer hunting today has an excellent safety record compared to the past,” Flint said.

The fewest firearms hunting accidents ever recorded during Missouri’s firearms deer season was in 2000, when two people were injured and two killed.