Missouri deer harvest up from last year

Missouri hunters checked 124,271 deer on the Nov. 11-12 opening weekend of firearms season. That’s nearly 22,000 more than the first two days last year.

The opening-weekend harvest is the second-largest on record, falling nearly 9,000 animals short of 2004.

One factor likely to hold down this year’s deer harvest is the second bumper crop of acorns in a row. When acorns are plentiful, deer do not have to move around as much to find food and so are less exposed to hunters.