More than 100,000 Missouri deer harvested opening weekend

The 2007 firearm deer season that opened on Nov. 10 marked the 60th year that Missourians had the opportunity to hunt deer.

Prior to that time, the state deer herd was in poor shape. In 1944, the first modern day season opened and from that two-day-bucks only season we now have an 11-day November firearm season plus a youth portion, Urban counties portion, muzzleloader portion, antlerless portion and then there is the long archery season that runs through Jan. 15, 2008.

With a good opening weekend weatherwise, more than 400,000 orange clad hunters marched into the deer woods across the state in search of that trophy buck or a nice size doe and many were rewarded although the first weekend totals were down from last year.

There were 100,489 deer taken this year's first weekend compared to 124,324 in 2006. Lonnie Hansen, deer biologist for the Conservation Department said, "warm and windy weather kept the deer from moving and also many hunters were more selective after the Urban and Youth portions earlier and there are still a few days to hunt plus the antlerless and archery seasons."

 With a deer herd that numbers close to a million, hunters had plenty of targets. This year's hunt renews a centuries old relationship that shows no sign of ebbing.

It has been said that if nature were a car maker, the whitetail deer would be a dream machine. Sleek design and graceful styling, quick acceleration, zero to 35 mph in an instant, able to leap an eight-foot fence in a single bound and supremely fine tuned and silent.

Some of the special features include: swims like a fish, never gets cold feet and has hollow hair for winter insulation.

So far in the archery season that opened Sept. 15, bow hunters have been bagging some nice size deer as the mating season gets under way.

While the start of the whitetail rut is good news for the hunters, it's bad news for drivers. Motorist need to be alert for the increased movement of deer along and across the state's highways and country roads through the rest on the month .

Dave Williams, Harrisonville, is a 70-year-old archer that said, "I have seen more deer this fall than I can remember. I am almost afraid to drive at night because of the chance of hitting a deer. Last week I counted seven deer that had been hit along a stretch of 13 highway. My son, who lives near Kansas City, told me he had deer helping themselves to his flowers in the subdivision where he lives."

By the time the firearm deer season has ended, this season could very well be another record year in the success of the whitetail restoration program in Missouri. When all the totals are in from the different hunts, the number of deer taken will be approaching the 300,000 mark which biologist Lonnie Hanson said, "I never thought we would see that high of a total of deer taken in one season by Missouri hunters."

For successful hunters that would like to share their harvest this season, an effective program appropriately called "Share the Harvest" allows hunters to donate deer meat to families in need. This charitable program that started in 1992, lets hunters to legally donate venison to people who need food.

Since this season hunters might take more deer than ever before, donated venison should be high.

During last year's deer hunt, 6,500 hunters donated 322,469 pounds of venison. Donating is an easy process. Hunters who would like to participate take their deer to an approved processor whose address is listed in the deer hunting booklet found in any place where permits are available, and let the processor know how much venison they want to donate.

The processor will package the meat, which will be picked up be the local sponsoring organization and then taken to a participating charitable agency for distribution.

For more information on the program, contact the Conservation Department at 573-522-4115 or the Conservation Federation at 573-634-2322.