Deer seasons opens today

Kemper Lease, Republic, shot two mallards and two teal on the opening day of the middle zone duck season. After bagging the birds, Liease headed out to check on his deer hunting spot to get ready for the opening of the statewide firearm deer season this Saturday. (Ken White/Special to the Daily Mail)

Both ducks and deer hunters are ready for action as the statewide 11 day November portion of the deer season will open Saturday.Young duck hunters in the middle zone had their opening weekend last Saturday with good results.

On opening day at Schell-Osage Conservation Area. hunters shot 289 ducks with a mixture of mallards, gadwall, wood ducks and teal. Jon Hill said," There were four of us in the blind and we had lots of shooting. We had a mix of ducks including a ringneck along with mallards and teal. There were a lot of green wing teal which made up a majority of the birds we took. We hunt Schell every now and then and usually have good luck. Today we had a northeast wind so it wasn't exactly ideal for us, but the ducks were coming in every direction. We had a very good hunt for opening day."

Another hunter who had a good opening day was Kemper Lease, from Republic. He said, " I hunt up here often and today was a good day. I shot a pair of greenheads and a pair of teal. Now I have time to check on my deer hunting spot and be ready for the opening of deer season next Saturday."

Andy Hays and Shannon Green, Walker, had a good opening day hunt at the Schell-Osage Conservation Area by bagging their limits of ducks including mallards, wood ducks and teal. (Ken White/Special to the Daily Mail)

Josh Cussimanio, manager at Schell-Osage, said," On Saturday hunters took 289 ducks for a 3.9 average which is about average for opening day. The majority of the birds were green wing teal, but there are a lot of mallards on the area. At last count, there were 9,775 ducks using the area."

At nearby Four Rivers Conservation Area, 324 hunter shot 670 ducks on opening day, which made it a good start of the duck season in the middle zone. Hunters around Truman Lake also reported seeing more birds than they expected. Jack Butler, Warsaw, said, 'It was a good opening day and it will only get better."

The duck season in the middle zone will run through Jan. 5, 2016. The south zone opening day will be Nov. 26 and run through Jan. 31, 2016.

Meanwhile, On Saturday, Nov. 14, more than 400,000 orange clad deer hunters will kick off the 2015 November portion of the firearm season looking for that trophy buck or a nice sized doe. Many of the hunters will be rewarded as opening day and weekend usually results in a sizable harvest during the 11-day season.

Tom Scott, West Plains, said "The warm weather recently makes it feel more like fishing instead of hunting, but the deer are out there. Missouri's deer herd numbers close to a million animals which give hunters a lot of targets. The successful youth weekend hunt shows that there are a lot of deer in Missouri woods."

Prior to the opening of the firearm season, archers report seeing a lot of deer while they were in their stands. Recently two archers, Keith Skopec and Ethan Grotheer had stands about 200 yards apart and both archers took does some 20 minutes of each other. They reported seeing lots of deer this fall.

Dave Wood, Joplin is a 70 year old archer who took a deer last weekend while hunting north of El Dorado Springs. He said, " I have been hunting deer with my bow for more than 50 years and have seen more deer this fall than usual."

Harold Roberts, Blue Springs took his grandson for his first deer hunt during the recent youth weekend hunt. He said, "We had a great hunt and saw a lot of deer and turkeys, it was a joy to see my grandson's eyes light up when he saw the wildlife close up. It made me feel good knowing that there is a special hunt for the youngsters."

Wayne Wheeler, Kimberling City, said his granddaughter, Ella Wheeler, Ozark,who was hunting during the Youth Weekend Hunt, shot a big buck. " Her deer was larger than any I have taken."

There will be more than 60 counties where the antler point restriction will be in effect this fall. A map in the 2015 Fall Deer and Turkey booklet shows these counties as well as information about the upcoming deer season and regulations.

For successful deer hunters that would like to share their harvest, an effective program appropriately called "Share the Harvest" allows hunters to donate. This charitable program that started in 1992, lets hunters to legally donate venison to people who need food. In past seasons, hunters have donated more than 2 million pounds of venison through this program. To learn more about the program and how to go about donating deer meat, check the Fall Deer Hunting Guide which is available at any vendors that handle permits or contact the Missouri Department of Conservation.

Happy hunting.