Opening-weekend deer harvest blown away

Numbers are down, but hunters have plenty of time to make up the difference.

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. – Hunters checked 61,446 deer during the opening weekend of the November Portion of Firearms Deer Season, in spite of awful weather conditions. The Missouri Department of Conservation says the slow start doesn’t diminish prospects for a normal deer harvest.

The opening-weekend harvest was down 12 percent compared to 2012. Conservation Department biologists predicted that this year’s deer harvest would be smaller than last year’s, due to a smaller statewide deer population and acorn abundance.

Last year’s opening-weekend harvest of 69,614 was the smallest opening-weekend harvest in more than 20 years. Yet, in spite of that slow start, hunters shot enough deer during the remainder of the firearms deer season to post the third-largest total deer harvest in Missouri history.

“The distribution of our deer harvest over the course of the season has changed dramatically in the past 20 years,” says Conservation Department Resource Scientist Jason Sumners. “Back then, people only had nine days to hunt with modern firearms, so a significant reduction in the opening-weekend harvest was almost certain to result in a reduced deer harvest for the year. Today, Firearms Deer Season spans 42 days, so there is no rush to shoot a deer the first two days of the November Portion.”

That is not to say that hunters don’t want to shoot deer on opening weekend. But this year’s weather was challenging, even for highly motivated hunters.

“I didn’t think it could get any worse than last year,” says Sumners, “but it did.”

“Worse” included temperatures in the 70s, rain on Saturday and winds so gusty that the eastern third of Missouri was under a tornado watch on Sunday morning.

“Those conditions are guaranteed to reduce deer harvest,” says Sumners. “Deer are less active when the weather is warm or extremely windy, and rain keeps some hunters indoors. By noon on Sunday, I think a lot of hunters just gave up fighting the weather.”

All the same, Sumners is optimistic about prospects for the rest of the season. He said he expects hunters to persevere throughout the remainder of the November, Alternative Methods, Antlerless, and Late Youth portions of firearms deer season – 36 days in all.

Top harvest counties for the opening weekend were Howell with 1,278 deer checked, Texas with 1,275, and Oregon with 1,109. The fact that three adjoining counties in the heart of the Ozarks had the highest harvest totals probably is no coincidence. The Ozarks’ rugged terrain creates sheltered refuges from wind, making deer easier for hunters to find. Also, the Ozarks had the lowest acorn production of any region in the state, further concentrating deer around available food.

The Conservation Department recorded two nonfatal, firearms-related hunting incidents during the opening weekend.

-Jim Low-

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Archery deer, turkey harvests up from last year

Counties bordering urban areas had the biggest totals.

JEFFERSON CITY–Bowhunters posted increases in both deer and turkey harvests during Missouri’s 2011-12 archery deer and turkey hunting seasons, topping the previous year’s figures by more than one-third.

Hunters checked 52,671 deer during the four-month archery season. That is an increase of 10,299 (24 percent) from the previous year. Archers checked 2,923 turkeys, an increase of 739 (33.8 percent) from the 2010-2011 season.

Jason Isabelle, a resource scientist for the Missouri Department of Conservation (MDC), said two factors probably contributed to the increased archery turkey harvest.

“I attribute the increase in harvest to the good hatch that we had last year in most of the state and to increased archery permit sales,” said Isabelle. “There were both more turkeys and more archers in the woods in 2011 than in 2010.”

MDC sold 110,647 archery hunting permits and issued another 82,486 no-cost landowner archer’s permits last year. The total of 190,133 archery permits is a record and continues a long-term trend of increasing interest in archery hunting.

“More people discover the enjoyment of archery season every year,” said Isabelle. “The challenge of bowhunting appeals to many hunters who start with firearms. For others, the attraction is a huge increase in hunting opportunity. For quite a few hunters, opening day of deer season can’t come soon enough and closing day comes too soon. Taking up the bow and arrow allows them to pursue their outdoor passion all fall and into winter.”

MDC Resource Scientist Jason Sumners said the reason for this year’s increased archery deer harvest is harder to nail down.

“Over the past decade we have seen a steady increase in the number of archery hunters and a resulting increase in archery harvest,” said Sumners. “However, that doesn’t explain the fluctuations we see in archery harvest from year to year. There are likely other factors at work that create annual variation in hunter effort or success. We had very mild weather last fall, and that might have caused hunters to spend more time pursuing deer. But there is still a lot we don’t know about the relationship between weather and hunter behavior and other factors that affect archery harvest.”

Sumners said he hopes to explore those factors in the future to gain a better understanding of what causes sizeable archery harvest fluctuations like those that have occurred over the last four years. For example, the deer archery harvest increased from 44,434 in 2008 to a record 51,972 in 2009 and went back down to 43,281 in 2010.

Missouri’s 2011-2012 archery and firearms deer harvests total 291,592. That is up 6 percent from the previous year. The 2011-2012 firearms and archery turkey harvests total 52,226, down 3.8 percent from the previous year.

The top archery deer-harvest counties were Jefferson with 1,092 deer checked, Franklin with 1,088 and Jackson with 1,040.  Top archery turkey-harvest counties were Callaway with 76 turkeys checked, Franklin with 67 and Jefferson with 58.

All of the top counties for archery deer and turkey harvest were in or near metropolitan areas. Isabelle and Sumners agree this probably is largely because all four counties are within easy driving distance of large numbers of hunters. Also, Callaway and Franklin counties are larger than average, and both have excellent deer and turkey habitat.

“Those four counties are natural choices for folks who live in nearby cities,” said Isabelle. “Franklin and Callaway counties are between the St. Louis and Columbia-Jefferson City areas and have some of the best turkey habitat in the state. Jefferson and Jackson counties are right at the edge of the state’s two largest metropolitan areas, so it’s not surprising that lots of archers would spend time hunting there.”

MDC recorded eight firearms-related deer-hunting incidents during the 2011-2012 hunting season. One was fatal.

-Jim Low-

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Hunters shoot 89,000 deer on opening weekend

Image via Wikipedia

Experts attribute the 8-percent decrease to warm, windy

weather and decreasing deer numbers in some parts of the state.

JEFFERSON CITY–Hunters checked 89,728 deer during the opening weekend of Missouri’s November firearms deer hunt, a decrease of 8.3 percent from 2010.

Resource Scientist Jason Sumners, with the Missouri Department of Conservation (MDC), said weather played a role in this year’s decrease, but attributed a longer declining trend to shrinking deer numbers in some parts of the state.

“There’s no question that the opening-weekend harvest was affected by warm temperatures and high winds,” said Sumners. “However, this isn’t just a one-year decrease. The opening-weekend harvest averaged 118,000 from 2001 through 2005. From 2006 through 2010, the average was 95,401.  Those figures reflect a change in regional deer populations.”

Sumners said areas where deer numbers are down include parts of the Kansas City, Northwest, Southwest and Central regions. The opening-weekend harvest in those areas was down between 11 and 18 percent.

The opening-weekend harvest in southeastern Missouri and in the Ozark region was similar to last year’s. Sumners said deer numbers are increasing slowly in those areas.

Sumners said the declining trends in deer population and harvest numbers are not cause for concern.

“We have been trying for the better part of a decade to stabilize deer numbers in some areas,” said Sumners. “In others we have been working to bring down deer populations to reduce crop damage and deer-vehicle accidents. Now our challenge is finding ways to fine-tune harvest at the local level to balance hunting opportunity with nuisance problems.”

Sumners said this could mean future reductions in the availability of antlerless permits in some areas.

According to Sumners, a decrease of 8,000 in the opening-weekend harvest is not likely to have a significant effect on the overall deer harvest but may reflect a general trend of lower deer numbers in many parts of rural Missouri.  With 12 days of the November hunting season ahead, followed by a nine-day antlerless deer season, 11 days of muzzleloader hunting and a two-day late youth season, hunters have plenty of time to catch up. Archers have through Jan. 15 to hunt. Sumners said he expects the 2011-2012 deer harvest to be in the neighborhood of 250,000 to 275,000.

Top harvest counties during the opening weekend were Howell with 1,702 deer checked, Macon with 1,617 and Texas with 1,588.

MDC recorded one non-fatal, firearms-related hunting incident during the opening weekend.

-Jim Low-