Opening Weekend Deer Totals Up in Missouri

Macon and Pike counties top their Northeast Missouri neighbors during the first weekend of the firearms deer season. 

Missouri Department of Conservation officials say hunters bagged almost 17 hundred deer during the two-day season in Macon County, which was one of only six counties where permits to shoot more than one antlerless deer were allowed. Pike County hunters brought home a little over 14 hundred. Also registering more than one thousand kills each were Lincoln, Montgomery and Monroe counties.

Across Missouri, hunters checked more than 91 thousand deer -- topping the first weekend total in 2013 by almost 30 thousand. This year’s total was the largest since 2010.

The top harvest counties for the opening weekend were Franklin, Howell and Callaway. The main firearms season in Missouri continues through November 25th.

The firearms deer seasons in Illinois are November 21 to 23 and December 4 to 7.