Preliminary data from the Missouri Department of Conservation shows that young hunters ages 6 through 15 harvested 15,591 deer during Missouri’s early youth portion of the 2020 deer hunting season, October 31 and November 1. Top counties were Franklin with youth hunters harvesting 336 deer, Howell with 324, and Osage with 320.
View additional harvest numbers for the 2020 early youth portion at THIS LINK.
Last year, youth hunters harvested 18,289 deer during the early youth portion. Get more information on past season deer harvests at THIS LINK.
“This year’s harvest total is about on par with the average over the last few years,” said MDC Cervid Program Supervisor Jason Isabelle. “Whenever you have a short season portion like the two-day early youth portion, you can expect variability in the harvest total from year-to-year. This year’s harvest of about 15,600 deer puts us about in the middle of the range when compared to harvest totals from the past five years.”
Missouri’s deer archery season continues through Nov. 13 and resumes Nov. 25 through Jan. 15, 2021. The November portion of firearms deer season runs November 14-24 followed by the late youth portion November 27-29. The antlerless portion of firearms deer season runs December 4-6 followed by the alternative methods portion December 26 through January 5, 2021.
Among the Green Hills counties, Harrison and Linn counties had the most deer kills by youth with 121 and 117 respectively. The Department of Conservation website shows other totals from the weekend as Daviess County at 102; Mercer County at 100; Livingston 96; Putnam with 87; Sullivan 84; Caldwell 79; and Grundy County with the fewest among area counties, at 78 deer killed. Totals reflected antlered bucks, button bucks, and does.
