MISSOURI DEER HUNTERS AHEAD OF LAST YEAR'S PACE

JEFFERSON CITY -- Pity Missouri's deer hunters; many found themselves waiting in line to check deer on opening morning of firearms deer season. By the end of the opening weekend, they had checked 111,002 deer.

That's 16,521 more than last year and 496 more than the opening-weekend harvest record set in 1998. Best of all, the Missouri Department of Conservation recorded only one non-fatal firearms-related hunting accident.

Conservation Department officials credit favorable weather for the record deer kill. The weather was chilly enough to encourage deer to move around, but not cold enough to drive hunters out of the woods. The number of deer permits sold was about the same as last year.

Montgomery County led the state's deer harvest totals with 2,249 deer checked. Howell County was second with 2,180, followed by Macon County with 2,175.

Regional totals were: northeast, 21,790; northwest 17,761; west-central, 16,272; central, 13,933; east-central, 10,689; Ozarks, 9,640; southwest, 9,204; southeast, 7,627; Kansas City, 2,240, and St. Louis, 1,846.