Poor weather drops deer-hunting totals on opening weekend

Hunters did not bring home as many deer this past weekend during Missouri's opening weekend of firearms deer season compared to last year, but the season isn't over yet.

Hunters tagged 61,446 deer throughout the state during opening weekend, according to a Missouri Department of Conservation news release.

According to the agency's deer harvest summaries, 574 deer were killed in Cape Girardeau County during opening weekend of firearms deer season, an increase from last year when 546 deer were harvested.

Neighboring Bollinger County tagged 834 deer last weekend, a decrease from 1,144 deer the county harvested during last year's opening weekend.

Perry County harvested 695 deer this year, down from 821 last year. Scott County brought in 165 during this year's opening weekend, one more than last year.

The number of deer tagged statewide during opening weekend of firearms season fell about 12 percent compared to last year, when hunters tagged 69,614 during opening weekend. Conservation department biologists predicted this year's deer harvest would be smaller because of a smaller statewide deer population and acorn abundance, the release said. More acorns on the ground mean deer roam shorter distances for food, making it tougher for hunters to find them.

The warm, windy and rainy weather also played a part in reducing the number of deer harvested during this year's opening weekend.

"Those conditions are guaranteed to reduce deer harvest," said Missouri Department of Conservation resource scientist Jason Sumners in the release. "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."

Much of Southeast Missouri was under a tornado watch and some counties were under tornado warnings Sunday afternoon.

Missouri Department of Conservation media specialist Candice Davis on Wednesday said one way to expand deer hunting season and to expand a hunter's skill set is by participating in the alternative-methods part of deer season.

Alternative-methods season, which runs statewide from Dec. 21 to 31, allows the use of weapons such as muzzleloading or cap-and-ball firearms, .40 caliber or larger and capable of firing only a single projectile with one discharge; centerfire pistols or revolvers using expanding-type bullets; crossbows; and atlatls, which are rods or narrow, boardlike devices used to launch, by throwing motion, a 5- to 8-foot-long dart.

Cooler weather and less moonlight also work in favor of hunters stalking deer and should improve harvest numbers, Davis said.

When there is a full moon, deer are more likely to be active at night and less active during the day, Davis said, which is a disadvantage for daytime hunters.

"We don't want a full moon, and we want the temperature to be nice and low," she said.

Department officials in the release said the slow start of opening weekend doesn't decrease prospects for a normal year's harvest. Last year saw the smallest opening-weekend harvest in more than 20 years, the release said, and hunters ended up harvesting the third-largest total number of deer in state history.

ashedd@semissourian.com

388-3632

Pertinent addresses:

Cape Girardeau County, MO

Bollinger County, MO

Perry County, MO

Scott County, MO