While archery deer harvest numbers in Missouri declined for the second year in a row, Jefferson County held onto the No. 1 spot in the state for the eleventh consecutive year.
With an unofficial total of 1,391, Jefferson County finished more than 200 ahead of second place Franklin County’s 1,182. St. Louis County was the only other nearby county with more than 1,000. Based on historical data from the state Department of Conservation, no other county in the state has ever reached 1,391 through the four-month season. So even though the state numbers are down slightly, it’s still a pretty good time to be a bow-and-arrow hunter in Jefferson County.
Our county’s total is about 11 percent lower than last season’s 1,563, and marks the second year in a row that the numbers have gone down from the record-setting 2020-21 season, when Jefferson County accounted for 1,645 of the 67,487 deer taken by archery methods. The overall state total of 56,525 for archers this year is about five percent less than the 59,498 in the 2021-22 archery hunting season.
All deer hunting in the state officially ended with the closing of archery hunting season on Jan. 15. The overall harvest total of 299,721 statewide is fairly consistent with summaries from previous years. It marks a small increase above the 2021-22 overall harvest total of 295,143.
Combining archery success with the results from all fall firearms deer hunting seasons, Jefferson (4,966) moved into the top three along with Franklin (6,471) and Callaway (5,438) counties, edging out perennial top producer Texas County (4,700). Only seven other places finished above 4,000, including Benton, Bollinger, Howell, Lincoln, Macon, Osage and Pike counties.
Jefferson County geographically is smaller than most of those other statewide leaders. Our county relies on good habitat and a large number of hunters during archery season to make its mark on the harvest total list.
Those factors do not have as much impact on fall archery turkey hunting. Archers in Jefferson County killed 33 turkeys this year compared to the top counties of Macon with 72 and Franklin and Greene with 66. Statewide 2,446 turkeys were checked by bow and arrow hunters compared to 2,516 last year.
Very few bow hunters actually target turkeys specifically throughout the season. All hunters are issued permits for two deer and two turkeys each season, and it is likely that most of the shots taken at the big wild birds are by hunters waiting for a deer to pass nearby.
Fall firearms turkey hunters took 4,289 during the monthlong season Oct. 1-31. Jefferson County hunters accounted for 54 of those. The top turkey-hunting counties in the state were Franklin (136), Greene (111) and Macon (94). In both the archery and firearms fall turkey seasons, hunters may take turkeys of either sex. Tele-check records indicate that 1,812 of harvested birds this year were gobblers and 2,477 were hens.
During the alternate-methods deer hunting season, which was 11 days at the end of the calendar year including Christmas and New Year’s Day, Jefferson County was one of 25 where hunters took more than 100 deer with muzzleloaders or other firearms. The 102 total included 27 antlered bucks, nine button bucks and 66 does.
During the antlerless-only portion of the hunting season in early December, Jefferson County hunters took 202 deer. Hunters in 26 other counties also eclipsed the 200 mark, with Callaway (453), Pike (414) and Macon (349) as the leading harvest counties.
Young Jefferson County hunters harvested 192 deer during the two youth-only firearms hunting seasons. Statewide, hunters under 16 brought home 16,888 deer in the two seasons combined. Top harvest counties for the kids were Franklin (406), Osage (367) and Pike (298).
The conservation department reported only two firearms-related incidents during the combined deer hunting season this year. Both were self-inflicted, non-fatal injuries.
John Winkelman has been writing about outdoors news and issues in Jefferson County for more than 30 years and is the Associate Editor for Outdoor Guide Magazine. If you have story ideas for the Leader outdoor news page, e-mail ogmjohnw@aol.com, and you can find more outdoor news and updates at johnjwink.com.