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Deer And Turkey Hunting Seasons Closed: MDC Announces Harvest Numbers For 2017-2018

Missouri Department of Conservation

The 2017-2018 deer and turkey hunting seasons came to a close on Monday, and the Missouri Department of Conservation has released final harvest numbers for the state.

The season ended on Jan. 15 with 283,940 deer harvested, and the archery deer season closing with 51,722 harvested.

MDC news services coordinator Joe Jerek says they’ve seen a large jump in numbers since last year.

“Our overall deer harvest for this year was up by about 20,000 over last year, and our deer archery season was up quite a bit too by almost 4,000 plus,” says Jerek.

263,834 deer were harvested during the 2016-2017 deer hunting season. For information on past deer harvests, visit short.mdc.mo.gov/Z3M. Fall archery turkey season closed with a total harvest of 2,426. To get turkey harvest data from seasons past, visit short.mdc.mo.gov/Z3Y.

Top counties for the season were Howell, Franklin And Texas.

Five firearm-related incidents were reported. None were fatal, and three were self-inflicted wounds.

This was the second season where the MDC allowed crossbows as a legal method for both deer and turkey archery seasons.

For more information on the current season, visit  short.mdc.mo.gov/Z3g.