Missouri deer harvest drops 15% as late season and bumper acorn crop impact numbers

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. – Missouri's 2024-2025 deer-hunting season ended Jan. 15 with the Missouri Department of Conservation (MDC) reporting a preliminary total deer harvest for the season of 276,262.

Of the deer harvested, 129,252 were antlered bucks, 23,842 were button bucks, and 123,168 were does.

Top harvest counties for the overall deer season were Franklin with 6,208, Jefferson with 4,900, and Macon with 4,495.

This year’s harvest total was down 15% from last year’s record total of 326,448 and was 8% below the five-year average.

Deer hunting ended with the close of the archery season.

Preliminary data from MDC showed that hunters checked 56,347 deer during the 2024-2025 archery deer season.

Top counties for the archery deer season were Jefferson with 1,579, Franklin with 1,216, and St. Louis with 994.

This year’s archery deer harvest total was slightly (1%) higher than last year’s total of 55,731.

According to MDC Cervid Program Supervisor Jason Isabelle, the overall drop in harvest this year was due to a combination of factors, including a week-later start to the November portion of firearms deer season and a bumper acorn crop.

“The November portion of firearms deer season always starts two Saturdays prior to Thanksgiving,” said Isabelle. “Based on the timing of Thanksgiving, the November portion started about a week later than it did in 2023.

"When this shift in season timing happens, we expect to see a drop in harvest because it shifts the November portion start date a week past the peak of the rut when deer aren’t moving quite as much.”

Another factor that affected this year’s harvest total is a bumper acorn crop.

“Throughout much of Missouri, there were a lot of acorns in the woods,” said Isabelle. “When that happens, deer don’t need to move nearly as much to find food, even within the timber, and they frequent fields less often because of the abundance of food in the woods.”

Isabelle noted that the counties with the largest decline in harvest were in the forest-dominated Ozark counties where acorn abundance has a more significant effect on deer movement.

“Harvest totals in most northern and western Missouri counties, that consist primarily of open cropland or pasture, were down to a much lesser degree.”

For deer harvest totals by season, county, and type of deer, visit the MDC website at extra.mdc.mo.gov/widgets/harvest_table/.

For deer harvest summaries from past years, visit mdc.mo.gov/hunting-trapping/species/deer/deer-reports/deer-harvest-summaries.

According to MDC, four non-fatal, self-inflicted firearms-related hunter incidents and three non-fatal, shooter-victim incidents were reported for the season.