The Missouri Department of Conservation has released their final harvest numbers for the 2023–2024 deer hunting year. The season ended on January 15th.
Two big takeaways from this year’s numbers are that Howell County came in second overall, only giving the lead to Franklin County, and that numbers for this past year surpass the numbers set in 2006.
More specifically, in harvest numbers for the overall deer season, Franklin County came in 1st with a count of 7,395. Howell came in 2nd with 6,346, and Texas County came in 3rd with 6,181.
The MDC states that increasing deer numbers and regulation changes that added a new early antlerless firearms portion, a new chronic wasting disease firearms portion, and an increase in the number of firearms antlerless deer hunting permits in most counties led to additional hunting opportunities and contributed to a record harvest.
For more information on the number of harvests for the overall deer season, click here.
