January 20, 2009

Jefferson City, MO — Bowhunters checked 44,434 deer during the 2008-09 archery deer season, setting a record and boosting the combined firearms and archery deer kill to 283,253.

Missouri’s archery deer season begins Sept. 15 and runs through Jan. 15, with an 11-day hiatus during the November Portion of Firearms Deer Season. Archers checked approximately 400 deer per day during the 111 days of bowhunting season. Slightly more than half the deer taken by archers (22,409) were does. Mature bucks made up 37 percent (16,434) of the archery harvest, and button bucks accounted for 13 percent (5,591) of archery kills. The previous archery deer harvest record, set in 2006-07, was 42,322.

Top archery deer harvest counties were Jefferson with 976, Jackson with 913 and St. Louis with 909.

Bowhunters also checked 2,484 wild turkeys during the archery season. That is down 339 from the previous year. Top archery turkey-harvest counties were Texas with 54 turkeys checked, Franklin with 52 and Wright with 51.