Youth were not only enjoying turkey last weekend as they also harvested more than 1,900 deer in Missouri.
Hunters ages 6-15 harvested 1,909 deer between Nov. 29 and Dec. 1 during the late youth portion of Missouri's 2019 deer hunting season, according to a news release from the Missouri Department of Conservation.
The top counties in terms of number of harvests were Osage County, with 63 deer checked; Lincoln County, with 45; and Callaway County, with 41.
Osage County also led the harvest total for the early youth portion of the season during the first weekend of November. Callaway County finished in the top five in the state then and was in the top three during the opening weekend of November firearms season and for the November firearms season overall.
Of the 1,909 deer harvested during the late youth season, 752 were antlered bucks, 200 were button bucks and 957 were does.
Last year's late youth harvest total was 2,595 deer, with 1,160 antlered bucks, 338 button bucks and 1,097 does.
More preliminary information about season totals is available at extra.mdc.mo.gov/widgets/harvest_table/.
Summaries of past years' harvests are available at huntfish.mdc.mo.gov/hunting-trapping/species/deer/deer-harvest-reports/deer-harvest-summaries.
Archery deer hunting continues through Jan. 15. The antlerless portion of the firearms deer season runs Dec. 6-8. The alternative methods portion of the season runs Dec. 28 through Jan. 7.
More information about deer hunting in Missouri is available at huntfish.mdc.mo.gov/hunting-trapping/species/deer, or from MDC's 2019 Fall Deer & Turkey Hunting Regulations and Information booklet, available where permits are sold and at huntfish.mdc.mo.gov/sites/default/files/downloads/2019FDT.pdf.