Photo by Ralph Hensley.

It wasn't long ago that just seeing a white-tailed deer in Missouri was a great conversation item in the community. Many deer hunters still pursuing the sport today remember when just catching a fleeting glimpse of antlers was a real happening in Missouri.

Consider that as recently as 1950, Missouri had only a six-day firearms deer season permitted in only 26 counties! In 1959, Missouri's first statewide firearms deer season was opened, and deer numbers seemed to skyrocket from that point on.

In years past, deer biologists focused on how to make Missouri's deer herd grow; today, wildlife managers are more worried about how to keep the deer population from increasing.

In 2006, nearly a half-million hunters took to the woods in Missouri during the 11-day firearms deer season. They bagged over 235,054 deer last year during the 11-day season! Contrast that with the fact that in 1958, just shy of a half-century ago, only 60,000 hunters participated in the six-day season in 50 "any-deer" counties and 13 "antlered-only" counties. Hunters bagged just 13,600 deer that year.

Yes, it's a great time to be a Missouri deer hunter -- but unless you experienced those lean deer hunting years not long ago, you probably don't appreciate what you have now.

Missourians are blessed with an estimated white-tailed deer population of just over 1 million animals. That number is probably equal that of what American settlers first found here.

"We have a pretty stable deer herd," Lonnie Hansen said. "By stable, I mean that our deer population is growing in some places, declining in others, and remaining the same in others."

Hansen -- who, as the resource scientist/wildlife biologist for the Missouri Department of Conservation, is pretty much in charge of our herd -- is the Show-Me State's white-tailed deer guru, well respected throughout the country as tops in his field. "In southeastern Missouri, we'd like to see some increase in the deer numbers, but on the same hand, we'd like to see some deer reduction in parts of north Missouri," he said. "Our urban areas are our biggest problem areas, because we want numbers reduced there, but have difficulty achieving our goal because of a lack of access to hunting there."

THE HERD
Bucks vs. Does
We've already established that Missouri's deer population is estimated at a little over 1 million whitetails. About 40 percent are male deer. This figure includes button bucks. Although Show-Me State hunters bagged 41,178 button bucks during the 2006 firearms deer seasons, most of these buttonheads will live to 1 1/2 years old.

The male deer population total of 400,000 breaks down about evenly between button bucks and antlered bucks. We have approximately 600,000 does in the population. The statewide antlered-to-antlerless ratio is about one antlered deer to every five antlerless deer (1:5). The ratio is slightly better in counties in the pilot antler-point restriction zones, with a 1:4 rate.

Body Size
The body size of deer in the Show-Me State varies from region to region. MDC studies have shown that the average field-dressed weight of a 1 1/2-year-old buck from the southeast Ozarks is only 75.6 pounds. The same age class buck taken from northwest Missouri dresses out at 132.5 pounds! Most of the difference in body size comes from nutrition in way of what the deer have available to eat. The northwestern buck has the luxury of eating corn, soybeans and more along with his acorns, while the southeastern buck is limited to browsing and acorns for the most part.

Antler Size
In Missouri, a 1 1/2-year old buck may be just a spike or it could be an 8-pointer or better. According to MDC studies, about 30 percent of 1 1/2-year-old bucks in north Missouri will have at least 4 points or better on one side. Unfortunately, between 50 to 60 percent of these immature bucks are shot annually. This is one reason that the MDC first implemented the antler restriction counties.

ANTLER RESTRICTION PILOT COUNTIES
In 2004, the MDC first began a 29-county antler-point restriction area. Hunters in these pilot test counties are limited to harvest bucks with at least 4 points or better on one side. Hunters in those counties can shoot does too, and are in fact encouraged to do so as part of the reason for implementing the program to begin with.

The 29 counties are referred to as the northern pilot counties and the central pilot counties. There are 22 counties north of the Missouri River-Atchison, Holt, Nodaway, Andrew, Worth, Gentry, DeKalb, Harrison, Daviess, Mercer, Grundy, Livingston, Putnam, Sullivan, Linn, Chariton, Howard, Boone, Schuyler, Adair, Macon, and Randolph. The seven counties south of the Missouri River in central Missouri are Cole, Miller, Pulaski, Osage, Maries, Gasconade, and Franklin.