All across North America abundant deer numbers will bring out a multitude of hunters this fall. But it hasn't always been so. The estimated Missouri deer population in the mid-1800s was 700,000. But by 1925 the estimate fell to 395 deer in 23 counties.
According to Dean Murphy (1970), "The decline of the deer herd prior to 1925 was caused by year-round hunting for market, food or sport: deer of either sex and all ages were killed. Traps, snares, nets and dogs were used in additions to guns."
In the general election on November 3, 1936, the Missouri Conservation Commission was established and modern wildlife management came to Missouri. Deer hunting was closed in 1938-1944. Bennitt and Nagel (1937) "believed that the illegal kill equaled or exceeded the legal kill and was the chief limiting factor on growth of the deer herd."
Restoration of the deer herd was accomplished by careful studies of deer life history, habitat requirements, and land use factors. That was followed by strict law enforcement and transplanting wild deer from refuges (Peck Ranch, Knob Noster, Drury, Caney Mountain) to areas of suitable habitat. From 1937 to 1957 2,343 deer were moved to 70 release sites in 54 counties. Bucks-only hunting resumed in 1945 and the first any-deer season was in 1951.
Today's deer hunters probably don't realize how good they have it. My Grandpa David was a squirrel hunter and a woodsman who lived in Ohio, Illinois, and Missouri in 1882-1976. But he did not see a live deer until he was 75 years old in 1957. My Grandpa LeBaron was a deer hunter. He was one of the lucky few (about 100) who shot a deer in 1937, the last open season before closure. He shot a nice buck. That mounted head adorned the wall at Grandpa and Grandma's house when I was a kid. I loved to admire it and ask Grandpa about it. He shot it in Carter County with a rifle borrowed from Grandma's family, the Partneys. The rifle had 70 notches in the stock which served as a record of deer shot for the market. Seeing a deer was so rare that the carcass hung all day at the ice plant at Mountain View. The butcher couldn't cut it up because there was a crowd around it all day.
So... Go get 'em, you deer hunters. I don't want to hit any more deer with the car.
