Hunters in Callaway County got plenty of buck for their bang during firearms opening weekend Saturday and Sunday.
Preliminary data from the Missouri Department of Conservation show Callaway hunters checked 1,971 deer, trailing only Franklin County, where hunters checked 2,057.
"It's been pretty busy," said Debbie Horn, owner of Horn's Meat Processing in Fulton (3345 County Road 318). "We had about 85 come in on Saturday and 117 on Sunday. That put us over 200."
She said she's heard from hunters that the weather was a boon. The cold encourages deer to move around in search of food, and fresh snow on the ground makes them easy to track.
"We've heard that people didn't start seeing them Saturday until about 10 a.m., when it warmed up a little," she added.
About 40 of the deer were designated for Share the Harvest, an MDC program that allows deer hunters to donate surplus venison to the needy. R&R processing in Auxvasse and Hanson Hills Campground in Kingdom City also participate in the program.
"It helps out our community - the needy, the people who count on getting something to eat," Horn said. "Two organizations picked up from us today. One was for a church at Holts Summit. The minister said they have at least 400 families that they try to take care of."
She added Horn's shares donated meat with a variety of organizations across the county.
Across Missouri
Throughout the state, hunters harvested 99,597 deer - nearly 5,000 more than during last year's opening weekend. Of the deer harvested, 55,887 were antlered bucks, 9,573 were button bucks and 34,107 were does.
Typically, hunters take about a third of the state's total annual deer harvest during opening weekend, according to the MDC. That's why the department focuses on opening weekend for chronic wasting disease sampling. Hunters in counties subject to mandatory CWD sampling turned in more than 20,800 tissue samples.
Callaway was not a mandatory sampling county, and so far, no cases of CWD have been reported here. However, deer with CWD have been reported in neighboring Cole County.
CWD is a prion disease - the same category as mad cow disease - that attacks a deer's brain, leading to odd behavior, starvation and death.
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), there have been no documented cases of CWD in humans, but it is important to prevent human exposure to CWD. As a safeguard, the CDC recommends hunters strongly consider having their harvested deer tested for CWD before eating the meat if the animal was harvested from an area where CWD has been found.
The increased number of samples gives MDC scientists a much better understanding of the distribution and prevalence of the disease: where it is and how many deer may have it. It can also help find new cases in new areas. MDC officials thanked hunters for their compliance and willingness to help with the sampling process.
The MDC also harvests tissue samples from road-killed and sick deer, and has collected 800 such samples over the past few months.
Voluntary CWD sampling is ongoing until Jan. 15, and hunters may have their harvested deer sampled for testing at certain MDC offices and participating taxidermists and meat processors throughout the state. For more information about the process, visit mdc.mo.gov/cwd.
Samples will be tested at an independent laboratory, and results will be released on the MDC website as they become available.