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Hunters Take More Deer During Opening Weekend of Fall Season this Year

The great majority of deer shot this weekend were antlered bucks with a total of 53,359. “We’ve again issued a conservative number of antlerless deer permits, and because of this, many hunters are seeing deer they can’t shoot”.

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For more than 100 years, the Game Commission has managed the Commonwealth’s wildlife resources for all Pennsylvanians.

The state’s nine-day gun deer season starts Saturday morning. Last year’s harvest was 139,000 animals. Preliminary data from the Missouri Department of Conservation shows that hunters in Missouri harvested more than 97,171 deer during the opening weekend of the November portion of the fall firearms season. They killed 222,588 deer, down about 13 percent from the 2013 harvest.

“By getting hunters into these areas, we can keep deer numbers in balance with available food, and the land can continue to provide for deer there, making these places ideal hunting spots for years to come”, Gustafson said.

The DNR is projecting the total deer harvest to be between 140,000 and 155,000 deer. This map is the first step toward launching an online application that delivers useful information hunters need and want.

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Testing takes around three days and hunters are asked to not eat their deer meat until the results have been posted as clear on the DNR website.

Opening weekend of deer season has high numbers