With Missouri's main firearms season in the books, the Missouri Conservation Department is reporting hunters harvested 158,704 deer during the 2025 November firearms portion, which lasts 11 days (not including the extended CWD portion that applied to many counties).
That marks the second-worst November firearms season in seven years... just barely better than the worst year — 2024.
The underwhelming (warm and windy) opening weekend marked left many hunters with unfilled tags and was likely one reason for the poor season showing, as MDC data shows traditionally between 40–50% of the November firearms deer harvest is taken during opening weekend.
This year's November firearms harvest was essentially the same as 2024, which marked the low point from the past seven years in pretty much every significant category. The 2025 total was up from 2024 by a statistically-insignificant 0.05%.
LakeExpo Editor Nathan Bechtold and avid hunter Brady Ford swapped wild hunting stories and took on Conservation Department policies in a recent spicy episode of Take On The Lake, the new podcast from LakeExpo...
New episode of Take on the Lake just dropped — and this one’s for the hunters, outdoorsmen, and anyone who loves a good wild story.
I sat down with Brady Ford — who's about half my age but has WAY cooler hunting stories than me — to talk all things hunting and the Ozarks outdoors.
We talk:
🎯 Bow hunting antelope in Colorado
🦌 Chasing elk in New Mexico
🐻 Black bear run-ins
🌾 Missouri deer population + why our bucks don’t stack up to Iowa’s
💀 AND the insane pair of locked buck skulls I found in the woods
Whether you’re into calling deer, tracking seasons, or just love big-buck storytelling, this episode is a blast.
🎧 Watch/listen here — and drop your craziest hunting story in the comments!
Follow Take on the Lake on YouTube & Facebook, for more Lake of the Ozarks stories, people, and shenanigans. 🦌 🎙️
The following data from the Missouri Department of Conservation gives a deeper look into the decline in deer harvests over the past seven years.
(Note: The Late Antlerless and Alternative Methods seasons are still incomplete for the 2025-2026 hunting season.)
Opening weekend numbers, last seven years:
- 2025: 70,173
2024: 68,057
2023: 90,253
2022: 93,355
2021: 89,939
2020: 80,744
2019: 88,760
2018: 99,470
November firearms harvest numbers, ranked highest to lowest
2018 — 200,738
2022 — 199,115
2021 — 188,928
2023 — 193,885
2019 — 179,960
2020 — 177,769
2025 — 158,704
2024 — 158,577
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