Best Missouri Deer Counties per Square Mile: Jefferson Leads at 7.91

IThe leaders

Jefferson leads; second place is tied

At 7.91, Jefferson County exceeds the runner-up's rate by 0.66. Rounding gives Gasconade and Franklin 7.25 apiece. At three decimal places, their rates are 7.252 versus 7.245. We count that 0.007 difference as a second-place tie. The following counties are Lincoln (6.80), Pike (6.78), then Morgan (6.76).

For the rate, we took five seasons of county deer-harvest reports from the Missouri Department of Conservation, calculated the seasonal average, then divided it by county land area drawn from county boundary data from the Census Bureau. The twelve counties shown span 1.52, starting with Jefferson and ending with St. Francois alongside Montgomery and Osage, all tied at 6.39. Relative to the statewide median, 4.44, Jefferson runs at about 1.8 times the typical county's rate.

IITotals and rates

Which counties rise after adjusting for area

Ranking those same 114 counties by their average deer registrations gives a different result. Franklin leads on total harvest with 6,684 per season, though its per-square-mile rank is third. Callaway places second on total registrations (5,287); its 14th-place rate is 6.33. Jefferson holds third on totals (5,188) and leads per square mile.

Eleven counties appear among the top 20 on rate and also among the top 20 on total harvest. The remaining nine occupy total-harvest positions 24th to 54th. They are Montgomery and Dallas; Perry and St. Francois; Ste. Genevieve and Warren; and Ralls, Scotland and Hickory. Hickory's seasonal average is 2,629 deer registrations; Warren's is 2,825. Their relatively small land areas give those modest totals high rates, putting them eighth and seventh. The county that leads Missouri in raw harvest most often is covered in our paper on the county that kills the most deer.

IIINear St. Louis

The geography of high harvest rates

Each measurement runs directly from a county's geographic center, its Census centroid, to St. Louis City's geographic center. These distances follow straight lines, not driving routes. Mileage for the ten highest-rate counties is: Jefferson, 30; Franklin, 47; Lincoln, 48; Warren, 50; St. Francois, 58; Perry, 68; Gasconade, 70; Pike, 70; Morgan, 143; Hickory, 174. Eight are at most 100 miles away. Among Missouri's 114 counties, just 26 meet that cutoff, about 23%. Thus, 80% of the ten leaders sit inside a circle extending 100 miles from the city, though that circle contains only 23% of Missouri's counties.

The top 20 have a median St. Louis distance of 79 miles. Across every county, that figure is 157. Within the top 20, the middle county lies about half as far away as its counterpart in the statewide list.

Those distances locate the counties with high rates but do not explain the pattern. A possible explanation is that a big city leaves many hunters a short drive from surrounding counties. More hunters reaching those counties, and more of them gaining land access, would produce more registered kills relative to county size. A different possibility is a greater density of deer there. Harvest registrations cannot distinguish those explanations. Each kill on record needed a deer, someone hunting it and access to hunting ground. Our harvest figures contain no information on the number of hunters afield or the amount of land open to them. We checked distance from a single city without testing any other factor. That prevents us from saying this pattern also appears near Kansas City or in other places.

Morgan, 143 miles away, and Hickory, 174 miles away, are top-ten counties well beyond the circle's 100-mile reach. Their places show that nearness is a tendency here with exceptions. Tree cover could also correspond to these harvest rates. We examined that relationship across five Midwestern states, including Missouri, in our forest-cover study.

IVThe bottom

Pemiscot finishes with 0.39

Last-ranked Pemiscot County has a rate of 0.39 and averages 193 deer registrations each season. Immediately above it are New Madrid (0.53), Mississippi (0.68), then Dunklin (0.91). Atchison is fifth-lowest at 1.00. Jefferson's rate is about 20 times the Pemiscot rate. Half the median rate of 4.44 equals 2.22. Nine among the bottom ten are below that mark; Clinton's 2.24 puts it slightly higher.

Among the ten counties shown below, Nodaway's seasonal total of deer registrations is largest (1,518). Its land area spreads that harvest thin enough to leave it 109th, with a rate of 1.73.

A low rate may reflect a small deer population, few people hunting, limited land where hunting is allowed or permit restrictions on how many deer can be killed. The counts alone cannot tell you which explanation fits a particular county.

VWhat the count leaves out

What a deer-registration rate leaves unanswered

Our figures include Missouri's full set of 114 counties for seasons 2021-22 through 2025-26. For the final two seasons, summing the county records matches the conservation department's published Grand Total: 275,656 for 2024-25 and 301,125 for 2025-26. The land measure comes from the Census and leaves out rivers and lakes. The ranking excludes St. Louis City. We used a five-season average to limit how much an individual year affects county rank. This combined average describes recent years; it provides no grounds for identifying a trend.

Deer abundance is only part of a per-square-mile harvest rate; hunter effort, land access and permits also affect it. The rate therefore does not estimate deer population. Jefferson leads because hunters there registered the greatest harvest relative to square miles of land. These totals cannot determine whether that lead comes from more deer, a larger number of hunters or easier land access. We calculated the rates solely with the conservation department's harvest totals and Census land area. Hunter counts, access information and deer surveys were absent. The comparisons are between counties within Missouri.

VIIn the field

Putting these rankings to work

We think this ranking works best as a guide to where registered kills cluster. Before treating a high rate as evidence of many deer, investigate the hunters and available ground. Choose two or three reachable counties among the top 20, then check the land you can hunt and how many other hunters use it. A high rate can point to crowded hunting land just as readily as abundant deer.

For anyone living near St. Louis, eight of the top ten counties lie within 100 miles of St. Louis. Start by asking who else hunts those counties. If you are willing to travel farther, Morgan and Hickory are the two highest-ranked counties beyond the circle extending 100 miles from the city. The table also shows that Ste. Genevieve, ranked 20th at 5.69, still recorded more per square mile than the 4.44 median. Hunting one of the bottom ten counties makes sense only if something besides the count, such as land you can access for hunting, draws you there.