Almost 98,000 deer have made the transition to venison on the first weekend of the firearms hunting season.

The conservation department says the season started with a bang–or many bangs. The kill is 14% higher than last year on the first weekend. Deer killers had the best luck in Benton County.

The firearms hunting season is the biggest hunting season of the year in Missouri. The first weekend usually produces about 60 pe4rcent of the total kill.

This isn’t just a bunch of folks who like to go into the woods and kill deer. This is a major economic development project for Missouri. The conservation department figures deer hunters spend more than three-quarters of a Billion dollars on deer hunting. The department says the season supports 11,000 jobs (we assume that includes the conservation department’s employees) and generates more than one billion dollars in business activity.

A few days ago we did a story about a “new killing tool” for hunters this year — the atlatl. We referred to north Missouri having a “low kill” last year, which prompted a tweeter to send a note saying he (or she) thought the proper word was “harvest.”

We’ve never quite been comfortable with hunters “harvesting” deer. Maybe it’s because we grew up on a farm watching neighbors harvest corn, beans, and wheat and oats. The vision of a hunter roaming the woods with his combine or corn-picker “harvesting” deer is just one we can’t shake.

Besides, what’s political correctness to a deer?