More than 90,000 deer made the transition to venison this weekend, the first weekend of the firearms deer-hunting season. That’s an unofficial number, but it’s at least five thousand more than last year’s opening day when the total kill at the end of all deer seasons was about 300,000.

One of those deer was an eight-point buck killed by Governor Nixon in northeast Missouri’s Clark County. He has given it to the Share the Harvest program.