Missouri Deer Season

So, you want to move to Missouri. You may have more or less hunting restrictions in your home town, but if you want to continue the sport in Missouri, this is what you will need to know. Happy Hunting!

Missouri Deer Hunting Season – All You Need to Know

Missouri, the midwestern jewel has so much to offer both residents and visitors. From the coasts of Table Rock Lake down to the infamous Lake of the Ozarks and all its resources, not to mention Gateway Arch and a host of other concrete or natural tourist sites. The state has a lot going on from its economic stance to its laws and of course its wildlife. Speaking of which, hunting is such a celebrated sport in the ‘Show Me State’ and every year there’s an entire calendar drawn up just for that purpose. People love it so much they pay to do it. In Missouri, you can hunt anything from deers to wild turkeys, waterfowl, and the small game too. Now, as much as one would consider the extinction of such animals due to this hunting, there are measures put in place to ensure that never happens. Also, with over 1.4million deer in a state, it’s bound to get crowded in the streets of hunting is prohibited. With that being said, here’s your guide to everything you need to know about the Deer hunting season in this ‘Mother of the West’.

Now, even though hunting is a sport, you can’t just go around shooting animals as you please in Missouri and this is why they’re certain regulations to protect not just the animals but the humans too. One of these measures is licensing. Here’s what it involves

Licensing

Hunting licenses or permits are mandatory for all hunters who want to participate in the public hunting experiences earmarked in Missouri throughout the year. To show the direness of the situation, in Missouri, if an individual is caught hunting animals without a valid permit or license, he/she will be caught and charged with poaching and thus levied with various fines and penalties. Hence, all individuals whether residents or visitors of Missouri with the intent of hunting are implored to purchase the various hunting permits to avoid these legal ramifications.

How to get one

These licenses are issued by the Department of Conservation in Missouri AKA the Wildlife Department and it comes in categories dependent on factors like:

• The applicant’s age. (Youth, Adult or Senior)
• The type of animal and the species which the applicant intends to hunt. (For animals like deers, elks, moose, cows, or bears, the applicant would need a big game hunting permit).
• The duration of validity
• The applicant’s residency status

Now, once given a hunting license, individuals can move forward to purchase firearms and to ensure that these firearms do not end up being used for anything other than hunting or to prevent accidents in the field of hunting, all applicants 11 and older, are required to complete all hunting education programs and their requirements before soliciting for a license. This rule applies to all applicants born after January 1^st, 1967. In Missouri, these courses are taught, orchestrated and overseen by wildlife experts or any staff hunting instructor but approved by the wildlife department. Courses under this program include wildlife management, hunting ethics, firearm safety, and of course, survival skills. These courses can either be taught in a classroom or through the vast internet.

Purchase

Once the applicant has completed all courses in the hunting education programs, he/she can move forward to purchase a license from the wildlife department. However, hunters must first purchase a Missouri Wildlife Habitat stamp before purchasing a hunting license. Once all is done, the hunter can either purchase the license online via the MDC (Missouri Department Of Conversation) site, in person by visiting the licensing retailers or over the phone by calling the wildlife departments’ licensing hotline, whichever way is most convenient. Licenses purchased online or through the department’s hotline will be mailed to the receiver within 10 days.

Cost

Now, the cost of a deer hunting permit depends on the type of permit. These permits are not just categorized by the previously listed factors like age, animal type, or residency, they’re also dependent on the type of weapon. In Missouri, hunters can use the likes of firearms or archery to take down their prey and the hunting permit is also dependent on the weapon. Here are tables to break down the cost of purchasing the diverse deer hunting licenses under various factors.

Archer’s Hunting Permit (Valid through 15/09/20 – 15/01/21)

Archer’s Antlerless Deer Hunting Permit (Valid through 15/09/20 – 15/01/21)

Firearms Antlerless Deer Hunting Permit ( Valid through 01/11/20 – 05/01/21)

Firearms Any Deer Hunting Permit (Valid through 14/11/20 – 05/01/21)

Managed Deer Hunting Permit

Note: Youth Permits are available for both residents and non-residents.

Age Restrictions

Deers are considered a big game and hence it comes with some age restrictions. Missouri residents aged 15 and under are prohibited from hunting deer or turkeys without a permit. However, they may hunt other animal species without a permit under the condition that they have a hunter education card. Those who don’t have this card can only hunt smaller game in the presence of a licensed adult hunter. Nonresidents can purchase permits for the species they want to hunt.

Make hunting easier with HuntStand

Once you’ve purchased your permits and licenses, the next step would be to go into the conserved area and hunt. Wouldn’t hunting be better and more fun if you had analytics to the mapped out hunting area, thus giving you leverage above your peers? With Hunt Stand, you can enhance your maps, gain insights on the land, and collaborate with fellow hunters. This app gives you diverse forms of map views be it aerial, satellite imagery, and topographic views with road names.

To use this app, first, you’ll need to download it, sign up to register on the platform. Next, you’ll need to create a hunting area based on your discretion and then append as much detail as you want to it.

Deer hunting in Missouri requires a license and getting one involves so much. However, once you’re all set and with HuntStand as a partner, you can have the time of your life Hunting any specie you want.