Deer hunting season is coming fast, only two months away if you plan on using a bow, a little longer if you prefer a firearm. But you can never start preparing for things too early, in fact, now is a good time to break out your game cameras and start scouting out nearby deer trails. After all, you don’t get many chances to bring down the big buck. However, hunting is more than just sitting in a tree, waiting for a deer to come along. With the recent scare of chronic waste disease (CWD) and a few changes in the hunting booklet Missouri Department of Conservation (MDC) offers, it’s good to come prepared.
Read the Rules
MDC offers a free booklet on Missouri’s most current fall hunting rules, regulations, and other information for free here. Entitled “2019 Fall Deer and Turkey Hunting & Regulations Information,” it’s also available wherever permits are sold.
The short book has information about 2019s deer and turkey hunting seasons, detailed information about the seasons, permits, regulations, conservation areas you can hunt in, instructions on what to do after killing your deer, and info about joining a managed hunt.
Changes From Previous Years
If you want, you can read the booklet and find the changes that the 2019 version has, or you can save time and scan our list and, if you want more information, you can look it up in the booklet.
- New counties have been added to the CWD Management Zone. Other counties have been removed.
- During Nov. 16–17, hunters who harvest a deer in the Chronic Wasting Disease (CWD) Management Zone must take their deer on the day of harvest to a designated CWD sampling station.
- An antler point restriction has been reinstated in Benton, Boone, Callaway, Carroll, Cole, Cooper, Grundy, Livingston, Miller, Moniteau, Morgan, Osage, Randolph, Schuyler, Scotland, and Shelby counties.
- Adults no longer need a permit to assist properly licensed youth hunters during the youth portions of firearms deer season.
- Lessees are no longer eligible for no-cost resident landowner permits.
- Hunters may now fill two firearms antlerless permits in Audrain, Christian, Clark, Dallas, Lewis, Marion, Monroe, Pike, and Ralls counties.
- Qualifying landowners in Andrew, Atchison, Holt, and Nodaway counties may now receive only one no-cost firearms antlerless permit.
- Qualifying landowners in Christian, Lawrence, Pulaski, Ripley, Shannon, and Webster counties may now receive two no-cost firearms antlerless permits.
- Barton, Christian, Dent, Douglas, Jasper, Lawrence, Maries, Newton, Oregon, Phelps, Pulaski, Ripley, Shannon, Texas, Webster, and Wright counties are now open during the antlerless portion of firearms deer season.
- New managed deer hunts have been added, and others have been removed or modified.
- Deer hunting regulations have changed for some conservation areas.
- Nontoxic shot is now required on several conservation areas that did not require it in the past. [1]
Notes:
- ^“Get fall deer and turkey hunting info from MDC’s new booklet.” Missouri Department of Conservation, 12 July 2019, mdc.mo.gov/newsroom/get-fall-deer-and-turkey-hunting-info-mdc%E2%80%99s-new-booklet. (go back ↩)
