Missouri Deer Hunting
Missouri deer hunting quick overview of Missouri deer regulations and Mid-America Hunting Association hunter benefits.
What Missouri offers:
Over the counter tags.
Archery and firearms tag the same year.
State wide tags.
Large amount of agricultural land habitat.
Four point one side restriction zone.What MAHA offers Missouri hunters:
Private land.
Hunter separation.
Choices of farms to hunt on the same trip.
Self guided hunts.
The entire season to hunt.
Together Missouri and MAHA provides the hunter the opportunity to preseason scout and place stands on several farms to pick and chose of where to hunt during the hunt. We essentially eliminate almost all the reasons for past failure and provide a great amount of opportunity for every deer hunter to make his hunt as good of a hunt as he wants it to be.
To pass on Missouri would be to pass on big bucks. Missouri with it large coverage woody cover cutting though 55% agricultural land use makes for a good combination of cover and food. The challenge is a large whitetail herd and a lot of small and large wood patches for concealment.
Missouri private land available for deer hunting.
This map shows the 2010 locations where the Association holds private land hunting lease by county name and acreage amount in that county.
A lot of acreage does not mean a lot of whitetail habitat. This is farm country where the whitetail will make use of small and large cover areas as long as the food is present. And, there is a lot of crop foods, far more than most non-residents expect and far too much to make a deer food plot effective.
Missouri Agricultural Deer Region
The Missouri season begins September 15 with archery season and continues until generally the second Saturday in November when firearms season opens. This bow season is earlier and runs later than that of Kansas and Iowa. Missouri's early season has best served those bow hunters capable of using decoy scents, silhouettes, rattling and grunting.
Travis
Rifle season continues for 14 days. Missouri has its modern firearms deer season during peak rut. Due to Missouri's over the counter deer tags, low tag costs and its best trophy region surrounded by St. Louis, Des Moines and Kansas City there is a good bit of weekend deer hunter pressure. Week days are free of these hunters.
Archery with an overlapping muzzleloader season resumes after the rifle season and continues with January 15 the last day of the latest season. Late season hunters that have the most success are those with the mental stamina to stay in stand during cold weather. Most that late season archery hunt report the most buck sightings longer after the rifle season than nearer to it.
Missouri muzzleloader pressure is less than late season archery with few hunting.
Every hunter may have both a firearms (good for modern rifle and muzzleloader) and an archery tag for up to three bucks.
Prime trophy Missouri whitetail habitat and what non-residents believe to be poor deer habitat is actually some of the best. We lease land where we get the most return for our costs. Those regions cover the 55% agricultural land use areas in north and western Missouri. We stay out of the Ozark Mountain region due to far too much forested ground and too little agriculture.
This photo of a Missouri watershed valley as well as aerials in our scouting section attempt to give as good a understanding of what our Missouri deer habitat is as best as pictures can. In this case the expansive large grain crop fields that serve as the dinner table flanked by wooded streams with water. The timbered ridges and wooded creek bottom repeated many times over is what makes Missouri deer hunting as good as it is.
It is difficulty to show Missouri habitat pictures on the scale necessary to adequately inform new to the area hunters.
Our attempts with pictures and text are often seen as insufficient. In any case it always does come down to the self guided hunter must pay one price that only he can and that is boots on the ground time. His confidence that he will find a good hunt through our organization is the recognition that we are a business not a hunting club. As a business we lease land where we get the most return for our money. That return is a good deer hunt that will insure that hunter's return membership the next year.
Missouri deer season offers the bow deer hunter two distinct advantages specific to Missouri with the first being a two deer tag and the second, much bow huntable deer habitat.
An advantage to the Missouri archery deer tag is that it allows for a total of two whitetail deer and two turkeys either sex. However, only one buck may be harvested before firearms season.
This allows for one buck and one doe or two doe before the gun season. After firearms deer season on the same archery tag hunters may tag two bucks (assuming he had not harvested a buck before the rifle season) the same day or two doe or one of each.
Missouri Late Season Deer Hunter Account
WOW, WOW, WOW. what a heck of a way to start the New Year. Your suggestion for a late hunt was right on. You guys are really something and joining this club is one of the best decisions I've ever made. This big boy came into the scents I had out and after a 25 yard shot went out into the field and laid down. I could see him still moving his head right at dark but I knew that I had hit the back of the lungs. After getting down I went out to were I'd seen him last and he was gone. Not finding much blood I decided to back out and let him be until morning. The coyotes where raising cane when I got back to my truck and I prayed they wouldn't find him before I did. First thing this morning found him only 60 yards further but unfortunately the coyotes found him during the night. Great, Great hunt thanks again for all your help.
