Missouri deer hunting

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.

Missouri Deer

Missouri trophy whitetail deer hunting private lease land

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.

The Missouri season begins September 15 with

This page covers in brief the Missouri deer hunting regulations most asked about by those without any Missouri experience. The links on this page provide far more Mid-America Hunting Association specific information.

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.

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.

Missouri private land available for deer hunting.

This map shows the locations where the Association holds private land 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 Point Restriction Zone

Orange shows Missouri's four point one side minimum buck harvest zone. This zone has been in effect long enough that an 8 pointer must be a really big 8 pointer for most to harvest. Enough good 10 and 12 pointers have been seen and 14 pointers talked about that most hold off until the chance at that one big buck.

Missouri whitetail deer hunting page 2 3

Missouri Deer Hunting