Missouri has produced 247 Boone and Crocket Club trophy bucks. (Shutterstock)
October 14, 2024
By Darron McDougal
This whitetail hunting forecast for the state of Missouri is part of Game & Fish’s “Great States" project identifying the best deer-hunting states in the country. Read more: America's Top Whitetail States Missouri Hunters Should Be Happy This Season Sandwiched by big-buck states Iowa, Illinois, and Kansas, it’s no wonder that Missouri is a top whitetail destination. Here, mature bucks sport impressive racks due to excellent genetics. Firearms hunters get the cream of the crop with prime-rut season dates, though bowhunters get the first crack at monster bucks with a mid-September opener.
The Show Me State has plenty of public lands, according to Jason Isabelle, the Cervid Program Supervisor and certified wildlife biologist with the Missouri Department of Conservation (MDC). “The MDC manages over 1 million acres of public land, and the U.S. Forest Service manages over 1 million acres of public land,” he said. “Other agencies such as the Army Corps of Engineers manage public lands, too, especially around reservoirs.”
DID YOU KNOW
HUNTING REGULATIONS In Missouri, 27 counties have the antler-point restriction, most of which are in central, west-central and northwest Missouri.
For hunters purely seeking room to roam, the largest public-land concentration is in southeast Missouri. “The Mark Twain National Forest is located in the Ozarks,” Isabelle explained. “We’re talking heavily forested, very rugged terrain. Comparatively, the deer densities are lower than in other regions. There is minimal open ground and less row-crop agriculture. I wouldn’t call it the state’s best whitetail habitat, but there is a lot of acreage that is fairly contiguous with reasonably good access. Another portion of the Twain with gentler terrain and a mixture of open and timbered habitats is closer to central Missouri.”
Advertisement
Isabelle reported that tremendous bucks are harvested in every county, though hunters run a higher probability of encountering a large-antlered buck in the northern part of the state. Don’t expect easy hunting, though, as the MDC-managed conservation areas located close to Iowa, Illinois and Kansas are popular among hunters because Missouri’s deer tags are available over the counter.
In early season, deer can often be found eating soybeans while they are still green. (Shutterstock) “Hunters can visit the MDC website to learn about our conservation areas,” he suggested. “They’re scattered throughout state, and that is by design so that folks will have public hunting regardless of the region they want to hunt. Parcels range from fewer than 50 acres all the way up to thousands and thousands of acres. The location of each conservation area determines its habitat composition. We classify our conservation areas into one of three categories. Some are archery-only areas. Some are restricted to archery equipment and muzzleloaders, and some are open to centerfire rifles with statewide regulations.”
As for deer densities, Isabelle mentioned that the counties around St. Louis and across central Missouri all the way to Kansas City typically hold the strongest deer numbers. Of course, numbers can fluctuate based on diseases such as EHD. “EHD has been very mild this year,” he mentioned. “We’ve had relatively few mortality reports, so I wouldn’t expect EHD to impact hunting this fall. Our last severe EHD impact was back in 2012. Time has passed and deer have certainly rebounded. In fact, deer numbers are at objective in most of our counties.”
Advertisement
THAT'S A FACT
HARVEST AVERAGE Missouri averaged more than 300,000 deer harvested each year over the last five years.
In Missouri’s timbered areas, acorns, especially white oak acorns, are deer magnets. Other parts of Missouri are agriculturally rich, which can make for excellent hunting. “Missouri’s two primary row crops are corn and soybeans,” Isabelle shared. “During the early part of the archery season when the beans are still green, deer will be on them. Their focus seems to shift to acorns and corn during the middle of the season, and they’ll feed in both corn and soybean fields heavily during the late season. Some of the MDC-managed conservation areas have row crops, and some are left standing, which is advantageous for hunters.”
In Missouri, 27 counties have the antler-point restriction, most of which are in central, west-central and northwest Missouri. The restriction applies to all hunters except for youth hunters ages 6-15. Nonresident deer permits are reasonably priced, sold over the counter and are season-specific.