Missouri Deer Hunting
This article presupposes the reader started at our whitetail deer hunting page where we describe our overall approach to self guided deer hunting. This article begins with a quick synopsis of Missouri deer regulations and our fit for the self guided Missouri deer hunter.
Deer Hunter Feedback
Jake S. with a really nice archery 9 pointer harvested while hunting over several leases. Good luck, couldn't happen to a better person.
“The Story of Trenton Dorf’s Day Off”
It all started in January 2006. My Dad and I went doe hunting. We saw plenty of deer but we didn't get any, and I was very disappointed. So as the next season got closer we got our licenses and practiced shooting our rifles. The rifle I was going to use was a Remington model 81 in .300 Savage and my Dad was going to use a Remington model 8 in .35 Remington.
But there was a problem. Opening day was Wednesday, November 29, 2006. It was a school day. My dad and I had to persuade my Mom to let me out of school to go hunting. She said no at first but she finally gave in and let me go. But I had to write this essay about the day’s hunt.
Finally, the day arrived. We got up early and drove to our hunting spot but we were running a little late and didn't get there until 7:00 am. While we were walking into the property we saw one running away. It had just stopped raining and it was very dark, cloudy and windy. The temperature was about 45 degrees and dropping. We found a spot in a small valley out of the wind and in the trees. We sat on the ground behind a fallen tree. We could see everything below us and up and down the valley. It was around 7:15 when we got to the hunting spot.
The wind was blowing so hard in the trees above us that we didn't hear the deer that appeared out of no where about 50 minutes later. My Dad saw it first and nudged me and pointed toward the deer. He got out his binoculars to see if it was a buck or a doe and how big it was. He said it was a six point buck and I could shoot it if I wanted to.
The buck was about seventy five yards away and was walking from our left to our right. When the deer became directly in front of us it turned its head and looked straight at us. You could tell that he was trying to smell the air and that something was wrong. After a few seconds the buck must have decided there wasn't any danger and turned to his right and slowly started walking toward us. I was getting my shooting stick and rifle ready and was read to shoot when he was about forty yards away.
While I was sitting there about to shoot this buck I was amazed that I could actually get this close and it hadn't noticed or smelled us. Everything was automatic, putting the rifle up to my shoulder, making sure the shooting stick was just right, but I was still so amazed by this animal that I wasn't looking down the sights. I realized this and focused on sighting the rifle.
I was just ready to shoot when it walked behind a tree and stopped for a few seconds. I remained ready to shoot because I knew that he would step out from behind the tree. When he did he walked slowly up the hill. I took careful aim at his shoulder and without thinking I squeezed the trigger. It was still dark enough that for a split second all I could see was the muzzle blast. Then I saw him start to run at a sprint diagonally away from us up the hill. He got about halfway up the hill when he ran into a tree and he fell backwards down the hill. He got up once and took a few steps, but it was the end.
When he was still and everything was quite I realized I was breathing heavy and was excited that I finally got a buck. This was my first buck and my first deer. We waited a few minutes there to make sure no other deer were following that buck then walked to the deer and looked him over. Now the real work began. My Dad showed me how to field dress the deer and we dragged it back to the Jeep.
Today was a great day. A great hunting day. But even if it had been a bad day, it would have been better than a day of school!
Side Notes
All that deer hunt would like to believe they could be career trophy whitetail deer hunters. The reality of time limitation and that for most of us we have far greater diversity of life activities other than dedication to trophy deer hunting leaves us to enjoy the deer hunt itself regardless of any trophy evaluation. MAHA offer self guided deer hunts for those that enjoy deer hunting to include doe harvest for freezer meat. We would hope everyone would tag a trophy deer at some point in their life and always enjoy the hunt each season.
Missouri deer hunting's significant advantages include the tags are over the counter purchase, state wide tags and Missouri has the largest whitetail herd of our three state area.
Missouri tags are also the lowest cost of the three states where MAHA has hunting lease land. Further comparison of Missouri tags, unlike Kansas or Iowa, is that Missouri tags are not management unit specific allowing the full advantage of pre season scouting throughout the year on any of our hunting leases.
Missouri archery deer hunting tags are good for two whitetail and two turkey either sex in both cases. Missouri also has the most bow huntable habitat of our three state area. Bow hunting opens early on 15 September running through 15 January. The archery hunter can have his bow tag and that same hunter may also purchase a modern firearms tag. This allows for a maximum of three bucks in one hunting season.
Missouri firearms deer tags allow the same hunter on the same tag to hunt both the modern rifle and muzzleloader hunting seasons. There is another facet caused by the low cost easily attained tags specific to the firearms season. That is the many one weekend a year rifle hunters will go to Missouri before hunting our other states.
These one weekend a year whitetail hunters that show up for opening weekend are all buck hunters on Saturday. By Sunday noon they are waiting for the first doe to come by to tag out and go home. If it rains more than half of these incidental hunters will not show. In all cases, come Sunday afternoon the country side returns to being devoid of hunters and the motel rooms open right up for the remainder of the hunting season.
Another distinction of firearms deer hunting season is that it is in middle November. This is the peak rut in the central mid-west. That combined with the large number of deer hunters during opening weekend means that all hunters require far more luck than skill to harvest a trophy whitetail.
MAHA does offset this opening weekend Missouri firearms deer season phenomenon as Association hunting leases will have far less deer hunter pressure due to our reservation system limiting one hunter per numbered property per day and that hunter is hunting alone. What this brings are a variety of local havens for bucks pressured out of the surrounding land by the large number of hunters.
Missouri trophy deer management distinguishes Missouri deer conservation and the dynamic that deer hunters' believe an over the counter deer tag state has lesser quality trophy whitetail deer potential. Missouri Department of Conservation is responding to this perception two fold.
First, Missouri allows an unlimited number of $7.00 doe tags to all who want to buy them. The idea is to reduce the size of the overall deer herd. The second conservation response has been the introduction of a 4 point one side limitations for harvested bucks. These two aspects alone will go far to promote Missouri's trophy whitetail deer reputation to non-residents.
This Missouri deer management effort does come with a host of secondary effects that may benefit or denigrate the long term deer regulations and deer hunter access. That discussion is long and if interested the link immediately above covers that topic in detail. For a more birds eye view of our Missouri deer hunting continue reading the pages through the links at the bottom of the page. this continuing overall perspective allows the reader to evaluate how a Missouri deer hunt could fit into existing plans.
Missouri deer hunting allows all Association do it yourself hunters to Missouri whitetail hunt every year to include those years when a Kansas or Iowa tag is not drawn. Or, in the case of those that want to whitetail hunt two states over a range of seasons to double the available field time. That scheduling also includes retaining the hunter's home state favored hunting seasons as our approach allows the hunter to hunt on his schedule.
Missouri's muzzleloader deer hunting example shows that hunters may enjoy the December muzzleloader hunting season as it is earlier than Iowa's late December season that runs into January and after Kansas' September muzzleloader and earlier Decembers modern and muzzleloader deer season. All combined 6+ weeks (8 if including the second Kansas seasons) of sequential muzzleloader hunting season days are available leaving the muzzleloader hunter a long range of available windows of time that do not conflict from state to state.
There are consequences to Missouri deer hunting and a significant one is the topography of this state.
Missouri rivers make for a lot more wildlife areas due to extensive river systems of large watershed making for more rolling terrain and less efficient agriculture thus more wildlife habitat and tougher hunting conditions. This allows for a large whitetail deer count that means hunters will sift through more doe and scrap racks seeking out that trophy quality wall hanger. To some this may be a hunting disadvantage, however others will find it exactly what they are looking for.
While the trophy hunter may grow tired of the many non-shooter whitetail that will come by that very same whitetail density makes Missouri the best of our three states for the youth hunter.
For those with children we have plenty of Missouri deer hunting land where the potential to harvest a scrap rack makes the trip worth the effort. Trophy deer hunters may not like reading this, however even they for the most part recognize trophy deer hunters are grown through experience.
As a youth deer hunter harvests one buck he should be taught and held to the standard of only harvesting bucks with increasingly larger racks until the 130 (archery) 140 (firearms) is achieved then every buck after that is a trophy.
One last aspect about Missouri's deer habitat is its prevalence or area coverage being greater than that compared to Kansas or Iowa.
The wooded creek bottoms are wider and more heavily covered. The ridges more pronounced with less agriculture and far more trees. While many deer hunters would jump on the chance to hunt larger woods believing they hold more deer many others would not due to the diffusing nature of large wooded areas.
2011 Missouri Deer Hunting Land
Names posted are Missouri counties and the number is the amount of acreage available in that county for hunting.
Self Guided Hunter Indicator
Unlike a hunting guide service we are not at point of harvest with a high quality camera and flash. Every picture on this web site is at the courtesy of our self guided deer hunters and we certainly appreciate each and every one of them. Like most deer hunters, our members largely hunt on their own and as such are the ones holding the camera. This picture is such a case and we sustain the anonymity of the deer hunter, where they enjoy hunting and the location of harvest.
Not long ago we would receive mixed quality paper pictures to include lower quality Polaroid's. Then came digital cameras and email and picture quality greatly improved. We then had a set back with low quality, small image, picture taking cell phones. In any case, disregard the image quality and enjoy the rewards of the self guided hunt.
What many deer hunters come to appreciate about central mid-west whitetail habitat is the canalizing nature created by large crop fields crossed by wooded creek bottoms and isolated wood patches. This geography causes deer movement to be concentrated along cover and when connecting the dots between feed, bedding and movement corridors the whitetail pattern becomes far more evident.
Average Deer Hunters
Kevin is one of those busy hunters that chases bird dogs after quail, bow deer hunts and spring turkey hunts while being a self employed businessman and raising a family. He enjoys the break hunting gives from the stress of life.
A final contrast is that of in Missouri, deer hunting between the Ozark region of 70% forested to the agricultural region of 55% crop land is dramatic in quality. The most and biggest trophy whitetail come from the agricultural region rather than the extensive wood lots of the Ozarks. So where does the the hunter want to hunt? Where we have our leases as we lease where we get the most return for our money, in the agricultural regions.
Missouri offers through MAHA one more deer hunting opportunity that for the same cost expands the number of field days every do it yourself hunter may have in pursuit of his most favored recreational activity. Good luck to all and we will do the best we can to make every hunt a good hunt.
Deer Hunter Feedback
Hi John, It was good talking with you today. Thanks for all you do for MAHA. I have been a member for 4 years and really enjoy hunting whitetail and turkeys on our properties. Here is the buck I shot this year. His inside spread is just over 20". My dad was out this year to hunt with me so that made it really special. Take care, [name deleted]
We enjoy the exchange relationship between the hunters and the Association. We give as good as we receive as each that send in pictures receives back from us our latest logbook of what we have seen and where.
