Missouri Whitetail Deer Hunting

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This article presupposes the reader started at our whitetail deer hunting page where we describe our overall approach to self guided deer hunting.

Tags

Quick synopsis of Missouri deer regulations and our fit for the self guided Missouri deer hunter.

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.

 

Deer Hunter Feedback

missouri deer

Jake S. with a really nice archery 9 pointer harvested while hunting over several leases. Good luck, couldn't happen to a better person. Advance onto our Missouri bow hunter's page.

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. Read some more firearms deer hunt options.

 

Missouri Record Book

While not news to MAHA Missouri deer hunters that Missouri has big racked bucks for those that are skeptical here is some authoritative documentation.

This one time snapshot places Missouri ahead of Kansas and Iowa for the most reported B&C bucks. From: The Good Ol' Todays, American Hunter magazine, October 2005, page 20, by Jeff H Johnston.

 

With Missouri's continuing point restriction zone we have seen increasing numbers of trophy whitetail. The problem with "book" deer is the same here as everywhere. Of the 150+ one forty or better whitetails on this website very few have certificates. Our Association do it yourself hunter population simply have a wall of trophies and few seek yet one more certificate.

Advantage

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.

 

“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.

This is one of the greatest hunting accounts on this website. It has humor and drama, a great read.

 

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!

 

Thank you Trenton for the great deer hunting account and pictures.

 

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.

 

Continue this Missouri hunting article