Rule changes coming for fall deer, turkey hunts
In the News
JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. — The Missouri Department of Conservation this week issued a reminder that a number of regulations will change this fall with regard to deer and turkey hunting.
Crossbows have been added as a legal method during archery deer and turkey seasons and also during the fall firearms turkey season.
As a result, MDC has removed the “hunting method exemption” requirement for hunters to use crossbows during the archery deer season. The regulation change will provide additional hunting opportunities for young hunters and help prolong hunting activities for older participants.
In order to create more hunting opportunities for young people, the department has expanded the late youth portion of the fall firearms deer season from two to three days and moved it earlier in the season. It will now start on the first Friday after Thanksgiving instead of early January.
MDC has also reduced the length of the antlerless portion of deer season from 12 to three days, and it now begins on the first Friday in December.
The urban-zones portion of firearms deer season has been eliminated because, according to the department, so few deer were harvested it proved unnecessary.
To help protect young bucks and increase the number of mature bucks, the harvest limit of antlered deer has been reduced from three to two animals during the combined archery and firearms season. Only one antlered deer may be taken during firearms season, and only one antlered deer may be take prior to the November portion of the firearms deer season.
Hunters who harvest deer during opening weekend of the fall firearms November portion (Nov. 12-13) in any of 29 counties embraced by the department’s Chronic Wasting Disease Management Zone in northeast, central, and east-central Missouri are required to present their deer for CWD sample collection.
Carcasses must be presented on the day of harvest at one of 75 CWD sampling locations throughout the 29 counties. Hunters also have the option of presenting just the deer head with about 6 inches of neck attached.
Sampling locations will be open from 7:30 a.m.-8 p.m.
Affected counties include Adair, Boone, Callaway, Carroll, Chariton, Cole, Cooper, Crawford, Franklin, Gasconade, Jefferson, Knox, Linn, Livingston, Macon, Miller, Moniteau, Morgan, Osage, Putnam, Randolph, St. Charles, St. Louis, Schuyler, Scotland, Shelby, Sullivan, Warren, and Washington.
Fall deer and turkey season dates are listed below:
Archery deer and turkey, Sept. 15-Nov. 11 and Nov. 23-Jan. 15; firearms turkey, Oct. 1-31; firearms deer early youth, Oct. 29-30; firearms deer November portion, Nov. 12-22; firearms deer late youth portion, Nov. 25-27; firearms deer antlerless portion, Dec. 2-4; firearms deer alternative methods portion, Dec. 24-Jan. 3.
