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Firearms deer season starts Saturday
Hunters will be out in force this weekend as the firearms deer season in Missouri begins Saturday morning.
“This is by far the busiest time of the year where our hunters are the most active,” said Scott County Conservation Agent Andrew Mothershead. “We expect to see half a million hunters statewide.”
The firearms portion of deer season in Missouri, which is the most popular deer season, runs from Nov. 16 to Nov. 26. Hunters are allowed to hunt from one-half hour before sunrise to one-half hour after sunset.
Missouri also offers a lengthy archery deer season throughout the state. Early and late youth-only firearms deer seasons introduce youngsters to the sport and the outdoors and a three-day antlerless season in December allows harvest in some counties with healthy deer populations. A 10-day season is allowed in late December and early January for alternative methods that includes muzzle-loading rifles, archery, pistols and throwing the atlatl dart.
However, this year marks the 75th anniversary of Missouri’s modern deer hunting tradition. In 1937, the Missouri Department of Conservation was given the job of restoring the deer after habitat loss and over hunting had decimated the state’s deer herd by the 1930s. The MDC was able to bring the whitetail deer back and in 1944 the first modern deer season was held.
Now deer hunting plays a vital role of managing the state’s deer herd population as state hunters harvest almost 300,000 deer annually with more than 200,000 harvested during last November’s firearms season. Mothershead said they typically see 600-700 deer harvested in Scott County.
“Culturally it is important,” Mothershead said. “It helps control the deer population and while some do it for recreation, others do it for food. Some supplement their diet with deer meat in place of ground beef. There are just a number of different reasons people deer hunt.”
The MDC anticipates a billion dollars of economic activity throughout the state during the 10-day firearm season.
“Whether it is folks staying in hotels or eating in restaurants it will boost the economy,” Mothershead said. “Especially in rural areas it will inject a little extra into their economy because that is typically where you have the deer habitat. The firearms sales will increase and people will buy hunting equipment.”
According to the MDC website, only one antlered deer may be taken during the entire firearms season (all portions combined) and only two antlered deer can be taken during the archery and firearms deer hunting seasons combined. Each county limits the number of antlerless deer hunting permits you can fill during the entire firearms season.
Mothershead said while it is a busy time for hunters it will also be a busy time for conservation agents.
“I will be busy those 10 days running around doing compliance checks and making sure people are following all the rules,” Mothershead said.
For more information, visit the MDC website at https://mdc.mo.gov/
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