Stay in Touch with MDC news, newsletters, events, and manage your subscription
Xplor reconnects kids to nature and helps them find adventure in their own backyard. Free to residents of Missouri.
A monthly publication about conservation in Missouri. Started in 1938, the printed magazine is free to residents of Missouri.
JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. – Preliminary data from the Missouri Department of Conservation (MDC) shows that young hunters ages 6 through 15 harvested 1,909 deer during Missouri’s late youth portion of the 2019 deer hunting season, Nov. 29 through Dec. 1. Of the 1,909 deer harvested, 752 were antlered bucks, 200 were button bucks, and 957 were does.
Top counties for the late youth portion were Osage with 63 deer checked, Lincoln with 45, and Callaway with 41.
Last year’s harvest total for the late youth portion was 2,595 with 1,160 being antlered bucks, 338 button bucks, and 1,097 does.
For current ongoing preliminary harvest totals by season, county, and type of deer, visit the MDC website at extra.mdc.mo.gov/widgets/harvest_table/
For harvest summaries from past years, visit huntfish.mdc.mo.gov/hunting-trapping/species/deer/deer-harvest-reports/deer-harvest-summaries
Deer hunting in Missouri continues with archery deer hunting through Jan. 15, 2020. The antlerless portion of firearms deer season runs Dec. 6-8. Lastly, the alternative methods portion will run Dec. 28 through Jan. 7, 2020. Learn more about deer hunting in Missouri at huntfish.mdc.mo.gov/hunting-trapping/species/deer or from MDC’s 2019 Fall Deer & Turkey Hunting Regulations and Information booklet, available where permits are sold and online at huntfish.mdc.mo.gov/sites/default/files/downloads/2019FDT.pdf
CELEBRATING 75 YEARS OF DEER HUNTING: Habitat loss and unregulated hunting decimated Missouri’s native white-tailed deer numbers to mere hundreds by the 1930s. Deer were mostly limited to small herds in the Ozarks when the voter-approved and newly-formed Missouri Conservation Commission closed deer hunting in 1937. Then the restoration work began. In 1944, the newly-created Missouri Department of Conservation held the first modern deer season with 7,757 hunters harvesting 519 bucks during a two-day, bucks-only season in 20 counties. MDC’s ongoing conservation efforts -- in partnership with landowners, hunters, and others -- have brought deer numbers back! Missouri now has more than a million deer throughout the state with about a half-million deer hunters harvesting hundreds-of-thousands of deer annually. Deer hunting also helps boost business in Missouri communities by more than a billion dollars annually while nourishing family traditions for many and putting food on the table for even more.
