While the firearms portion of turkey and deer season has ended for the year and alternative methods continuing until Jan. 2 and archery continuing through Jan. 15, Missouri hunters will have to wait until April before they can start drawing their bows and loading their rifles. During a meeting on Dec. 8, the Missouri Conservation Commission approved the hunting dates for 2024-2025.
With this in mind, the Missouri Department of Conservation has announced the deer and turkey hunting seasons for 2024-2025:
2024 Spring and Fall Turkey Hunting Dates
Spring Youth Portion: April 6-7
Regular Spring Turkey Season: April 15 through May 5
Fall Firearms Turkey Season: Oct. 1 - 31
2024 – 2025 Archery Deer and Turkey Hunting Dates
Sept.15 through Nov. 15 and Nov. 27 through Jan. 15, 2025
2024 - 2025 Firearms Deer Hunting Dates
Firearms Early Antlerless Portion: Oct. 11-13 (in open counties)
Firearms Early Youth Portion: Nov. 2-3
Firearms November Portion: Nov. 16-26
Firearms CWD Portion: Nov. 27 – Dec. 1 (in open counties)
Firearms Late Youth Portion: Nov. 29 – Dec. 1
Firearms Late Antlerless Portion: Dec. 7-15 (in open counties)
Firearms Alternative Methods Portion: Dec. 28 - Jan. 7, 2025
With the Commission’s approval, the MDC is also letting turkey hunters know that some regulations may change how they hunt the bird in future seasons.
The department announced spring shooting hours for private land will be extended to a half-hour before sunrise and ending at sunset. While shooting hours on public land will still remain a half-hour before sunrise to 1 p.m. These changes will go into effect for the Spring 2024 turkey season, with the Youth portion starting on April 6.
MDC is also proposing a change to the fall turkey season. If approved, fall firearms and archery turkey hunters would have to purchase a fall turkey-hunting permit. This means the gobbler would no longer be included in the archery-deer permit. The fall proposal would also reduce the bagging limit from four birds to two.
Hunters wishing to provide comments on the proposed changes can do so from Feb. 2 through March 2, 2024, by visiting the MDC’s Public Commenting Opportunities website at www.mdc.mo.gov/contact-engage/public-commenting-opportunities.
According to MDC, the motivations for the regulation changes are to increase opportunities during the spring season for youth hunters and hunters who work during the day and to reduce the fall harvest all while maintaining as much opportunity for hunters to enjoy the seasons as possible.
The department notes that 93% of land in Missouri is privately owned, and during the spring turkey season, 88% of Missouri’s annual harvest is done on private land. MDC added that with it maintaining the shooting hours ending at 1 p.m. on conservation areas and other public lands, would continue to support multiple afternoon activities by various users in these areas.
“Hunter participation and recruitment has been on the decline in Missouri for several years,” said MDC Turkey Biologist Nick Oakley. “When surveyed on why hunters aren’t participating, the most common answer is that school or work interferes with getting out into the field. By extending shooting hours, a barrier to participation will be removed for those unable to hunt during the morning.”
Oakley also adds that the 1 p.m. closure during the spring season on public and conservation land was initially seen decades ago to help Missouri’s turkey population rebound from a few thousand birds to the several hundred thousand wild turkeys we have today.
“Almost every other state in the Midwest and Southeast moved away from an early afternoon closing time after their turkey populations were restored,” Oakley said. “Those states have seen increases in hunter participation, sustainable increases in harvest, and stable hunter satisfaction after moving to an all-day season.”
The fall turkey season allows hunters to harvest up to four birds of either sex without a beard requirement. The proposed changes will reduce the number to two birds of either sex.
“While hen harvest is contentious in Missouri, our hen-harvest-rate is low enough that it is not having a negative impact on turkey numbers on a statewide scale,” Oakley explained.
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