Missouri hunting and fishing laws

Missouri's hunter education course is required for any hunter born on or after Jan. 1, 1967. Anyone 11 or older is eligible to take the course and exam. An Apprentice Hunter Authorization exempts you if you are 16 or older and will be hunting with a properly permitted adult mentor 18 or older.

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Youths must be 6 or older to hunt deer or turkeys. Youth 10 or younger may hunt during a firearms season only in the immediate presence of an adult mentor, and hunters 15 and younger without hunter education must hunt with a properly permitted adult mentor 18 or older.

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Applies to: Big game

You must wear both a hunter-orange hat and a hunter-orange shirt, vest, or coat. The hunter-orange color must be plainly visible from all sides, and camouflage orange does not satisfy this rule. It applies during firearms deer season, the firearms elk portion, black bear season, and managed firearms deer hunts.

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Applies to: Big game

You are exempt if you are archery hunting within municipal boundaries where the discharge of firearms is prohibited, or hunting on federal or state land where deer hunting is restricted to archery methods. There is no square inch specification and no blaze pink provision was found.

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Missouri has no Sunday hunting closure. Seasons, including the November firearms deer portion, run straight through Sundays.

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Shooting hours are one-half hour before sunrise to one-half hour after sunset.

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Applies to: Deer

Use of bait, which includes grain or other feed placed or scattered so as to attract deer or turkeys, while hunting is illegal. An area remains baited for 10 days after the feed is removed.

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Applies to: Bear

Using bait to hunt black bears is illegal. Bait means any food placed or scattered to attract bears; scents and minerals are not bait, but mineral blocks with food additives are. An area stays baited for 10 days after all bait is removed.

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Use of artificial light for hunting is generally prohibited. Raccoons and bullfrogs are among the excepted species.

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Applies to: Furbearers

For coyotes, artificial light and night vision or thermal optics are permitted in conjunction with other legal hunting methods during defined windows that shift every year, so check the current dates. Coyotes also may not be taken during daylight hours in a defined spring period running into spring turkey season. Landowners may use night vision or thermal to kill feral swine on their property.

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Applies to: Big game

Immediately after harvesting a deer or turkey you must notch your permit, and attach a leg tag if the animal is left unattended. You must Telecheck your deer or turkey by 10 p.m. on the day of harvest, before processing your game, or before you leave the state, whichever comes first. Before Telecheck only the person who harvested the animal may possess and transport it.

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Get the landowner’s permission before hunting private land; retrieving wounded game does not authorize trespass. Under RSMo 569.145, purple paint marks on trees (vertical lines at least 8 inches long, 3–5 feet high, no more than 100 feet apart) or posts post land against trespassers.

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