Missouri deer season 2026-27: dates, legal firearms and what to carry

Missouri does not chop the state into numbered hunting units. One statewide firearms deer season runs on the same dates from the Bootheel to the Iowa line, with county-level differences only in antlerless permit numbers and in which counties open for the early and late antlerless portions. That makes planning simple. Here is how the 2026-27 season is laid out and what to carry into the timber.

The 2026-27 dates

Archery deer runs September 15 through November 13, then reopens November 25 through January 15, 2027. Firearms early antlerless runs October 9-11 in open counties. Firearms early youth runs October 24-25. The November portion, the one most people mean when they say deer season, runs November 14-24, 2026. Firearms late youth follows November 27-29. Firearms late antlerless runs December 5-13 in open counties. The alternative methods portion closes the year out from December 26, 2026 through January 5, 2027. Legal hours in every firearms portion are one half hour before sunrise to one half hour after sunset.

What changed for 2026

Two long-running rules went away this year. The antler-point restriction, which had survived in eighteen counties, was eliminated statewide; the Department of Conservation concluded that protecting yearling bucks moves chronic wasting disease further than it helps the herd. The CWD Management Zone was also retired, because most Missouri counties now either have a confirmed case or sit within ten miles of one, and a separate zone no longer told hunters anything useful.

Mandatory sampling did not go away. It moved to a four-year rotation, so every county comes up once every four years. For 2026 the twenty-eight counties on the list are Andrew, Atchison, Audrain, Benton, Buchanan, Callaway, Carter, Cedar, Dade, Greene, Holt, Iron, Lawrence, Lincoln, Monroe, Montgomery, Nodaway, Oregon, Pike, Polk, Ralls, Reynolds, Ripley, Shannon, St. Charles, St. Clair, Warren and Wayne. If you kill a deer in one of those counties on November 14 or 15, you must take it to a sampling station that weekend. Feeding deer remains prohibited within ten miles of a confirmed case. Check the current regulations before opening day, because the rotation list changes annually.

Legal firearms

During the November portion you may use a centerfire rifle, a centerfire handgun or revolver, a shotgun firing a single slug including the .410, a muzzleloader of .40 caliber or larger firing a single projectile, an air-powered firearm of .40 caliber or larger charged from an external source, a bow, a crossbow or an atlatl. Missouri sets no minimum caliber for centerfire rifles, which is unusual, but it does require expanding bullets. Lead, copper and other materials all qualify as long as the bullet is designed to expand. Full metal case projectiles are not legal on deer, and neither is buckshot. A self-loading firearm may not have a combined magazine and chamber capacity of more than eleven cartridges. Electronic calls, bait, dogs and night vision are all out.

Calibers that make sense here

Missouri deer are shot in hardwood timber, along crop edges and out of box blinds looking over CRP and picked beans. A long shot in most of the state is 250 yards, and a typical one is closer to 80. That means almost any common deer cartridge works, and the choice comes down to recoil, rifle weight and what your local shop stocks ammunition for.

The .243 Winchester is the standard starter cartridge for a young or recoil-shy hunter, and with a good 95 to 100 grain bullet it kills whitetails cleanly. The 6.5 Creedmoor has taken over a lot of that space with better bullets and flatter trajectory. The .270 Winchester and 7mm-08 sit in the sweet spot for open river-bottom shots. The .308 Winchester and .30-06 Springfield are the most common deer rounds in the state and the easiest to find on a shelf in Hannibal or Poplar Bluff on the night before opening day. The .350 Legend and .450 Bushmaster have found a following with hunters who like a straight-wall cartridge in an AR-pattern rifle; they are legal here even though Missouri does not require them the way some Midwestern states do.

For thick river-bottom timber where shots are under 100 yards, a lever gun in .30-30 Winchester or .35 Remington still does everything that needs doing, and a slug gun with a rifled barrel and a scope will hold minute-of-deer to 125 yards. Bolt-action rifles from Savage, Ruger, Winchester, Browning, Remington and Mossberg cover nearly every price point, and a plain 3-9x40 scope on a solid mount remains the sensible answer for a Missouri deer rifle. You can sort through what we have in the catalog.

Permits

Resident hunters need a firearms deer hunting permit for an antlered deer, and antlerless permits are sold county by county with the number of available permits set annually. Youth permits cover the two youth portions. Hunter education certification is required for anyone born on or after January 1, 1967, unless they hunt under the apprentice authorization with a qualified adult. Nonresident permits are more expensive and the bag limit is tighter. Buy permits through the Department of Conservation before you go, and read the current year's deer and turkey regulations booklet, which is the only document that controls.

Where to sight in

The Department of Conservation runs five staffed shooting ranges, at Jay Henges in St. Louis County, August A. Busch in St. Charles County, Lake City in Jackson County, Parma Woods in Platte County and Andy Dalton in Greene County. All five have covered rifle lines with targets out to 100 yards and charge a small hourly fee. Beyond those there are roughly sixty-nine free unstaffed ranges on conservation areas, including Rocky Fork Lakes north of Columbia, Whetstone Creek in Callaway County, Little Indian Creek south of St. Clair and Apple Creek north of Cape Girardeau. Only paper targets on the provided holders are allowed at the unstaffed ranges, and target shooting is not permitted anywhere on a conservation area except on the marked range. The city pages on our city index list the nearest range for each town.

Carry-gun rules while you hunt follow the general law, which is covered in our concealed carry guide, and the rest of the statutory picture is in the Missouri gun laws guide.

General information, not legal advice. Current as of September 2026. Laws change; check the official source before you act.