Wife and I just moved from Illinois to Missouri. Northern edge of Kansas City. Any advice for getting hunting license tags ect.... Also if there’s any good public bow hunting around the area (Platte city)would be greatly appreciated.
I’m thinking about doing a little out of state hunting in Missouri this year as well. I’m still in Illinois unfortunately though. Sent from my iPhone using Bowhunting.com Forums
Welcome neighbor. Check out MDC's website for details on license stuff. Pretty straight forward. They have an app as well that you can buy, view, manage your tags and even check your harvests. MO is pretty hunter centric and pretty easy to get in the game. Also public land is well managed. If you need any specifics just ask. Sent from my SM-G960U using Bowhunting.com Forums mobile app
Hey thank you much. Yes MO seems to be very hunter friendly. Not used to that being from Illinois. Are you located around KC. Any bow shops you recommend? Preferably not a big chain store. And any public ground that’s not crazy busy?
I'm southeast of KC in pleasant hill. There is a pretty good shop in Raytown call BB archery that treats me good. I've never looked into public up there and I'd bet public ground is going to be nuts this year. It was during turkey season. Sent from my SM-G960U using Bowhunting.com Forums mobile app
Nebraska resident that hunts private Mo land in NW part of state. Mo archery licenses are a great bargain even though they just raised the non resident costs. you get 2 any deer and 2 fall turkey tags with purchase of single license. Im no help on public land as i haven't hunted it there, but I know St Joe area is chalk full of deer. this is from MDC page https://nature.mdc.mo.gov/discover-nature/find/places
Check out elevated archery on fb. I think they are just inside KS. Never shot their course. Im a friend of a friend of the owner. I think he’s retired military and a good guy. I’d go sometime but I’m in southern MO.
I have hunted public ground in central and southwest Missouri. It may be different up by KC in the northwest part of the state but here is what my experience shows. The only seasons where there seem to be an obnoxious amount of people on public land is opening day of dove season and firearms deer season. Other than that, you may run into other hunters from time to time but usually there is plenty of ground to spread out and not interfere with each other's hunt. Bow season is usually not too crazy since it is so long and there isn't a crazy rush for everyone to hunt in a short period of time like rifle season. You can reduce your chance of running into other hunters or fewer hunters if you are willing to travel some. For example, I live very close to Springfield, Mo and I usually don't hunt the public land within 1 hour drive of Springfield. I'll drive 1-2 hours away from the city and make sure my destination is at least 1 hour away from any major sized town. By doing this, you run into less people. Most of the hunters coming out of the city aren't willing to travel more than 30-45 minutes each way to a hunting destination in my experience. On Missouri's Department of Conservation website, there is a places to go section that will show you state run conservation areas by county. You can use this as a starting point to find conservation areas that allow deer hunting. Some areas are restricted to bow and shotgun shooting shot only so the deer don't get hunted with rifle or muzzleloader on those areas. The potential for more and bigger deer on these areas are greater than the areas that allow firearms deer hunting. They are few and far between and some of them that allow bow only aren't even close to any towns but may be smaller areas with farmer's houses nearby or something. Hope you find a good place to go this year.
+1 for BB archery. I bought my first bow I have ever owned there this year. Was treated really well being a total noob. As far as public land, I would get on MDC>Hunting>Deer and there should show you a lot of public locations. I live on the south side of KC in Peculiar. I am going to check out Settles Ford in a couple weeks and also plan on doing most of my hunting around Truman Lake on Corp land.
I appreciate all the help. My wife and I just purchased 40 acres north east of KC. We looked at a place by lake Annett sorry for spelling. Have several cams out. Not going to be able to hunt this year unfortunately but some very promising pics so far. Most of these pics are only 50 yards behind the house. Hope they stick around. Just gathering info for next season. Hope it works out. Seems to be a pretty promising area. And I hope to make it better with all the land management ideas I’ve got.
If you're still looking for hunting information in Missouri, I was new last year and got it down to a T already... Send me a message.
