Anytime MDC asks for opinions on deer regulations in Missouri, they get an earful. Mostly, that’s because Missourians care about deer hunting and, depending on your favorite way to hunt deer, you’d like to see the regulations favor that method a little more. Sometimes the issue is the number of deer — too many, too few, etc. It’s a state with a wide variety of topography and cover types, so it’s sometimes hard to please an entire state.
In recent years, nonresident hunters have increasingly sought out North Missouri in particular. Missouri has never restricted the number of nonresident tags it sells, so someone from out of state always knows they can buy a tag to hunt here. Contrast that with Iowa, which limits its nonresident archery tags to 6,000 annually. It would take four years to accumulate enough points in Iowa to actually draw a tag if you applied this year. Kansas limits its nonresident archery tags to 10,000. Missouri’s nonresident sales increased to 42,000 in 2025, representing 9 percent of all deer hunters.
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