Looking for an opportunity to hunt an area with good numbers of better than average bucks or maybe the chance at filling the freezer by harvesting several does out of an overpopulated area?  Now is the time to be researching and applying for a deer management hunt here in Missouri. 

The Missouri Department of Conservation has organized more than 90 hunts for the 2009-2010 deer season to offer additional public hunting opportunities in the hopes of attaining a certain deer management goal for the specific area.  These hunts are held on conservation areas, county parks, management lands, nature reserves, national wildlife refuges, state parks and wildlife areas throughout the state.  Hunts are open to residents and nonresidents; and include special hunts just for youth or physically disabled hunters.  Hunts are also broken down by means of harvest; archery, muzzleloader or modern center fire weapons.

You can only apply for one managed deer hunt each year, either solely or with a group of up to six others.  Each year that you aren't drawn for a hunt, you will receive a preference point for the next years' drawing, and continue to accumulate points each year until you are successful in the draw.  You can greatly increase your chances of being drawn by studying a report the MDC puts out each year detailing the previous years managed hunt results.  It will show how many people applied for a specific hunt and the number of permits that were available for that hunt.  I've found that traditionally the percentages of applications for each hunt remain nearly the same each year.  Using that info, you can easily see which hunts you'll have a better chance of being drawn for.  It will also show a harvest report detailing how many hunters actually showed up to participate in the hunt and how many bucks, does or button bucks were harvested.

Most of these hunts are held in areas that are overpopulated with deer due to no hunting opportunities outside of these special hunts.   I always apply for hunts with a group, and have been drawn twice, in 14 years to two different areas.  One location was in the Southern part of the state and one in the North.  Each had good numbers of deer and many high quality older bucks.  The key to being successful on these hunts is just like any other hunt, do your homework.  Study satellite and topography maps, also if feasible, and allowed, try to plan a pre-hunt scouting trip.  On my first managed hunt I was unsuccessfully in harvesting a deer, mainly I feel due to my lack of better preparing for the hunt.  I was relying too much on a group of hunters I managed to hook up with who had been going on this hunt for several years in a row (some hunts have 100% success rates for being drawn).  Twelve years later I was finally drawn for my second hunt and I spent a great deal of time studying maps of this area and even made a trip to the area in the summer for a day of scouting since the area was open to the public at that time. That preparation paid off for myself and the other members of our group when it came down to hunt time.  One hunter had several opportunities at smaller bucks, two of us harvested nice 8 pointers and one harvested an 11-point buck that grossed over 153 inches.  In addition, I think each of us had at least 10 does come easily within range while we were on stand, in the day and half that we hunted before tagging out.