Permits
Before heading out to fish or hunt, be sure to get the appropriate permit. You can buy a permit to fish or a permit to hunt for deer, turkey, waterfowl, furbearers or small game.
You can purchase your permits on-line, over the phone, at any Department of Conservation office or from over a thousand vendors around the state.
You may need to purchase a special permit if you collect, handle, breed or process wild animals. For example, wildlife managers, researchers, taxidermists, dog trainers, collectors and hobbyists need special permits. All special permits must be purchased through the MDC headquarters in Jefferson City.
Seasons & Limits
To ensure that future generations have the chance to hunt and fish the same wildlife we do today, the Conservation Commission has imposed seasons and limits on some of the most popular game.
Why we need regulations
After centuries of being hunted and trapped, most of the state’s native wild creatures are still with us. Many of them are as abundant now as they were 300 years ago.
For a long time people believed that wildlife was doomed to disappear as humans changed the landscape. It was only a little more than 100 years ago that serious attempts to manage the state’s wildlife began, and only a little more than 50 years ago that real game management began. Species such as deer and wild turkey have been brought back from the edge of extinction, and skillful management has kept other wild creatures that otherwise might have slipped away.
A major part of managing our wildlife is regulating what, how, where and when we may hunt. That’s where the Wildlife Code comes in. The Wildlife Code of Missouri is a permissive code. A permissive code means that rather than giving you an endless list of “thou shalt nots,” we keep it simple by telling you what you may do.
You may take or attempt to take only those animals and furbearers permitted by the Code, and only by methods, and only at the times and under the circumstances mentioned in the Code. These regulations are necessary to protect and manage Missouri’s abundant game and furbearer populations and to make access to Missouri hunting and trapping as fair and as simple as possible.
