The 2024 turkey season in Missouri is going to look a little bit different this year, and it's raising some eyebrows. 

After years of declining turkey populations and states doing everything they can to mitigate the problem, Missouri is making some polarizing changes. While many hunters are calling for season length or bag limit changes, Missouri has committed to a different approach for 2024. 

The Missouri Conservation Commission gathered at its open meeting on December 8, to discuss and vote on proposals for the upcoming hunting seasons. The following proposals were passed: 

• Youth Spring season dates of April 6 through April 7
• Regular Spring season dates of April 15 through May 5
• Fall firearms season dates of October 1 through October 31
• Spring shooting hours have been extended to all-day hunting for private land but remain half-day (until 1 p.m.) on public lands
• Fall turkey hunters of all methods would have to purchase a Fall Firearms Turkey Hunting Permit
• The fall turkey season bag limit has been reduced to two turkeys of either sex

"Wild Turkeys" by U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service - Midwest Region is licensed under CC BY 2.0.

Shaking Things Up

At first glance, nothing stands out about the approved season dates considering that they are consistent with years past. As far as the fall turkey season bag limit is concerned, most hunters (myself included) will applaud the bag limit decrease. The most interesting decision made by the Missouri Conservation Commission this year is unequivocally the shooting hours change. 

Missouri has been a mid-day closure state for many decades and most hunters can only remember it as such. There is no doubt that this change will be met with mixed reviews from Missouri’s hunters. The decision to extend shooting hours on private land only is sure to create some angst between public land and private land hunters. On a surface level, it seems discriminatory against those without private land access. Here is what the Missouri Department of Conservation had to say about the issue in their press release, "MDC noted that 93% of land in Missouri is privately owned and 88% of Missouri’s annual spring turkey harvest is done on private land. MDC added that maintaining shooting hours ending at 1 p.m. on conservation areas and other public lands would continue to support multiple afternoon activities by a variety of users in these areas." 

State biologist Nick Oakley also mentioned in the release that the shooting hours change was enacted to increase hunter opportunity and hunter participation. That makes sense, but many readers will still hang up on the fact that it’s a private land-only change. Are those who only have public land to hunt not entitled to the same rights as those who hunt private land?

It will be interesting to see the public reception to these changes and I’m sure the MDC will respond in one way or another. 

If you want to get a bunch of hunters engaged in a spirited discussion, just start discussing turkey hunting regulations. We all have opinions on the subject and feel like we could solve all the state’s problems if we were game and fish directors. But I’ve learned you can’t please everybody. If you hunt Missouri, let us know what you think about the upcoming changes.

- Will Bowen, DeerCast Senior Writer

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