Hunted public land MO as a non res archery hunter for years and NEVER felt crowded. Sometimes I’m the only one in the entire CA.
This is all about MO res having their panties in a bunch. Nothing to do about deer quality or crowding. They just complain about everything down there. And poach. And trespass.
As a MO resident my entire life, and also a Public land hunter I can say I have never poached and also never trespassed, So just so you know not everyone is like that. Is there an issue with both of those things..Sure just like every state has.
As for hardly ever seeing anyone on a CA, man I wish I could see that,
A couple years ago I went north by myself for opening weekend of our Rifle deer season.
A northern CA i have hunted multiple times. In one parking lot where I was camped, there were vehicles from 12 states...I counted. All the way from Florida, Alabama to Wisconsin and Even western states like CO and WY.
Its no different than all of the changes CO has made for their Elk season in the last few years. But those threads are also just like this one, split down the middle with Res and NR liking and disliking the new changes.
MO has most all of our neighboring states which hold the majority of Record book deer have higher tags and also draw systems and limited tags. MO has been the back up plan for people for years, Just like CO OTC tags were for the west. But now thats all changed as well.
Try and get a tag for KS, IA or IL and see how long you would wait. Yet even still a NR can come here and still (at this time) buy a tag over the counter, yet it costs more than it did last year and everyone is up in arms over it.
Personally I like the changes and I think they have been needed for years. Sure we have a pile of Deer in MO. We also have a pile of hunters as well.
It isn't about the deer management in my opinion. it is about crowding in our Public lands.
Take CO for a small example. CO has (according to google) 24 Million acres of Public Ground, Missouri has just over 3 Million.
I would jsut guess that CO biggest game for a hunter is Elk...For 2025 (Again according to google( CO sole roughly 130,000 Elk tags.
Missouri MDC Estimated ( again according to google) 900,000 tags.
Talk about apples to Oranges.
I havent had the chance like a lot here to hunt west much. Only been once. But I also play the points game in 2 states CO & WY.
I know that if I get a tag in those states ill be lucky. And I am 100% ok with how it all works.
Why should MO be any different.