Deer Season Saturday Comes With Mandatory Sample Testing

(Park Hills, Mo) - Rifle Deer Season starts a half hour before sunrise Saturday morning in Missouri, and there are some mandatory things by law you may not know about if you shoot a deer.  

The Missouri Department of Conservation says Deer Rifle Season will begin a half hour before sunrise Saturday and go each day until November 26th each day from one-half hour before sunrise to one-half hour after sunset.  

There are some mandatory things to look at this weekend.  If you shoot a deer in Washington, Jefferson, St Francois, Ste Genevieve, Perry and Crawford counties in our area during opening weekend, you are required to take your deer to a Chronic Wasting Disease station for a mandatory sample to be taken by the state.

The requirement is only for this weekend of the rifle season. There are two mandatory stations in Washington, Crawford, St Francois, Ste Genevieve counties.  One in Perry County, and three stations in Jefferson County.  

The Conservation also strongly encourages hunters to not move whole carcasses of deer harvested in these counties and to dispose of all carcass remains that are moved from the site of harvest in a permitted landfill to prevent the spread of the disease to otherwise healthy deer, should your deer have the disease to begin with.