County Laclede, Missouri

Laclede County occupies the heart of the Missouri Ozarks, with deeply dissected plateau country characterized by steep hardwood-covered ridges, cedar glades, and productive river-bottom flats along the Gasconade River and its major tributary the Osage Fork. Elevations vary roughly 300 feet between ridge tops and creek hollows. The underlying Ordovician dolomite and sandstone of the Salem Plateau creates karst features — springs, sinkholes, and losing stream segments — that feed year-round water sources critical to deer. Upland soils are thin chert-rich Ozark loams supporting white and black oak mast; bottomland soils along the Gasconade and Osage Fork are richer alluvial silts that grow persimmon, pawpaw, and agricultural edge habitat. Mixed oak-hickory forest dominates, with patches of cedar on south-facing slopes and small row-crop and hay farms scattered through the county providing critical edge cover and food sources.

Moderate. Laclede County sits roughly 70 miles east of Springfield and about 170 miles southwest of St. Louis, within reach of both urban hunter pools but not so close as to generate the intense pressure found in counties nearer those cities. Public MDC conservation areas and adjacent Mark Twain National Forest attract out-of-county hunters during firearms season, but the county's rugged Ozark terrain filters pressure — hunters willing to push deep into timber encounter lighter competition. Private farmland in the creek valleys is held tightly by local landowners. Overall pressure is below that of northeast Missouri agriculture counties but higher than the most remote southern Ozark counties.

Laclede County is inside Missouri's Chronic Wasting Disease (CWD) Management Zone. Hunters may purchase and fill up to four (4) firearms antlerless deer hunting permits over-the-counter — no quota draw required. Archery antlerless permits are unlimited statewide during archery season, including Laclede County. Resident landowners with at least 75 acres receive two no-cost Landowner Antlerless Firearms Deer Hunting Permits. Hunters must comply with CWD carcass-transport restrictions; a voluntary sampling drop site is located at Roberts Cattle Co. (31210 Highway O, Lebanon). No county-specific managed or quota antlerless draw was in effect for the 2025-26 season.

Deer archery season: Sept. 15 – Nov. 14 and Nov. 26 – Jan. 15 (2025-26 dates). Deer firearms: early antlerless Oct. 10-12; early youth Nov. 1-2; November portion Nov. 15-25; late youth Nov. 28-30; late antlerless Dec. 6-14; alternative methods (muzzleloader/crossbow/archery) Dec. 27 – Jan. 6. Spring turkey: youth weekend April 11-12, regular season April 20 – May 10 (2026), two-bird limit. Fall turkey archery concurrent with deer archery season; fall firearms turkey Oct. 1-31. Squirrel (gray and fox): May 23 – Feb. 15, 10-per-day limit; strong populations in the county's oak-hickory forest. Cottontail rabbit: Oct. 1 – Feb. 15, 6-per-day limit. Waterfowl hunting available along the Gasconade River and Osage Fork corridor during November-January duck seasons within the Central Flyway zone. Raccoon, coyote, and fox hunting and trapping are popular autumn through winter pursuits.

Laclede County's location at the geographic core of the Missouri Ozarks gives it a distinctive hunting identity — forested spring-fed river country with enough agricultural patchwork (hay farms, small row crops in creek bottoms) to produce excellent edge-dependent deer habitat. The Gasconade River and Osage Fork corridor offer classic Ozark hunting with timber-to-creek-bottom transitions where mature bucks stage during the rut. Public access at Gasconade Hills and Osage Fork conservation areas, plus proximity to Mark Twain National Forest, makes the county accessible without private-land connections. The county's 2024-25 deer harvest of approximately 3,856 animals is solid for an Ozark county of this size, reflecting a healthy population. Spring turkey hunting along wooded ridges ranks among the region's best, with strong gobbler numbers in mixed-oak timber. I-44 bisects the county through Lebanon, giving hunters convenient access from Springfield or St. Louis without the pressure those proximity levels usually imply.