Managed Deer Hunt - Park CLOSED

Name: Managed Deer Hunt - Park CLOSED
Start: 2025-11-03T00:00:00-06:00
End: 2025-11-03T23:45:00-06:00
Location: 5901 South Highway 163, Columbia, MO, United States, Missouri 65203

Schedule

Mon Nov 03 2025 at 12:00 am to 11:45 pm

UTC-06:00

Location

5901 South Highway 163, Columbia, MO, United States, Missouri 65203 | Columbia, MO

All of Rock Bridge Memorial State Park including the Gans Creek Wild Area will be closed to public access on Monday and Tuesday, November 3 and 4, 2025 for your safety and for success of a special managed deer hunt.
Please do not visit the park on those days.
You will be turned away by sentries stationed at parking areas. If you want to volunteer to be a sentry, contact the park office at 573-449-7402. Missouri State Parks are usually wildlife refuges (no hunting), however, when park staff have determined that an overpopulation of deer exists, then special managed hunts are held to prevent harm to the ecosystem. Because deer prefer to eat certain species of plants, they can greatly reduce or even eliminate those species which then harms other animals that also rely upon those plants. Browse studies conducted here within RBMSP have indicated that we have an overpopulation. The Missouri Department of Conservation has already drawn names of the hunters who have been selected to participate. It will be a muzzle loader gun hunt only.