This year’s deer season will see a few changes — including a second youth-only season and the expansion of antler restrictions to more areas of the state — after a recent meeting and vote by the Missouri Conservation Commission.

These changes came after the Missouri Department of Conservation gathered input from more than 4,000 people through a series of 16 public meetings held throughout the state, including St. Joseph. Public input from the meetings, along with comments received online, by mail and telephone, were summarized and coupled with biological considerations to form the department’s recommendations for the upcoming season.

One of the biggest changes for the upcoming season is the addition of a secondary youth portion to be held Jan. 3 and 4, 2009. Lonnie Hansen, the conservation department’s top deer biologist, said the additional days of youth deer hunting are part of the conservation department’s continuing effort to make hunting more accessible to young people.

“A lot of Missourians take vacation around the holidays,” Hansen said. “Youngsters who get deer rifles for Christmas will be able to use them. The youth-only season allows adults to focus their attention on teaching kids to hunt. That enhances the hunt’s value as a time for family.”

Youth hunters still will be able to enjoy a two-day youth hunt before the main firearms season. The dates for this year’s early youth portion will be Nov. 1 and 2, compared to previous years where the youth-only hunt was scheduled during the last full weekend in October.

The new regulation changes also will increase the amount of counties which have a “four-point rule” from the original 29 in the northern and central parts of the state to a new total of 65 that now will be covered. This expansion will include the additions of Buchanan and Clinton counties.

The four-point rule allows hunters to take a buck only if its antlers are less than 3 inches long or of at least four points that are 1 inch or longer on at least one side.

Information gathered during the initial four-year test of the “four-point rule” showed it increased doe harvests mainly in central Missouri counties but not in pilot counties in Northwestern Missouri.

However, the four-point rule increased the number of mature, large-antlered deer in both central and northwestern counties. More than 70 percent of hunters have expressed support for the antler restrictions in 22 counties across northern Missouri.

“We found that most hunters in most parts of the state like the four-point rule,” Hansen said. “We also discovered people liked the rule more the longer it was in effect in their counties. Approval of the four-point rule also increased in adjoining counties during the four-year trial.”

Hansen said the rule’s popularity was a major factor in extending it.

“It didn’t work quite as well as we had hoped as a management tool,” he said. “It did a better job of shifting harvest from bucks to does in central Missouri than in the northwest, where we really need more population management tools. But hunters really like it, especially in the northern half of the state.”

For the 2008 season, the only other considerable changes were in the dates of the various seasons. The early youth portion, November regular firearms, muzzleloader and antlerless portions of the 2008-09 deer season have been pushed back five days. The archery season will continue to open on the same day as last year, but not close until Nov. 14. It will then reopen on Nov. 21 and continue until Jan. 15.

For a complete listing of all Missouri deer hunting regulations including the recent changes, hunters can go online to www.mdc.mo.gov or pick up a copy of the fall deer and turkey hunting regulations booklets, which will be available at permit vendors in July.