OpenHunt for Android is on Google Play — take your plan into the field. Send it to your phone →

Units / Missouri / Carter County

Unit research · Missouri · Carter County

Carter County — Missouri

36% public hunting land across 325,773 ac. Road access is easy — only 1% of the public land is more than a mile from a road. Almost none of the public land is landlocked.

Open in map
Watch this unit — freeFire near the unit and weather warnings — by email. One unit free, no card.
Deer draw odds (5)Odds and pins: free, no account
Carter CountyFull map — ownership, roads, wind →
380–1,330 ft

elevation range

36%

public hunting land

1%

of public >1 mi from a road

759 ac

landlocked public

1.73

road miles per mi²

96 mi

trails on public land

Computed from primary government data by the AGPL pipeline. See the code →

Tags & season

Draw hunts on this ground.

5 limited-entry deer hunts are drawn on Carter County: apply in the Missouri draw, by the agency's deadline below.

Deer tag · 5 draw hunts (2026-27)$19.50 resident · $360.00 nonresident

Season dates: see Missouri Department of Conservation's regulations

MDC — 2026 Fall Deer & Turkey Hunting Regulations and Information ↗

Missouri deer draw calendar

  • Jul 1, 2027 — applications open
  • Jul 31, 2027 — application deadline
  • Aug 15, 2027 — results

Fees and draw dates from Missouri Department of Conservation, 2026-27, verified 2026-10-02. Tag type from the agency's published draw statistics: a county that appears in none of them has no limited-entry hunt we know of. Source: MDC — 2026 Fall Deer & Turkey Hunting Regulations and Information · MDC — Managed deer hunts · MDC — Elk permits and application · MDC — Black bear permits · MDC — Spring managed turkey hunts · MDC — Permit prices.

Land & access

■ Forest Service 28%■ State conservation 7%▨ Parks & other public 6%□ Private 59%
Unit area325,773 ac
Public hunting land115,689 ac (36%)
Parks & other public19,474 ac · National Park Service, Nonprofit preserve
Landlocked public759 ac (0.7%)
Deer draw pressure2.4 tags/mi² public (0.85 of total area)
Motorized routes (MVUM + roads)882 mi
Mapped trails on public land96 mi

Backcountry

Public land >1 mi from a road593 ac (1% of public)
Road density1.73 mi/mi²
Managed byForest Service 91k ac · State conservation 24k ac
Elevation380–1,330 ft
Median elevation730 ft
Median slope6°

Where the ground sits

380 ft1,330 ft

Tap or hover the bars for each elevation band

Slope mix

Which way the slopes face

N 25%
E 25%
S 25%
W 24%

Share of ground steeper than 5° — flat ground has no facing

North slopes hold shade, cover and snow; south slopes open first.

USGS 3DEP 1 arc-second (30 m), slope at native resolution in a local metric projection, sampled on a 200 m grid. See the code →

Unit intelligence report

17,879 ac of this county has burned — 5% of the unit. The full report assembles it into one printable document and keeps it current as the facts change.

Open the report →

Season conditions — measured, not vibes

Historical temperatures · 2000–2025

Monthly normal highs and lows, °F45° high28° lowJFMAMJJASOND

Normals for 2000–2025 — tap or hover for a month

Measured at FARMINGTON REGIONAL ARPT, 103 km from the unit’s center. NOAA ISD-Lite hourly observations.

Harvest — agency survey estimates

Deer · 2025 · Telecheck, per county

2,210 harvested

no unit-level hunter count published

1,036 antlered bucks · 955 does · 219 button bucks

Deer harvest · 2005–2025 · 1,517 → 2,210

Season breakdown · 2025
SeasonSuccessHarvestHunters
Archery—556—
Firearms—1,560—

Which season is the value play here — same ground, different odds.

Turkey · 2025 · Telecheck, per county

326 harvested

no unit-level hunter count published

283 adult gobblers · 12 hens · 31 juveniles

Turkey harvest · 2005–2025 · 196 → 326

Season breakdown · 2025
SeasonSuccessHarvestHunters
Spring—303—
Fall—23—

Which season is the value play here — same ground, different odds.

Deer and turkey checked through MDC's Telecheck system, per COUNTY, for every season since 2005 — twenty-one seasons, the deepest per-unit record in OpenHunt. Every deer and turkey taken in Missouri must be Telechecked by 10 p.m. on the day of harvest, so these are counts, not survey estimates. Deer is split three ways: antlered bucks, button bucks and does, exactly as MDC records them — doe fawns are counted with the does, so "button bucks" is the male fawns only. The firearms figure is MDC's own "All Firearms" total: every firearms portion, from the youth and antlerless portions to November and alternative methods. Managed hunts appear only in the all-seasons total. ⚠️ NO HUNTER COUNTS. Missouri sells deer and turkey permits statewide, so no county-level count of hunters exists in any MDC publication, and a success rate would need one. These are harvest totals. These are the Telecheck records as MDC serves them. From 2017 on they agree with MDC's final harvest summaries within a third of a percent; 2015 and 2016 run 2.5% and 1.1% above the final figures MDC published for those seasons. Fall archery turkey runs above MDC's fall summary page. Source: MDC Telecheck harvest data (deer and turkey, per county, 2005-present) · MDC Deer Harvest Summaries (final, per county and portion) · MDC Turkey Harvest Summaries.

How these numbers are made

public_land_pct = public_area / unit_area
landlocked = public ∖ reachable(roads, corners)
remote = public ∖ buffer(roads, 1 mi)

Computed, not curated: no paid research team, no opinions dressed as data. If a number looks wrong, tell us at support@openhuntmaps.com — the fix ships for everyone.

Nearby counties

Ripley County27% public · 0% remoteShannon County35% public · 2% remoteReynolds County29% public · 0% remoteWayne County25% public · 2% remoteOregon County21% public · 7% remoteButler County14% public · 0% remote

Ready to scout it?

Everything on this page, live on the map — ownership, boundaries, roads, and your own waypoints.

Take Carter County into the field

Download Missouri’s pack and this unit works with no signal — boundaries, ownership, roads, elevation. Record your hunt with the screen off. Check what’s visible from any ridge.

Scan to install OpenHunt for Android. Open this page on the phone afterwards and it lands in the app.

QR code for openhuntmaps.com/appGet it on Google Play
Open Carter County in the map
What happens nextJul 1 — Deer applications open · details →Jul 31 — Deer application deadline · details →Aug 15 — Deer results · details →
Watch this unit — freeFire near the unit and weather warnings — by email. One unit free, no card.