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recreationstate
Hunting and Fishing Without a Permit
A 60% service-related disability, former prisoner of war status, or a Warrior Transition assignment lets you fish and hunt in Missouri without buying a permit at all.
Verified August 18, 2026
What this benefit is
A 60% service-related disability, former prisoner of war status, or a Warrior Transition assignment lets you fish and hunt in Missouri without buying a permit at all.
What it's worth: No fishing or hunting permit to buy at all
- The saving is whatever the permits you would otherwise buy each year cost, so it depends entirely on what you hunt and fish for.
Who is entitled to it
- You were honorably discharged.
- Your service-related disability is 60% or more.
- You are a former prisoner of war.
Not sure whether that describes you?
Answer a few questions about this benefit specifically — we only ask what this one actually depends on, and we stop as soon as we know.
How to claim it
- 1Get a certified statement of eligibility from the VA, or your orders if you are assigned to a Warrior Transition unit or a military medical centre.
- 2Carry it whenever you fish or hunt. There is no permit to buy and nothing to apply for, so the document IS the entitlement.
- 3Buy the permits the exemption does not cover separately — the migratory bird permit, the federal duck stamp, a trout permit or trout park tag, and deer, turkey, elk and bear permits.
- File with
- Nothing to file — carry the evidence instead
- Documents you will need
- va benefit summary letter
- No renewal
- Once granted it does not need renewing.
CorrectionMissouri sets this at 60%, not at 100% and not at total and permanent. A veteran who has learned from other states that recreation benefits begin at 100% will skip this one, and that is the most common way it is lost.
Worth knowingThis is an exemption from needing a permit, not a cheaper permit. There is no application and no annual renewal — the VA certification you carry is the whole of it.
Worth knowingIt reaches nonresidents too: an out-of-state veteran who meets the test hunts and fishes in Missouri without a permit, and may buy the permits it does not cover at resident prices rather than nonresident ones.
Known gapMDC's veteran page excludes black bear, deer, elk and turkey; its permit exemptions table names only deer and turkey. We publish the wider list because a veteran wrongly told they need no permit is the one who gets cited. Confirm the current season's rules before hunting any of the four.
Sources
- authority · published policyMissouri Department of Conservation — Veteran Benefits
- operating · published policyMissouri Department of Conservation — Permit Exemptions
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