As she approaches her one-year anniversary as Montgomery County conservation agent, Bree Retterath is excited to work in her first deer hunting season in the county.

“The deer season is crazy,” Retterath said. “It’s like a holiday here.”

The archery deer hunting season is underway for residents in Montgomery County as well as the rest of the state. It started on Sept. 15 and will run until Nov. 15. Hunting season resumes on Nov. 27 and will run until Jan. 15.

For Montgomery County residents, there are a couple of changes. There is no mandatory CWD (Chronic Wasting Disease) sampling like last year and hunters have to get a separate fall turkey hunting permit since they can no longer use an archer’s permit to take turkeys this year.

“The reason I’m wanting to get this out there so the community can have a better understanding of it or being able to hear about it before deer season gets here,” Retterath said.

In mandatory sampling, hunters who harvest a deer in designated CWD Management Zone counties must take the animal on the day of harvest to a mandatory CWD station. Montgomery is one of 27 counties in the state that are not taking mandatory sampling this year. Neighboring counties such as Audrain and Gasconade are doing mandatory sampling.

“Last year was the first year Montgomery had to do mandatory sampling, so they had everybody coming out in the first week of the firearm deer season and they had to get sampled on the drive thru sampling line,” Retterath said. “That is not happening this year.”
Retterath has been the county’s conservation agent since October 2023 after graduating from the Missouri Department of Conservation Agent Training Facility. She is originally from Modesto, Calif., which is located 75 miles south of Sacramento and 89 miles east of San Francisco.
Retterath said while living in the Golden State, she never hunted for deer.
“My dad was a big elk hunter, so we grew up around elk hunting a lot,” Retterath said.
Retterath said the best part about deer hunting season is getting to interact with community residents.
“I love deer season,” she said. “Fall deer and turkey seasons are my favorites because that’s when I’m busy. People are coming in from all around the country to come to hunt here. You get a lot of people from everywhere, but I specifically love being able to talk with the community. All of the restaurants are filled with people. I’m talking with people all of the time during deer season, whereas during the summer months, it’s not as busy because there are not as many fishing opportunities here like other areas.”
Retterath, whose maiden name is Hamblin and got married in April, said she is willing to help out anyone who is interested in being placed on a deer donation list to receive deer meat for food.
“I would hate to see meat like that rot, so if I could get it to a needy family, that would be great,” Retterath said.
Retterath said if county residents want to get their deer tested, they can take them to Mike’s AutoCrafts.