What to Do in the First Hour After You Lose a Downed Deer in Missouri

You made a good shot. You heard the hit. Then the blood trail quit, the light quit, or both—and now you are standing in Missouri timber wondering what to do next. The first hour is not about covering more ground. It is about not making the recovery harder than it already is.

This checklist is what hunters on the Missouri Drone Deer Recovery Network map hear most often when a Part 107 thermal pilot picks up the phone. MDDR itself does not fly the jobs. The pilots on the map are independent. Rates, hours, and drive distance vary—ask when you call. The point of the first hour is simple: mark what you know, stop walking the trail cold, get permission lined up, and get a pilot the facts they need.

Before you take another step, pin two things.

Shot site. Drop a pin where the deer was standing when you shot. If your phone map app will not share a pin easily, screenshot the map with GPS coordinates visible, or write the lat/long in a note. Same idea if you are on a paper map: mark it so someone else could find that spot in the dark.

Last blood (or last sign). Walk only as far as you still have a clear trail. When blood, hair, or tracks go thin or stop, pin that spot too. Do not “just check one more ridge” and then try to remember where you left the trail. The pilot needs a start point and a last-known point, not a story about where you think it might have gone.

If you have a hunting app with track recording, leave it running while you mark those pins. A short breadcrumb trail from stand to last blood is gold when someone else is launching a thermal drone an hour later.

This is the hard part for most hunters. You want to keep looking. In the first hour, that urge often costs you the recovery.

A downed deer—or a deer that is still mobile after the hit—does not need more pressure from boots. Extra circling, cutoffs, and “I’ll just push it toward the creek” walks stir bedding cover, smear sign, and can move a still-mobile animal farther from where a thermal camera would have found it. The Wildlife Code of Missouri also draws a hard line around using drones (or anything else) to drive or harass wildlife; recovery work is about locating an animal already hit after a lawful hunt, not pushing it.

So: mark your pins. Sit down. Listen. Call for help. Save the ground search for after a pilot has either found heat or told you where the camera could not see.

If you are with a partner, one person stays at last blood with a light and a phone. The other handles calls and landowner contact. Do not split up and start grid-walking opposite sides of the timber.

Missouri expects permission before a drone goes up. The 2025 Fall Deer & Turkey Hunting Regulations booklet from the Missouri Department of Conservation is plain about it: before launching a drone, you must get permission from the public or private property owner; on a conservation area, you need permission from a conservation agent. (Always verify the current booklet and Wildlife Code for the season you are in—regs change.)

That means the first hour includes phone work:

• Call the landowner of the ground you hunted.
• If last blood sits near a fence, call the neighbor too. Deer do not respect property lines.
• If you are on an MDC conservation area, do not assume a recovery flight is automatic—contact a conservation agent for authorization before anyone launches.

A pilot on the MDDR map will ask about permission. Having yes answers ready saves everyone’s night. Trespass is still trespass, even when you are trying to recover a deer you shot.

Open the pilots directory, find someone near your county, and call. Have this ready so you are not guessing in the dark:

1. County and nearest town — so they know drive time.
2. Time of the shot — minutes matter for how warm a carcass still is.
3. Shot placement and distance — high shoulder, quartering, gut, leg, unknown. Be honest. “I think I hit it good” is less useful than “it was a hard quartering-away at about 40 yards and I saw the arrow bury.”
4. What the deer did after the hit — mule-kicked, hunched, ran flat, walked, bedded in sight then left.
5. Pins — shot site and last blood, shared as map links or coordinates.
6. Terrain and cover — CRP, thick cedar, oak timber, corn, creek bottom, canopy density.
7. Permission status — who said yes, who you still need to reach, any neighbor issues.
8. Whether anyone is still afield with a firearm or bow — while a recovery drone is in flight, Missouri’s drone recovery rules restrict possessing a firearm, bow, or crossbow (with a limited concealable-firearm exception under Chapter 571, RSMo, that may not be used to take wildlife). Clear the area of hunting weapons before launch; the pilot will confirm.

You do not need to sell the call. Short and factual is enough. An honest pilot will tell you if thermal is a good bet tonight or if conditions are working against the camera.

MDDR pilots fly to help locate a deer already down after a lawful hunt. They are not there to scout for a hunt in progress, find live unhit deer, or turn a recovery into a chase. If you want the network’s short framing of that line, read the About page.

Thermal shines when the ground has cooled and the animal still holds heat. That is why a lot of successful Missouri recoveries happen after last light. Hot, humid evenings give the camera less contrast. Thick canopy can block the view straight down. A deer that is still on its feet is a different problem than one that has expired—more on that in our post about what a pilot can and cannot promise.

None of the listed pilots “guarantees a find.” Weather, cover, time since the shot, and whether the deer is still moving all matter. What you can expect is a Part 107 pilot with a thermal camera who will tell you straight what they see.

Do

• Pin shot and last blood immediately.
• Stop walking once the trail goes cold.
• Call landowners (and a conservation agent on CAs).
• Call a listed pilot with county, shot, time, and pins.
• Keep people and hunting weapons clear for the flight.

Don’t

• Grid-walk the whole farm “just in case.”
• Ask anyone to flush, drive, or herd the deer toward a road or fence.
• Launch a drone without property permission.
• Assume the network itself is a dispatch service—you call the pilot directly.

While the pilot is en route, stay put near last blood or a meeting point they choose. Keep phones charged. Note wind and any coyote activity. If the deer shows up dead in the open before the drone arrives, call the pilot back—do not leave them launching for nothing.

When the animal is recovered, finish what Missouri already requires of hunters: reasonable effort to retrieve, proper tagging and Telecheck, and no trespass along the way. Season dates, bag limits, and CWD rules live on MDC’s deer pages—start at mdc.mo.gov deer and the current regulations booklet. This post is practical recovery advice, not legal advice.

If you are in that first hour right now: mark the pins, stop walking, sort permission, then open the statewide map and call someone close.

Find a Missouri Part 107 thermal pilot →

Pilots who want to be listed can apply on the join page. Hunters who want to see what these recoveries look like can browse the gallery.