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Hunting Seasons Calendar: Deer, Elk and Ducks
Updated November 9, 2026 · maintained, not published once
Kept up to date: the seasons open now and coming up, with dates from each state's wildlife agency. More states are added as we confirm their dates.
Firearm deer seasons, open now and coming up
Dates from each state wildlife agency for the 2026-27 season. Zones, units and license rules vary inside each state; read the state's regulations before you go.
The firearms season opened Saturday and runs through November 29, with licenses and harvest registration now in a new electronic system.
Minnesota's firearms deer season opened Saturday, November 7, and runs through November 29, Northern News Now reports. The Department of Natural Resources has started a four-year rotation for chronic wasting disease surveillance that splits the state into quadrants; this year, testing is mandatory in southwestern Minnesota for deer age 1 or older taken on opening weekend, and voluntary elsewhere. Northeastern Minnesota is not scheduled for mandatory testing until 2028.
A man was gored in the face by an antler on Monday, October 26, while he and another man tried to cut a young mule deer buck free from wire on private land near Walla Walla, Washington Fish and Wildlife said. He became caught in the wire as the buck struggled and was treated at a local hospital; officers later had to put the deer down because it was too badly entangled. The department's advice: do not try to free tangled or injured wildlife yourself. Call WDFW Police at 360-902-2936, email [email protected], or call 911, and keep pets away from deer, which can seriously injure people when threatened.
Minnesota goes first, then Michigan on November 15, Wisconsin's nine-day hunt on November 21 and Pennsylvania on November 28. Dates and zones below; confirm the details with each state.
Minnesota's firearms deer season opens Saturday, November 7. In the 100-series permit areas, most of the north, it runs through November 22; in the 200- and 300-series areas the A season runs November 7 to 15, and the 300-series B season November 21 to 29.
Vermont's four-day muzzleloader season for antlerless deer runs October 29 through November 1 and is open only to hunters who received an antlerless permit; a hunting license and muzzleloader license are also required. The permit can be used now, in the November 14 to 29 regular season or in the November 30 to December 13 muzzleloader season, for one antlerless deer. Report a deer within 48 hours online, with photos, or at a big game reporting station, and field-dress it before reporting.
The bear had been shot with a crossbow the day before. It chased the couple's dog, then attacked her; officers later killed it.
A woman was injured by a black bear on Sunday, October 18, on a rural property outside Cusick in Pend Oreille County, Washington, the Department of Fish and Wildlife said. She was treated at a local hospital and then transferred to a hospital in Spokane.
New Mexico closed Bear Management Zone 1 to hunting on October 16 after its harvest limit was reached. With Zones 2, 3, 9, 10 and 12 already closed, six zones are now shut. Confirm a zone is open before every hunt on the Department of Wildlife's website or the Bear and Cougar Closure and Harvest Hotline, 877-950-5466.
A second proposal would let bird hunters tag electronically. Comments close October 28.
Idaho Fish and Game is taking public comment through October 28 on two proposed rules, one of which would change what hunters can do with a deer, elk or moose taken inside a chronic wasting disease management zone.
Bobwhite counts beat the 15-year average in most regions, and scaled quail keep climbing. South Texas and the Trans-Pecos look best.
Texas quail season opens November 1, and the state's August roadside surveys point to good numbers, Texas Parks and Wildlife says. Biologists drove more than 3,300 miles of survey routes, and most ecoregions counted more bobwhites per route than their 15-year average, helped by good habitat and timely rain despite a hot, dry summer.
Drawn from more than 34,000 applicants. New this year, tags are tied to specific units.
Wisconsin's ninth elk season since the animals were reintroduced opens Saturday, October 17, the Department of Natural Resources says. Sixteen state hunters were drawn from more than 34,000 resident applicants.
Arizona Game and Fish is warning hunters that the Rough Rider, a three-day gravel bike race, runs October 30 through November 1 in the Prescott area, on the second weekend of the general deer hunt. Riders will be in the Camp Wood area in Units 17A and 17B on Friday, the Mt. Union area of the Bradshaw Mountains in 20A on Saturday, and Copper Basin and Skull Valley in 20A and 17B on Sunday. Route maps are on the race's website; the department asks hunters and cyclists to be aware of each other.
Every deer a year or older taken November 7 and 8 in the southwest must be sampled, the first year of a statewide four-year rotation.
Hunters in southwest Minnesota will have to get every deer a year or older that they take on the firearms deer opener, Saturday and Sunday, November 7 and 8, sampled for chronic wasting disease, the Minnesota DNR says. Mandatory sampling is new to the southwest this year.
New Mexico closed Bear Management Zone 10 to hunting on October 9 after its harvest limit was reached, the Department of Wildlife says. Zones 2, 3, 9, 10 and 12 are now closed and all others remain open. Hunters must confirm a zone is open before every hunt, on the department's website or the Bear and Cougar Closure and Harvest Hotline, 877-950-5466.
New this year: one opener for north and south, and a bag of three. Nearly 29,000 birds are being stocked at 24 sites.
Idaho's resident pheasant season opens October 15 everywhere in the state this year, rather than on different dates in the north and south, Idaho Fish and Game said. Nonresidents start October 20. The daily bag limit is now three roosters, no more than two of them from Upland Game Bird Permit release areas. The youth pheasant hunt, for licensed hunters 17 and younger, runs October 8 through 14.
The Minnesota DNR has decided not to adopt the optional three-duck daily bag limit, it said October 8, keeping the existing six-bird structure. The department's own assessment found the option would not harm duck populations, but many hunters said the six-bird limit supports a culture of species identification, mentorship and tradition, and many were confused and thought they would be forced to a lower limit. States that opted in are part of a five-year evaluation through 2031, after which the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service will decide whether to offer it to others.
The whitetail herd is estimated at 5.64 million after three strong fawn years. New World screwworm was confirmed in Texas this year.
Texas hunters should see good harvest numbers and a fair shot at quality bucks this season, Texas Parks and Wildlife says. After three straight years of above-average fawn survival, the state's white-tailed deer population is estimated at 5.64 million.
The bears had been feeding on unsecured garbage and chickens for days. Idaho Fish and Game says drought is pushing bears toward people.
Two residents of the Sunset Heights subdivision in Salmon, Idaho, were injured early October 2 when a juvenile black bear tried to get in their back door around 3:30 a.m., Idaho Fish and Game said. They tackled and wrestled the bear. One was flown to Eastern Idaho Regional Medical Center in Idaho Falls.
The draft puts the statewide population at more than 62,000 and is the step the law requires before any bobcat season could return.
The California Department of Fish and Wildlife has released a draft Bobcat Conservation and Management Plan, the first in the state's history, and is taking written comments through November 1. Bobcat hunting and trapping have been illegal in California since 2020 except under limited circumstances such as a depredation permit, and that law requires a plan like this before a season can even be considered.
Comments run through November 20. In-person sessions are in La Crosse, Merrill and Appleton, plus one online.
The Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources has released an initial draft of its next Turkey Management Plan and is taking public comment through November 20 through an online comment tool. After that, staff will revise the plan and take it to the Natural Resources Board for final approval.
Nonresidents hunting public land or Block Management must wait until October 20 for most upland birds.
Montana's pheasant season opens Saturday, October 10. Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks plans to release more than 15,000 pheasants across the state this fall, including more than 3,500 this week, under its Roosters for Recruitment program, now in its sixth year. The program is aimed at giving new hunters a better chance of success.
A collection station runs October 17 to 21, and carcass restrictions in the unit are mandatory.
The New Mexico Department of Game and Fish is asking elk hunters in Game Management Unit 34 to bring in the heads of their animals for chronic wasting disease testing. CWD has been found in the unit before, and the department wants to see how far it has spread.
More than 1,450 new hunting and fishing opportunities across 32 states. Buried in the same rule: non-lead requirements at nine refuges, rescinded weeks before they took effect.
The Fish and Wildlife Service published its 2026-2027 station-specific hunting and sport fishing rule in the Federal Register on September 1. It opens or expands more than 1,450 opportunities at 111 field stations — 107 refuges and four national fish hatcheries — across 32 states. Interior describes it as the largest expansion of hunting and fishing access in the agency's history, and on the access question alone it is hard to argue with.
National Hunting and Fishing Day falls on Saturday September 26, the same day as National Public Lands Day. State agencies run free family events for it, and they are more substantial than the name suggests: North Carolina is opening its hunter education complex with free muzzleloader, shotgun and rifle ranges, firearms and ammunition provided, plus archery, a skills trail and a falconry demonstration. West Virginia's event at Stonewall runs game butchering and wild game cooking demonstrations. If you have been meaning to get someone started, a day with free ranges and borrowed equipment is a cheaper introduction than a licence and a rifle.
Sampling is not the hard part. Getting the head to a station before the meat spoils is the hard part.
Work out where your sample goes before you leave home. Options vary by state and region: staffed check stations on firearm-season weekends, self-serve kiosks, agency offices during posted hours, and participating taxidermists. Coverage is not uniform, and more than one state says plainly that you may have to drive to a neighbouring community. Build that drive into the plan rather than discovering it on a Sunday afternoon.
The state relaunched MiHunt, its interactive map of land open to public hunting, in time for the fall seasons. It is the tool for sorting what is actually open from what merely looks green on a road atlas, and a rebuild is worth ten minutes before you drive somewhere on last year's assumptions.
Archery opened September 5, wolves and black bears came in on the 15th, and the commission changed how lions and hounds are handled.
Montana's fall is underway. Mountain grouse, partridge, sharp-tailed grouse and turkey opened at the start of the month. Archery hunters could pursue elk, deer, black bears, wolves and mountain lions from September 5, and holders of drawn bighorn, moose and goat permits started the same day.
Colorado flips mandatory testing from deer to elk, Idaho redraws its unit list, and Delaware writes emergency rules after a first detection.
Chronic wasting disease keeps rewriting the fine print. Colorado now requires heads from every elk taken during rifle seasons in selected hunt codes, at no charge, and has dropped mandatory deer testing entirely for 2026. Hunters who want a deer tested anyway can submit voluntarily for $25.
Not a season. Not delisting. But the tiered system decides who makes the calls in country you already hunt.
The short answer to the question everyone asks first is no: the July proposal does not open a grizzly hunt, and will not soon. The bears stay federally threatened. What moves is who handles day-to-day management of roughly 2,000 animals across Wyoming, Montana, Idaho and Washington.