Welcome to 2025-26 Indiana Hunting
Important Rule & Regulation Changes
Deer hunting regulations have undergone several major changes for the 2025-2026 seasons and are explained in detail in Deer Regulations and Changes to Deer Hunting Regulations: An Overview. The multi-season antlerless license is replacing the bonus antlerless license. To learn more and check the new county antlerless bag limits, see Antlerless Deer. Rifle specifications are now the same for private and public land and detailed in Deer Equipment.
The inaugural bobcat trapping season will open in 40 counties this year. For a list of open counties and season regulations, see Furbearer Trapping.
To Hunters & Trappers in the Hoosier State
Welcome to the 2025-2026 Indiana DNR Hunting & Trapping Guide. We hope you find it helpful as you prepare for the upcoming hunting and trapping seasons.
Any corrections or updates to information published in this guide will be made to the online version found at on.IN.gov/huntingguide.
This guide provides a summary of Indiana hunting and trapping regulations. If you need complete versions of Indiana rules and regulations for hunting and trapping, they can be found in Indiana Code, Title 14, Article 22 (iga.IN.gov) or in Indiana Administrative Code, Title 312, Article 9, (iar.iga.in.gov/code).
Information in the guide includes season dates, bag limits, license requirements and costs, legal hunting hours, approved hunting equipment, and more. Articles found within this guide are written by Indiana DNR staff who are experts in their work.
All funds made from selling Indiana hunting, fishing, and trapping licenses go directly back to conservation. Your license funds are used for wildlife management and research, habitat management and restoration, land acquisition, public access, shooting ranges, fish stocking, DNR law enforcement, and more. We thank all hunters, anglers, trappers, and recreational shooters in Indiana for their continued support of the Division of Fish & Wildlife. The funding stream you provide helps make conservation of Indiana’s natural resources a success.
Finally, good luck this hunting and trapping season. We hope it’s your best one yet.
New Activity Hub Launches
The Division of Fish & Wildlife launched a new system, the Activity Hub, in 2024. This replaced the previous license system and includes core functionalities, such as license sales, game check-in, HIP registration, donations, and gift certificates. Improved functions and new features of the Hub include options for the auto-renewal of licenses and purchases of durable license cards. All customers must log in through Access Indiana. Those with existing Access Indiana accounts will be able to log in without disruption. When logging into the new system for the first time, customers will need to look themselves up in the system and verify their personal information. On their next login, they will be taken directly to their account page. Customers who have questions regarding their accounts should call DNR Customer Service at 317-232-4200 or 877-463-6367, or email [email protected]. Stay up to date with regulation changes, projects, and wildlife news by following us on Facebook @INFishandWildlife and Instagram @INFishWildlife and YouTube @idnrvideos.
