Welcome to 2025-26 Nevada Big Game Hunting Regulations & Seasons
Welcome to Nevada’s 2025 Big Game Season! Hopefully you are flipping through these pages because you or someone you know pulled a tag in this year’s draw. If that’s the case, congratulations! We have some great news for you. After a wet winter, Nevada’s landscapes are bouncing back, and 2025 is shaping up to be a good year for wildlife and wild times.
Three consecutive wet winters have improved food availability and habitat conditions for wildlife which means that many of our northern Nevada big game herds are thriving. Additionally, the lack of deep snow conditions in the 2024/2025 winter led to better than average overwinter survival, increasing big game numbers across most species. Mule deer populations continue to recover from the hard 2022/2023 winter, while elk, mountain goat, moose and pronghorn continue to expand.
This year, Nevada’s next generation of hunters will have greater opportunities with youth mule deer tags for muzzleloader and archery, as well as new youth pronghorn horns shorter than the ears hunts. Nevada’s pronghorn population has reached a record number of 36,500 nearly quadrupling since 1981, when there were only 9,800. This record-setting population is providing hunters with more opportunities to draw.
This marks the second year of our antlered moose hunt, and once again two new hunters will have the opportunity to hunt Nevada’s newest and largest big game species. If you wish to read about last year’s inaugural moose hunts, please check out each of their stories, Moose on the Loose. Interestingly, both hunters possess a variety of hunting experience, saw many different moose, and successfully filled their tags, ending Nevada’s first moose season only six days after it started.
With many hunting adventures ahead of you, we hope you and your family stay safe, stay wildfire aware, and take care to respect private property boundaries while scouting, or in the field during your hunt.
The following are some tips to assist you:
- Take the time to investigate and understand the landownership and access points in the units you are going to hunt. Online mapping apps can be installed on your phone to ensure that you are not trespassing. In addition to the use of mapping apps and old school land status maps, review Hunting on Private Property to help you understand Nevada’s trespass laws.
- Prepare your hunting vehicle and camping gear for increased fire risk. Three wet years have increased the growth and buildup of highly flammable plants across our landscapes. Please be mindful of the dry vegetation and increased fire risk as you sight in your rifle, travel, park your vehicle, and camp. More information can be found at the Nevada Fire Info website. This website outlines this season’s fire restrictions and offers fire prevention and equipment preparation tips.
Wishing you all the best of luck and best of times.
Alan Jenne
Director, Nevada Department of Wildlife
