Welcome to North Carolina Hunting
What’s New For the 2024–2025 Season
As part of the Commission’s ongoing effort to keep you informed, we reserve this page of the digest each year to identify significant regulatory, legislative, and agency-related changes that you should be aware of each season. Please note that the information found on this page is not a complete list of regulation changes. For your convenience, all regulation changes appear throughout the digest in RED.
Hunting
- Special Chronic Wasting Disease regulations are in effect in the following counties: Alexander, Alleghany, Ashe, Bladen, Cumberland, Davie, Forsyth, Guilford, Harnett, Hoke, Iredell, Robeson, Rockingham, Sampson, Stokes, Surry, Wilkes, and Yadkin. See CWD Surveillance Areas and Special Regulations for details.
- The hunting season dates and bag limits for pheasants are now different on the Outer Banks than in the rest of the state. See Small Game & Other Seasons for details.
- The western blackpowder deer season now opens two Saturdays before Thanksgiving. Also, the western gun deer season now opens the Saturday after Thanksgiving and closes on January 1. See Deer Regulations.
- In the western deer season, Thanksgiving Day and the following Friday are now Youth Deer Hunting Days. See Deer Hunting Seasons.
- There are additional days for hunting antlerless deer during blackpowder and gun seasons in Buncombe, Cherokee, Clay, Henderson, Jackson, Macon, and Swain counties. See Deer Regulations.
- Hunters may now use dogs to hunt feral swine from January 1-31 on Nantahala Game Land. See Regulations for Specific Game Lands.
