Virginia · Bear · 2026–27 Edition
Virginia Bear Season 2026–27: Dates, Zones & Bag Limits
01 — Seasons
| Season | Zone | Dates |
|---|---|---|
| Early firearms | Red Crosshatch counties — Buchanan, Dickenson, Lee, Russell, Scott, Washington, Wise (except Clinch Mountain WMA) | Sep 28 – Sep 30 |
| Firearms (general, all lawful weapons within town/city limits from Oct. 3) | Coastal Cities — Chesapeake, Suffolk, Virginia Beach | Oct 1 – Jan 2 |
| Archery | Red Crosshatch, Central, Orange Horizontal Lines, Coastal Cities, and Eastern Shore counties | Oct 3 – Nov 13 |
| Youth & Apprentice weekend | Statewide | Oct 10 – Oct 11 |
| Archery | Piedmont/Shenandoah counties — Albemarle, Alleghany, Amherst, Appomattox, Augusta, Bath, Bedford, Botetourt, Buckingham, Clarke, Culpeper, Fauquier, Frederick, Greene, Highland, Loudoun, Madison, Nelson, Page, Rappahannock, Rockbridge, Rockingham, Shenandoah, Warren | Oct 17 – Nov 13 |
| Muzzleloader | Red Crosshatch, Central, Orange Horizontal Lines, and Eastern Shore counties | Nov 7 – Nov 13 |
| Muzzleloader | Piedmont/Shenandoah counties | Nov 10 – Nov 13 |
| Firearms | Red Crosshatch and Central counties | Nov 23 – Jan 2 |
| Firearms — opening weekend | Piedmont/Shenandoah counties | Nov 27 – Nov 29 |
| Firearms — second segment | Piedmont/Shenandoah counties | Dec 21 – Jan 2 |
| Firearms | Orange Horizontal Lines counties — Amelia, Brunswick, Campbell, Carroll, Charles City, Cumberland, Dinwiddie, Essex, Floyd, Franklin, Gloucester, Grayson, Greensville, Henry, Isle of Wight, James City, King & Queen, King George, King William, Lancaster, Lunenburg, Mathews, Middlesex, New Kent, Northumberland, Nottoway, Patrick, Pittsylvania, Prince George, Richmond, Southampton, Surry, Sussex, Westmoreland, York | Nov 30 – Jan 2 |
02 — Bag limits & check-in
| Statewide | 1 bear per license year, minimum 100 lbs. live weight or 75 lbs. dressed weight; a female with cubs may not be taken |
|---|---|
| Eastern Shore | Accomack and Northampton counties have no firearms bear season — archery and muzzleloader only |
| Coastal Cities exception | Within the incorporated limits of any town or city in Chesapeake, Suffolk, or Virginia Beach that allows bear hunting, any lawful weapon may be used Oct. 3 - Jan. 2, overlapping the archery-only dates that apply outside city limits |
| Statewide | Feeding or baiting bears is prohibited year-round and statewide; it is also unlawful to chase, hunt, or train dogs from baited sites or with the use of bait |
| Harvest reporting | Must be reported through GoOutdoorsVirginia.com, the Go Outdoors Virginia mobile app, or by phone, using a GoOutdoorsVirginia customer account |
| Biological sample | A premolar bear tooth must be mailed or delivered to DWR no later than 14 days after the close of bear season in January |
03 — Shooting hours
Legal light on opening day (September 28, 2026) 06:38 — 19:32
Rule: One half-hour before sunrise to one-half hour after sunset — DWR states this once for 'nonmigratory birds and game animals', which covers bear. Separate from this: the bear hound TRAINING season runs 4:00 a.m. to 10:00 p.m. daily, which is a training window, not a hunting window. Sunrise/sunset shift daily — the times above are computed for opening day; use your local Virginia sun times for any other date.
04 — License
Bear hunters in Virginia need a Virginia hunting license — a Bear License in addition to the base Virginia hunting license (sometimes bundled into a Big Game or Sportsman's license package covering deer/turkey/bear) Check-in or reporting a harvest is typically mandatory; see the row above for Virginia's specific rule.
Virginia hunting license cost →
Where to hunt public land in Virginia — WMAs by county & access rules →
05 — Scouting gear
Patterning bear activity before Virginia's opener usually means glassing feeding areas and running a trail camera through summer — check the state's own rules on baiting before you set one over bait.
- Hunting binoculars on Amazon →
- Trail cameras on Amazon →
- Trail camera SD cards — class, capacity & format explained →
As an Amazon Associate we earn from qualifying purchases. These are category links, not a single named pick — we run no product tests of our own.
06 — FAQ
When does bear season open in Virginia?
The earliest 2026–27 opener is September 28, 2026. See the table above for each method and zone.
When does bear season end in Virginia?
The latest 2026–27 closing date is January 2, 2027. Individual segments and zones can close earlier — see the table above.
Do I need a separate bear license or tag in Virginia?
a Bear License in addition to the base Virginia hunting license (sometimes bundled into a Big Game or Sportsman's license package covering deer/turkey/bear)
How many bears can you shoot in Virginia?
2026–27 bag limits: Statewide — 1 bear per license year, minimum 100 lbs. live weight or 75 lbs. dressed weight; a female with cubs may not be taken. Eastern Shore — Accomack and Northampton counties have no firearms bear season — archery and muzzleloader only. Coastal Cities exception — Within the incorporated limits of any town or city in Chesapeake, Suffolk, or Virginia Beach that allows bear hunting, any lawful weapon may be used Oct. 3 - Jan. 2, overlapping the archery-only dates that apply outside city limits. Statewide — Feeding or baiting bears is prohibited year-round and statewide; it is also unlawful to chase, hunt, or train dogs from baited sites or with the use of bait. Harvest reporting — Must be reported through GoOutdoorsVirginia.com, the Go Outdoors Virginia mobile app, or by phone, using a GoOutdoorsVirginia customer account. Biological sample — A premolar bear tooth must be mailed or delivered to DWR no later than 14 days after the close of bear season in January. Limits are set per zone and per permit — check the agency's own regulations before you hunt.
What time can you start shooting bear in Virginia?
On opening day (September 28, 2026) legal light runs 06:38 to 19:32. The rule is: One half-hour before sunrise to one-half hour after sunset — DWR states this once for 'nonmigratory birds and game animals', which covers bear. Separate from this: the bear hound TRAINING season runs 4:00 a.m. to 10:00 p.m. daily, which is a training window, not a hunting window. Sunrise and sunset shift daily, so work the offset against your local Virginia sun times for any other date.
Can I hunt bear on my own land in Virginia without a license?
Virginia landowners — resident or nonresident — plus their spouse, children, grandchildren, and parents, may hunt, trap, and fish without a license anywhere within their own land's boundaries. That covers the base license, bear, deer/turkey, archery, muzzleloading, trapping, and the state waterfowl stamp. Tenants living on the land get the same right with the landlord's written consent; the federal Duck Stamp and HIP registration still apply.
Verified · Virginia Department of Wildlife Resources · Last verified 2026-08-14
Publisher's note. Read directly from DWR's 'Bear Hunting Regulations and Seasons' page, cross-checked against dwr.virginia.gov/hunting/regulations/new/ (explicitly titled the 2026-2027 'What's New' page, which lists no bear-season date changes for this year). One caveat: the bear page embeds a season map whose image filename is 'Virginia-Bear-Hunting-Seasons-Map-2025-2026.png', which could suggest stale content — but the actual date TEXT on the page checks out specifically for 2026, not 2025: the Youth & Apprentice weekend is explicitly stated as 'October 10 and 11' for 2026 (a genuine Saturday-Sunday pair in 2026; October 11-12 would be the equivalent 2025 weekend and is NOT what the page shows), and the Red Crosshatch/Central archery opener of October 3 lands on a Saturday in 2026 (in 2025 the equivalent Saturday would be October 4). Both checks independently confirm the displayed dates are the live 2026-27 season, and the map filename is simply an un-updated asset name. eRegulations.com's Virginia bear page, by contrast, was caught showing an actual 2025-dated artifact (its 'Youth and Apprentice Weekend: October 11 and 12' is the 2025 Saturday-Sunday pairing) despite claiming a March 2026 update, so it was not used as a source here. Bag limit, the ban on taking a female with cubs, feeding/baiting prohibited year-round statewide, and the mandatory GoOutdoorsVirginia harvest report plus mailed-in premolar tooth (due no later than 14 days after the bear season closes in January) are quoted directly from the DWR bear page. Not independently confirmed on an official page this round: the exact Bear License fee and whether it's sold only as a standalone add-on or bundled into a Sportsman's/Big Game package — confirm directly with DWR before relying on it.