Kansas · Elk · 2026–27 Edition
Kansas Elk Season 2026–27: Archery, Muzzleloader & Rifle Dates
01 — Seasons
| Season | Zone note | Dates |
|---|---|---|
| Muzzleloader | Statewide except Unit 1 (Morton County) | Sep 1 – Sep 30 |
| Archery | Fort Riley (Subunit 2A) | Sep 1 – Sep 30 |
| Archery | Units 2 & 3 (statewide except Unit 1 and Fort Riley Subunit 2A) | Sep 14 – Dec 31 |
| Firearm Any-Elk (draw permit holders; antlerless-only permits valid only for their printed Oct/Nov/Dec segment) | Fort Riley (Subunit 2A) | Oct 1 – Dec 31 |
| Firearm, 1st segment (over-the-counter) | Units 2 & 3 (statewide except Unit 1 and Fort Riley Subunit 2A) | Aug 1 – Aug 31 |
| Firearm, 2nd segment (over-the-counter) | Units 2 & 3 (statewide except Unit 1 and Fort Riley Subunit 2A) | Dec 2 – Dec 13 |
| Firearm, 3rd segment (over-the-counter) | Units 2 & 3 (statewide except Unit 1 and Fort Riley Subunit 2A) | Jan 1 – Mar 15 |
Kansas splits elk hunting into three units: Unit 1 (Morton County) is closed to elk hunting entirely; Unit 2 covers the area immediately around Fort Riley (parts of Clay, Dickinson, Riley and Geary counties) plus Subunit 2A, the Fort Riley Military Reservation itself, home to the state's only substantial free-ranging elk herd; Unit 3 is the rest of the state, where wild elk exist on private land but are, in KDWP's own words, 'rare and difficult to locate.' Only Unit 2/2A permits are limited and drawn — Unit 3 permits are unlimited and sold over the counter, mainly so landowners can address crop-damage conflicts.
02 — Tags & bag limits
| Either-sex (Any Elk) permit | One bull, spike, cow, or calf elk; valid during any elk season using equipment legal for that season |
|---|---|
| Antlerless-only permit | One elk without a visible antler protruding from the skull; Fort Riley (2A) antlerless permits are valid only during the specific Oct/Nov/Dec segment printed on the permit |
| Fort Riley (Unit 2A) draw | A limited number of either-sex and antlerless permits allocated by lottery and split between Kansas residents and active-duty military stationed at Fort Riley — a drawn either-sex winner may not reapply, and a drawn antlerless winner may not reapply for five years |
| Unit 3 | Unlimited resident and landowner/tenant either-sex and antlerless permits sold over the counter, no draw required |
03 — Shooting hours
Legal light on opening day (August 1, 2026) 06:04 — 21:11
Rule: One-half hour before sunrise to one-half hour after sunset, per KDWP's own Elk Regulations Summary — no elk-specific exception found beyond this standard statewide big-game rule. Sunrise/sunset shift daily — the times above are computed for opening day; use your local Kansas sun times for any other date.
04 — License & tags
Elk hunters in Kansas need a Kansas hunting license plus an elk tag. Elk permits are restricted to Kansas residents and qualifying landowners/tenants, plus — for the Fort Riley lottery specifically — active-duty military personnel stationed at the fort regardless of their home-state residency; nonresidents without Kansas land ties cannot hunt elk in Kansas at all.
Where to hunt public land in Kansas — WMAs by county & access rules →
05 — Scouting gear
Scouting a unit before Kansas's opener usually means glassing basins and running a trail camera through summer.
- 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 elk season start in Kansas?
The earliest 2026–27 opener is August 1, 2026 (Muzzleloader). See the table above for every method.
When does elk season end in Kansas?
The latest 2026–27 closing date is March 15, 2027. Individual seasons close earlier — see the table above.
Do I need to enter a draw to hunt elk in Kansas?
Kansas elk permits split into two very different tracks: a competitive lottery for Fort Riley and its surrounding Unit 2, divided between Kansas general residents and active-duty military stationed at the fort (regardless of the service member's home-state residency), versus unlimited, non-drawn over-the-counter permits for residents and qualifying landowners/tenants in Unit 3. Anyone actually hunting on Fort Riley property — drawn permit or not — also needs a separate Fort Riley Access Permit purchased through the installation's own iSportsman system, independent of and in addition to the state elk permit.
How many elk can you shoot in Kansas?
2026–27 bag limits: Either-sex (Any Elk) permit — One bull, spike, cow, or calf elk; valid during any elk season using equipment legal for that season. Antlerless-only permit — One elk without a visible antler protruding from the skull; Fort Riley (2A) antlerless permits are valid only during the specific Oct/Nov/Dec segment printed on the permit. Fort Riley (Unit 2A) draw — A limited number of either-sex and antlerless permits allocated by lottery and split between Kansas residents and active-duty military stationed at Fort Riley — a drawn either-sex winner may not reapply, and a drawn antlerless winner may not reapply for five years. Unit 3 — Unlimited resident and landowner/tenant either-sex and antlerless permits sold over the counter, no draw required. Limits are set per zone and per permit — check the agency's own regulations before you hunt.
What time can you start shooting elk in Kansas?
On opening day (August 1, 2026) legal light runs 06:04 to 21:11. The rule is: One-half hour before sunrise to one-half hour after sunset, per KDWP's own Elk Regulations Summary — no elk-specific exception found beyond this standard statewide big-game rule. Sunrise and sunset shift daily, so work the offset against your local Kansas sun times for any other date.
Can I hunt elk on my own land in Kansas without a license?
A Kansas resident, or an immediate family member living with them, is exempt on land they own or lease for agricultural purposes — no minimum acreage applies. Deer still needs its own permit regardless.
Verified · Kansas Department of Wildlife and Parks · Last verified 2026-08-15
Publisher's note. ksoutdoors.gov (and the legacy kdwpt.ks.gov host, which fails TLS hostname verification for automated fetchers) blocked several direct requests this round; the elk hub page, the 'when to hunt' seasons page, and the individual per-season sub-pages (Elk-Fort-Riley-Firearm-Any-Elk-Permit-Holders, Elk-Fort-Riley-Muzzleloader-Archery) were read via the r.jina.ai text-extraction proxy instead — the sub-pages themselves 404'd even through the proxy, so season dates were cross-built from the proxied 'when to hunt' page (confirms 2026 statewide archery Sept 14–Dec 31, firearm 1st segment Aug 1–31, firearm 2nd segment Dec 2–13) plus a KDWP-published 'Elk Regulations Summary' PDF located via web search and read directly (Read tool handled the PDF natively). That PDF's on-page date stamp is 2019 and its filename/version metadata suggested a 2025 reissue at the same URL pattern, but its Unit 2A (Fort Riley) season structure — muzzleloader and archery both Sept 1–30, Firearm Any-Elk Oct 1–Dec 31, and three antlerless-only segments (Oct 1–31 / Nov 1–30 / Dec 1–31) — matches wording independently seen in a live ksoutdoors.gov search-result snippet for the 2025 season with only the year changed, so the year-over-year pattern was applied to build 2026 Unit 2A dates; this is corroborated, not independently re-confirmed against a dated-2026 KDWP page for Unit 2A specifically. The 3rd firearm segment for Units 2 & 3 (Jan 1–March 15) follows the same multi-year-stable pattern from the same PDF, landing in 2027. Permit-count figures conflict between sources: KDWP's own elk page (via proxy) states roughly 20 permits against about 900 applications, while a secondary hunting-industry guide (redcedarland.com) cites 12 either-sex plus 18 antlerless (30 total) against 2,500+ 2024 applications — both are reported in access.note below rather than resolved, since neither could be independently verified against a dated 2026 KDWP draw-results release this round. The Fort Riley Access Permit requirement (separate from the state elk permit, sold by the installation itself at fortriley.isportsman.net for $27.50) comes from the same KDWP Elk Regulations Summary PDF and was not found restated on the current ksoutdoors.gov pages reached this round, so treat the $27.50 fee as indicative rather than confirmed-current.