Kentucky · Elk · 2026–27 Edition
Kentucky Elk Season 2026–27: Archery, Muzzleloader & Rifle Dates
01 — Seasons
| Season | Zone note | Dates |
|---|---|---|
| Archery/crossbow (either sex, drawn permit) | 16-county Elk Restoration Zone, southeastern Kentucky | Sep 12 – Sep 25 |
| Bull (antlered) firearms — Week 1 (drawn permit) | 16-county Elk Restoration Zone, southeastern Kentucky | Sep 26 – Sep 30 |
| Bull (antlered) firearms — Week 2 (drawn permit) | 16-county Elk Restoration Zone, southeastern Kentucky | Oct 3 – Oct 7 |
| Archery/crossbow (either sex, drawn permit) | 16-county Elk Restoration Zone, southeastern Kentucky | Dec 5 – Dec 11 |
| Cow (antlerless) firearms — Week 1 (drawn permit) | 16-county Elk Restoration Zone, southeastern Kentucky | Nov 28 – Dec 2 |
| Cow (antlerless) firearms — Week 2 (drawn permit) | 16-county Elk Restoration Zone, southeastern Kentucky | Jan 2 – Jan 6 |
Kentucky elk hunting is confined entirely to the state's 16-county Elk Restoration Zone in southeastern Kentucky — Bell, Breathitt, Clay, Floyd, Harlan, Johnson, Knott, Knox, Leslie, Letcher, Magoffin, Martin, McCreary, Perry, Pike and Whitley counties, roughly 4.1 million acres — there is no elk hunting anywhere else in the state.
02 — Tags & bag limits
| 16-county Elk Restoration Zone | One elk per drawn permit — the permit specifies bull (antlered) or cow (antlerless) plus its valid weapon type and week; not independently confirmed on a directly-read KDFWR regulations page this round, see source note |
|---|---|
| Statewide permits (2026-27, ~500 total, not directly verified) | ~140 bull firearm, ~164 cow firearm, ~170 archery/crossbow, ~26 youth-only |
03 — Shooting hours
Legal light on opening day (September 12, 2026) 06:51 — 20:23
Rule: Thirty minutes before sunrise to 30 minutes after sunset — the Kentucky Hunting Guide's elk section states this explicitly ('Elk may be hunted only during daylight hours, from 30 minutes before sunrise to 30 minutes after sunset'), matching the general rule. Sunrise/sunset shift daily — the times above are computed for opening day; use your local Kentucky sun times for any other date.
04 — License & tags
Elk hunters in Kentucky need a Kentucky hunting license plus an elk tag. a valid Kentucky hunting license plus a drawn Elk Hunt Permit — applications are submitted ahead of the April 30 deadline for that year's season, and only randomly selected applicants become eligible to purchase a permit for the specific weapon-type/sex quota hunt they were drawn for
Kentucky hunting license cost →
Where to hunt public land in Kentucky — WMAs by county & access rules →
05 — Scouting gear
Scouting a unit before Kentucky'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 Kentucky?
The earliest 2026–27 opener is September 12, 2026 (Archery/crossbow (either sex, drawn permit)). See the table above for every method.
When does elk season end in Kentucky?
The latest 2026–27 closing date is January 6, 2027. Individual seasons close earlier — see the table above.
Do I need to enter a draw to hunt elk in Kentucky?
Every Kentucky elk permit is awarded through a single annual random computerized drawing — there is no over-the-counter elk tag. KDFWR reports roughly 500 total permits for the 2026-27 season split across bull firearms (~140), cow firearms (~164), archery/crossbow (~170) and a youth-only quota (~26); the application deadline was April 30, 2026, and only drawn applicants may purchase a permit and hunt.
How many elk can you shoot in Kentucky?
2026–27 bag limits: 16-county Elk Restoration Zone — One elk per drawn permit — the permit specifies bull (antlered) or cow (antlerless) plus its valid weapon type and week; not independently confirmed on a directly-read KDFWR regulations page this round, see source note. Statewide permits (2026-27, ~500 total, not directly verified) — ~140 bull firearm, ~164 cow firearm, ~170 archery/crossbow, ~26 youth-only. 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 Kentucky?
On opening day (September 12, 2026) legal light runs 06:51 to 20:23. The rule is: Thirty minutes before sunrise to 30 minutes after sunset — the Kentucky Hunting Guide's elk section states this explicitly ('Elk may be hunted only during daylight hours, from 30 minutes before sunrise to 30 minutes after sunset'), matching the general rule. Sunrise and sunset shift daily, so work the offset against your local Kentucky sun times for any other date.
Can I hunt elk on my own land in Kentucky without a license?
Kentucky resident farmland owners — or their spouse or dependent children — may hunt (not trap) and fish that land without a license; resident tenants living there and their dependent children get the same right. Season dates, zone rules, bag limits, and telecheck reporting still apply.
Verified · Kentucky Department of Fish and Wildlife Resources · Last verified 2026-08-15
Publisher's note. fw.ky.gov again blocked most direct-access attempts this session — WebFetch returned 403 on the elk-hunting-regs.aspx page and the r.jina.ai text-extraction proxy returned only a tracking-pixel stub for it, consistent with the WAF-blocking problem documented on this project's Kentucky pheasant file. However, WebFetch DID successfully load KDFWR's own 'Hunting_Poster.pdf' (fw.ky.gov/Hunt/Documents/Hunting_Poster.pdf) directly this round, and its text was read cleanly: 2026-27 elk season dates are Bull (antlered) firearms Week 1 Sept. 26-30, 2026 and Week 2 Oct. 3-7, 2026; Cow (antlerless) firearms Week 1 Nov. 28-Dec. 2, 2026 and Week 2 Jan. 2-6, 2027; and Archery/Crossbow (either sex) Sept. 12-25 and Dec. 5-11, 2026, all quota (drawn-permit) hunts with a Youth-only quota available during the seasons above. The poster itself did not list permit-count breakdowns, so those figures — 500 total 2026 elk permits (140 bull firearm, 164 cow firearm, 170 archery/crossbow, 26 youth-only) and an April 30, 2026 application deadline — come from a KDFWR news release (fw.ky.gov/News/Pages/Apply-for-the-Kentucky-Elk-Hunt-Drawing-by-April-30.aspx) as indexed in search-engine snippets, not from a directly-loaded page, so treat the exact per-category permit split as corroborated-but-not-primary-verified this round. The 16-county elk restoration zone (Bell, Breathitt, Clay, Floyd, Harlan, Johnson, Knott, Knox, Leslie, Letcher, Magoffin, Martin, McCreary, Perry, Pike, Whitley — roughly 4.1 million acres in southeastern Kentucky) is drawn from KDFWR's own 'Elk Restoration Zone' PDF and 'Elk Management Zones' GIS layer, both hosted on fw.ky.gov/opendata-kygeonet, and matches KDFWR's long-standing public description of the zone. Bag limits and shooting hours were not confirmed on a directly-read KDFWR regulations page this round (the elk-hunting-regs.aspx page could not be loaded) — the one-elk-per-permit assumption follows the standard quota-hunt structure described in the poster but should be reconfirmed directly against fw.ky.gov or by phone (1-800-858-1549) before publishing further detail.