Illinois · Rabbit · 2026–27 Edition
Illinois Rabbit Season 2026–27: Dates & Bag Limits
01 — Seasons
| Season | Zone | Dates |
|---|---|---|
| Rabbit (cottontail and swamp rabbit) | Statewide | Nov 7 – Feb 15 |
02 — Bag limits
| Daily | 4 |
|---|---|
| Possession | 10 |
03 — Shooting hours
Legal light on opening day (November 7, 2026) 06:33 — 16:47
Rule: Sunrise to sunset — and this is NOT the same as Illinois squirrel, which runs half an hour either side. The digest's own definitions put cottontail and swamp rabbit under 'Upland Game' with pheasant, quail and Hungarian partridge, and that whole group is sunrise-to-sunset; squirrel sits under 'Small Game' with the migratory species and gets the half-hour margins. Do not carry squirrel's hours over to rabbit. Sunrise/sunset shift daily — the times above are computed for opening day; use your local Illinois sun times for any other date.
04 — License
Rabbit hunters in Illinois need an Illinois hunting license.
Illinois hunting license cost →
Where to hunt public land in Illinois — WMAs by county & access rules →
05 — FAQ
When does rabbit season start in Illinois?
The 2026–27 opener is November 7, 2026. See the table above for the full window.
When does rabbit season end in Illinois?
The 2026–27 closing date is February 15, 2027.
Is there a closed season on rabbit in Illinois?
Yes — see the dates above. Outside that window, taking rabbit is closed in Illinois.
How many rabbits can you shoot in Illinois per day?
2026–27 bag limits: Daily — 4. Possession — 10. Limits are set per zone and per permit — check the agency's own regulations before you hunt.
What time can you start shooting rabbit in Illinois?
On opening day (November 7, 2026) legal light runs 06:33 to 16:47. The rule is: Sunrise to sunset — and this is NOT the same as Illinois squirrel, which runs half an hour either side. The digest's own definitions put cottontail and swamp rabbit under 'Upland Game' with pheasant, quail and Hungarian partridge, and that whole group is sunrise-to-sunset; squirrel sits under 'Small Game' with the migratory species and gets the half-hour margins. Do not carry squirrel's hours over to rabbit. Sunrise and sunset shift daily, so work the offset against your local Illinois sun times for any other date.
Can I hunt rabbits on my own land in Illinois without a license?
Illinois owners residing on, or bona fide tenants of, farmland — plus their children, parents, and siblings who live there too — may hunt any legal game on that land without a license. Deer and turkey run through a separate free Resident Landowner/Tenant Permit Program requiring 40 contiguous acres (20 in CWD counties).
Verified · Illinois Department of Natural Resources · Last verified 2026-08-14
Publisher's note. IDNR's own official 'Season Dates - Rules of Thumb' planning PDF, read directly, gives the year-to-year formula: 'Rabbit - First Saturday in November through Feb. 15.' Applied to 2026-27: the first Saturday in November 2026 is Nov. 7, so the season is Nov. 7, 2026 - Feb. 15, 2027. The full current Digest of Hunting and Trapping Regulations (the definitive per-season document) could not be fetched directly this session — dnr.illinois.gov returned HTTP 403 on one mirror and exceeded this tool's 10MB fetch limit on another — so this file leans on the Rules-of-Thumb PDF plus corroborating secondary sources (eRegulations, search aggregation) for the exact date and for bag limits (4 daily / 10 possession); flagged as reduced confidence versus a direct current-year Digest read. IMPORTANT CLOSURE CHECK: the same Rules-of-Thumb PDF explicitly marks several other species 'except closed during firearm deer seasons' (Coyote & Striped Skunk, Furbearer Hunting/Trapping, Squirrel, Fall Archery, Woodchuck) but does NOT carry that annotation on the Rabbit line — a deliberate contrast within the same document — so this file does NOT model a firearm-deer-season closure gap for rabbit, unlike squirrel, which does have one. Shooting hours: confirmed via secondary sources (search aggregation of IDNR digest language) as Illinois' general rule, ½ hour before sunrise to ½ hour after sunset, applying to rabbit with no sunrise-to-sunset exception found — this contradicts a commonly repeated claim that Illinois rabbit hunting is sunrise-to-sunset; that claim is not confirmed and is not published here.