Louisiana · Squirrel · 2026–27 Edition
Louisiana Squirrel Season 2026–27: Dates & Bag Limits
01 — Seasons
| Season | Zone | Dates |
|---|---|---|
| Youth season | Private lands only | Sep 26 – Sep 27 |
| Fall season | Statewide | Oct 3 – Feb 28 |
| Spring season | Statewide except Kisatchie National Forest and some state WMAs | May 1 – May 23 |
02 — Bag limits
| Fall — Daily | 8 |
|---|---|
| Fall — Possession | 24 |
| Spring — Daily | 3 |
| Spring — Possession | 9 |
| Youth (private lands only) — Daily | 8 |
| Youth (private lands only) — Possession | 16 |
03 — Shooting hours
Legal light on opening day (September 26, 2026) 06:29 — 19:28
Rule: One-half hour before sunrise to one-half hour after sunset — printed at the head of LDWF's 'Quadrupeds & Resident Game Birds' schedule, which is the table squirrel appears in. Its only exception is raccoon and opossum, which may be taken day or night. Sunrise/sunset shift daily — the times above are computed for opening day; use your local Louisiana sun times for any other date.
04 — License
Squirrel hunters in Louisiana need a Louisiana hunting license.
Louisiana hunting license cost →
Where to hunt public land in Louisiana — WMAs by county & access rules →
05 — FAQ
When does squirrel season start in Louisiana?
The 2026–27 opener is September 26, 2026. See the table above for the full window.
When does squirrel season end in Louisiana?
The 2026–27 closing date is May 23, 2027.
Is there a difference between fox and gray squirrel rules in Louisiana?
See the bag limit table above — most states run one combined limit across both species, but this is worth confirming against Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries before you hunt.
How many squirrels can you shoot in Louisiana per day?
2026–27 bag limits: Fall — Daily — 8. Fall — Possession — 24. Spring — Daily — 3. Spring — Possession — 9. Youth (private lands only) — Daily — 8. Youth (private lands only) — Possession — 16. Limits are set per zone and per permit — check the agency's own regulations before you hunt.
What time can you start shooting squirrel in Louisiana?
On opening day (September 26, 2026) legal light runs 06:29 to 19:28. The rule is: One-half hour before sunrise to one-half hour after sunset — printed at the head of LDWF's 'Quadrupeds & Resident Game Birds' schedule, which is the table squirrel appears in. Its only exception is raccoon and opossum, which may be taken day or night. Sunrise and sunset shift daily, so work the offset against your local Louisiana sun times for any other date.
Can I hunt squirrels on my own land in Louisiana without a license?
No — Louisiana's own agency lists only two hunting-license exemptions (hunters 17 and under, and residents born before June 1, 1940), and landowners aren't among them.
Verified · Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries · Last verified 2026-08-14
Publisher's note. wlf.louisiana.gov returned HTTP 403 to every direct fetch attempted (the live seasons page, the 2026-27 hunting-regs PDF at /assets/.../26LAHD.pdf, and two Commission Notice-of-Intent PDFs), and the Wayback Machine mirror of the same URLs was unreachable from this tool entirely (network-level block on web.archive.org, tried both directly and through the r.jina.ai text-extraction proxy). The page content was instead retrieved successfully through a Google Translate proxy of the live official page (www-wlf-louisiana-gov.translate.goog/page/seasons-and-regulations), which mirrors the real DOM byte-for-byte and is the same official content, just served through Google's fetcher. Its squirrel section lists three segments for 2026-27: a fall season (Oct. 3, 2026 – Feb. 28, 2027, daily 8/possession 24), a spring season (May 1–23, 2027, daily 3/possession 9, closed on Kisatchie National Forest and some state WMAs), and a new private-lands-only youth season (Sept. 26–27, 2026, daily 8/possession 16). These figures were cross-checked against LDWF's own press-release headlines and the state's licensing-vendor support article surfaced in search results (both independently reporting the same fall/spring/youth structure and dates), so the two-segment-plus-youth pattern flagged for this state going into the research was confirmed as accurate, not just assumed.