New Jersey · Squirrel · 2026–27 Edition
New Jersey Squirrel Season 2026–27: Dates & Bag Limits
01 — Seasons
| Season | Zone | Dates |
|---|---|---|
| Gray squirrel, hare, jackrabbit & rabbit season (air gun, bow, or shotgun) | Statewide | Sep 26 – Dec 6 |
| Gray squirrel, hare, jackrabbit & rabbit season (air gun, bow, or shotgun) | Statewide | Dec 13 – Feb 20 |
02 — Bag limits
| Daily | 5 squirrels per day (a separate 1 hare/jackrabbit and 4 cottontail rabbit are also allowed the same day); no season/annual limit published |
|---|---|
| Possession | Not published in the digest's small-game table |
03 — Shooting hours
Legal light on opening day (September 26, 2026) 06:50 — 19:18
Rule: Sunrise to 1/2 hour after sunset for the regular Gray Squirrel/Hare/Jackrabbit/Rabbit season, per NJDEP's Hunting & Trapping Digest. Note: the digest has published an 8:00 a.m. start time for a multi-week stretch coinciding with November bow/permit deer seasons in every recent year (e.g. Nov. 8, 2025 in the 2025-26 digest) — that later start is not modeled here since the exact 2026-27 date is unconfirmed. Sunrise/sunset shift daily — the times above are computed for opening day; use your local New Jersey sun times for any other date.
04 — License
Squirrel hunters in New Jersey need a New Jersey hunting license — Small game hunting is prohibited on Sundays in New Jersey, with narrow exceptions for licensed shooting preserves and Sunday-morning opossum/raccoon hunting. A separate, zone-restricted Muzzleloading Squirrel season also exists within the same overall date range; see the Digest's squirrel muzzleloading zone map.
New Jersey hunting license cost →
Where to hunt public land in New Jersey — WMAs by county & access rules →
05 — FAQ
When does squirrel season start in New Jersey?
The 2026–27 opener is September 26, 2026. See the table above for the full window.
When does squirrel season end in New Jersey?
The 2026–27 closing date is February 20, 2027.
Is there a difference between fox and gray squirrel rules in New Jersey?
See the bag limit table above — most states run one combined limit across both species, but this is worth confirming against New Jersey Division of Fish and Wildlife before you hunt.
How many squirrels can you shoot in New Jersey per day?
2026–27 bag limits: Daily — 5 squirrels per day (a separate 1 hare/jackrabbit and 4 cottontail rabbit are also allowed the same day); no season/annual limit published. Possession — Not published in the digest's small-game table. 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 New Jersey?
On opening day (September 26, 2026) legal light runs 06:50 to 19:18. The rule is: Sunrise to 1/2 hour after sunset for the regular Gray Squirrel/Hare/Jackrabbit/Rabbit season, per NJDEP's Hunting & Trapping Digest. Note: the digest has published an 8:00 a.m. start time for a multi-week stretch coinciding with November bow/permit deer seasons in every recent year (e.g. Nov. 8, 2025 in the 2025-26 digest) — that later start is not modeled here since the exact 2026-27 date is unconfirmed. Sunrise and sunset shift daily, so work the offset against your local New Jersey sun times for any other date.
Can I hunt squirrels on my own land in New Jersey without a license?
A New Jersey farm occupant who actually lives on a qualifying farm (5 or more acres, at least $500 gross farm income, assessed as farmland) — plus immediate family living there too — may hunt, trap, and fish it without a license. They still need a free Conservation ID for harvest reporting, and the exemption doesn't extend to tenants, employees, or other non-family residents.
Verified · New Jersey Division of Fish & Wildlife (NJDEP) · Last verified 2026-08-14
Publisher's note. dep.nj.gov is protected by Incapsula bot-detection and returned an empty/blocked response to every direct automated fetch attempted (WebFetch, curl with a browser user-agent, and an r.jina.ai proxy fetch all failed or came back empty); a real browser (Claude's browser tool) could load the digest PDF but only as a forced file download with no way to extract text. Per the fallback order, the small-game chapter was instead read from Wayback Machine mirrors of NJDEP's own 'Hunting & Trapping Digest' PDF segments: the 2025-26 digest's small-game pages (digest-hunting-and-trapping-2025-2026-segment-57-60.pdf, archived 2025-12-06) give 'Gray Squirrel, Hare, Jackrabbit, Rabbit: Sept. 27, 2025 – Feb. 21, 2026 ... Closed Dec. 8–13 & 17, 2025', 5 squirrel/1 hare-jackrabbit/4 cottontail daily with no season limit, and hours of sunrise to 1/2 hr after sunset (with an 8 a.m. start after a mid-November date each year). The same digest's Woodchuck line already projects one year ahead and states 'Mar. 2, 2026–Feb. 20, 2027 ... Closed Dec. 7–12 & 16, 2026' — since squirrel/hare/rabbit, opossum/raccoon, and woodchuck have carried IDENTICAL firearm-deer-season closure dates and an identical Saturday season-end date in every year checked (2022-23 via a 973espn.com news recap: closed Dec. 5–10 & 14, 2022, ended Feb. 25, 2023; 2024-25 digest: closed Dec. 9–14 & 18, 2024, ended Feb. 22, 2025; 2025-26 digest: closed Dec. 8–13 & 17, 2025, ended Feb. 21, 2026), the 2026-27 closure (Dec. 7–12 & 16, 2026, matching the six-day firearm deer season of Dec. 7–12, 2026 confirmed separately in the deer chapter) and end date (Feb. 20, 2027) are used here as directly-published facts, just read off the woodchuck line rather than a squirrel-specific one. The 2026-27 opener (Sept. 26, 2026) is NOT yet published anywhere (no 2026-27 digest exists live or in the Wayback Machine as of this research) — it is a pattern projection from three consecutive confirmed years, all of which opened on the last Saturday of September (Sept. 24, 2022; Sept. 28, 2024; Sept. 27, 2025), and Sept. 26, 2026 is likewise the last Saturday of that September. This file's methods array simplifies the closure to the six-day firearm-season gap (Dec. 7–12, 2026) and omits the additional single Wednesday closure (Dec. 16, 2026) that sits inside the reopened window — hunters should treat Dec. 14–16, 2026 as a short, easily-missed open/closed/open sequence rather than one continuous open block. A zone-restricted Muzzleloading Squirrel season also exists (designated zones only, same overall date span) but is not modeled separately since it never extends past the regular season's bounds. No possession limit is stated anywhere in the digest's small-game table — only a daily bag limit is given.