Today · September 15, 2026

What Hunting Season Is It Right Now?

Every season below is checked against its own open windows — the gaps count, so a season that shuts for a deer opener or reopens in spring is not called open in between.

144

open seasons across the 39 states we track

Counting one season per species and state.

01 — Open right now, by species

Read this as a pointer, not a licence: a species can be open only for a sub-season most hunters do not mean by the name. Dove is the one to watch — several states hold a year-round season on Eurasian collared-dove and other exotics while mourning dove, the one people are asking about, stays shut until September. Each state’s page names the segment that is actually running.

02 — Pick your state

How this is worked out

A licence year runs from the first opener to the last closing date, but almost nothing is open for all of it. Most seasons split — a two-day pause for a gun deer opener, a Christmas Day closure, months between a fall and a spring hunt. Of the seasons in this almanac, two in three have at least one such gap, and the widest runs 173 days. This page reads the individual open windows, so those gaps are counted as closed.

Every date behind it was read from the state wildlife agency and carries a Last verified stamp on its own season page. Seasons still waiting on an agency to publish are left out rather than estimated.

Season dates carry legal weight. Use this as a starting point and confirm against the agency’s own regulations before you hunt.

How we verify dates →