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North Carolina ruffed grouse regulations, 2026–27
Last updated 2026-09-24 · from NCWRC data · 2026–27 season year
North Carolina's 2026–27 ruffed grouse season runs October 12, 2026 to February 28, 2027 — 140 days afield. No single bag limit is shown for it here — read the notes below and check the current NCWRC regulations before you go. Hunter orange is required. Read against the 2026–27 season year, from NCWRC.
Season and limits
- Season
- Ruffed grouse — October 12, 2026 to February 28, 2027
- Bag limit
- not shown No single bag limit is shown for it here. Where NCWRC publishes one that changes by zone or partway through the season, the figures are in the notes below and this page will not pick one of them; where it publishes none at all, this page leaves it empty rather than guess — a wrong limit is worse than a missing one, because it looks researched. Check the NC Inland Fishing, Hunting and Trapping Regulations Digest.
- Hunter orange
- required Anyone hunting bear, feral swine, rabbit, squirrel, grouse, pheasant or quail with a firearm must wear a cap or hat of hunter orange, or an outer garment of hunter orange visible from all sides.
- Sundays
- North Carolina allows Sunday hunting on private land with some limits, and restricts it on many public game lands. The per-game-land rule is not carried in this app — check the game land before you go.
- North Carolina requires hunter orange — a cap or hat, or an outer garment visible from all sides — for anyone hunting grouse, pheasant or quail with a firearm. Turkey is not on that list and woodcock is not either.
- NCWRC does not publish a bag limit on its season-dates sheet and we could not confirm one elsewhere, so none is shown — check the Regulations Digest.
- The season is statewide because NCWRC writes it statewide. The bird is not: ruffed grouse in North Carolina are a western mountain species, in and around the Blue Ridge and the Nantahala and Pisgah forests, and the population there has fallen hard with the loss of young forest.
Licences
- Hunting licence
Everyone hunting, resident or not — A combination or sportsman licence covers it; NCWRC sells several ladders. - Hunter education certificate
Every first-time licence buyer — North Carolina requires it of new hunters regardless of birth year, unlike Michigan, Wisconsin and Virginia, which all set a date. - Game Lands licence
Anyone hunting a game land — A separate privilege from the hunting licence, and the game lands are most of the huntable public ground in the state. - Federal HIP certification
Woodcock and every other migratory bird — Free registration with the federal harvest survey, renewed each season.
The other questions
- How to hunt ruffed grouse in North Carolina
- When does North Carolina's 2026–27 ruffed grouse season open?
- Where to hunt ruffed grouse in North Carolina
- North Carolina ruffed grouse hunting report
- Ruffed grouse hunting in North Carolina — the whole picture
- Ruffed grouse — biology, range and how it is hunted