BirdTrout
Open the map
North Carolina Hunting Regulations 2026–27
Season dates, bag limits and legal hours for the 5 upland birds NCWRC publishes as data, from September 5, 2026 to May 15, 2027 — compiled here so you can read them in one screen instead of a PDF.
Last updated 2026-09-24 · rebuilt nightly from NCWRC data · 2026–27 season year
- Season dates
- Bag limits
- Hunting hours
- Licences and stamps
- Zones
- Special regulations
- Where to hunt
- What this page does not cover
- Official documents
Season dates by species
NCWRC's own dates for the 2026–27 season year, read from NCWRC's season dates. A zoned species has no statewide date and is listed by zone.
| Species | Zone | Opens | Closes | Days |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ring-necked pheasant | Remainder of the state boundary not resolved | September 5, 2026 | February 28, 2027 | 177 |
| Ring-necked pheasant | Barrier islands of Carteret, Dare and Hyde counties boundary not resolved | November 21, 2026 | February 28, 2027 | 100 |
| Ruffed grouse | Statewide | October 12, 2026 | February 28, 2027 | 140 |
| Northern bobwhite | Statewide | November 21, 2026 | February 28, 2027 | 100 |
| American woodcock | Statewide | December 10, 2026 | January 30, 2027 | 52 |
| Wild turkey (spring) | Statewide general season | April 17, 2027 | May 15, 2027 | 29 |
| Wild turkey (spring) | Statewide youth season | April 10, 2027 | April 11, 2027 | 2 |
Bag limits, stamps and the per-species rules
Everything NCWRC publishes for each bird, and — where it publishes nothing — the word “not verified” rather than a number.
Ring-necked pheasant Phasianus colchicusHunter orangeBag not verified
- Season
-
Remainder of the state — September 5, 2026 to February 28, 2027
Barrier islands of Carteret, Dare and Hyde counties — November 21, 2026 to February 28, 2027 - Daily bag
- Not published on a citable NCWRC page. We leave it blank rather than guess — read it in the NC Inland Fishing, Hunting and Trapping Regulations Digest.
- Hunter orange
- Required — see the rule below.
- 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.
- Two seasons, and the short one is the real one. The barrier islands of Carteret, Dare and Hyde carry a naturalised population hunted as a wild bird, male only. The statewide either-sex season is long and permissive because the mainland birds being shot under it are released ones.
- Neither boundary is drawn in this app.
Ruffed grouse Bonasa umbellusHunter orangeBag not verified
- Season
- October 12, 2026 to February 28, 2027
- Daily bag
- Not published on a citable NCWRC page. We leave it blank rather than guess — read it in the NC Inland Fishing, Hunting and Trapping Regulations Digest.
- Hunter orange
- Required — see the rule below.
- 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.
Northern bobwhite Colinus virginianusHunter orangeBag not verified
- Season
- November 21, 2026 to February 28, 2027
- Daily bag
- Not published on a citable NCWRC page. We leave it blank rather than guess — read it in the NC Inland Fishing, Hunting and Trapping Regulations Digest.
- Hunter orange
- Required — see the rule below.
- 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 Piedmont and the coastal plain are the quail ground, and NCWRC runs an active restoration programme on it — the CURE co-operative and its focal landscapes are the reason North Carolina's bobwhite story is not simply the decline it is elsewhere.
American woodcock Scolopax minor
- Season
- December 10, 2026 to January 30, 2027
- Daily bag
- 3, 9 in possession
- Hunter orange
- Exempt from the hunter-orange requirement.
- Also required
- Federal HIP registration
- Migratory bird: HIP certification is required in addition to the hunting licence.
- North Carolina sits near the southern end of the Atlantic flyway, so the season opens late — the birds arrive on hard cold fronts in December rather than living here in October.
- Not on NCWRC's hunter-orange list, which names grouse, pheasant and quail. The possession limit is three times the daily bag.
Wild turkey (spring) Meleagris gallopavoBag not verified
- Season
-
Statewide general season — April 17, 2027 to May 15, 2027
Statewide youth season — April 10, 2027 to April 11, 2027 - Daily bag
- Not published on a citable NCWRC page. We leave it blank rather than guess — read it in the NC Inland Fishing, Hunting and Trapping Regulations Digest.
- Hunter orange
- Exempt from the hunter-orange requirement.
- 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.
- North Carolina has no fall turkey season. This is the state's only one, and unlike Michigan's and Virginia's fall hunts it takes male or bearded birds only.
- Turkey is not on NCWRC's hunter-orange list.
- A youth season runs the weekend before the general opener.
Legal shooting hours
NCWRC publishes shooting hours in the Regulations Digest rather than as a sentence on a page we read, and this app holds no copy. We do not retype it from memory — a wrong minute at either end of the day is a citation. Read the digest before opening day. NCWRC's hunting regulations →
Licence requirements
What a small-game hunter has to be carrying. Prices are deliberately absent: they change without notice and are the field this page would be wrong about first.
| Document | Who needs it | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| 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. |
Buy through North Carolina Wildlife Resources Commission's own portal. We do not sell licences and we do not take a fee on one.
Zone maps
The part of a small-game regulation that is actually spatial. Everything else on this page is the same rule in every county; these are not.
Ring-necked pheasant 2 zones
| Zone | Season |
|---|---|
| Remainder of the state boundary not resolved | September 5, 2026 – February 28, 2027 |
| Barrier islands of Carteret, Dare and Hyde counties boundary not resolved | November 21, 2026 – February 28, 2027 |
Wild turkey (spring) 2 zones
| Zone | Season |
|---|---|
| Statewide general season | April 17, 2027 – May 15, 2027 |
| Statewide youth season | April 10, 2027 – April 11, 2027 |
Special regulations
-
Hunter orange · whenever hunting grouse, pheasant or quail with a firearm is open
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.
Exempt: wild turkey, woodcock, waterfowl. - Sunday hunting
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. - Ring-necked pheasant
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. - Ring-necked pheasant
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. - Ring-necked pheasant
Two seasons, and the short one is the real one. The barrier islands of Carteret, Dare and Hyde carry a naturalised population hunted as a wild bird, male only. The statewide either-sex season is long and permissive because the mainland birds being shot under it are released ones. - Ring-necked pheasant
Neither boundary is drawn in this app. - Ruffed grouse
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. - Northern bobwhite
The Piedmont and the coastal plain are the quail ground, and NCWRC runs an active restoration programme on it — the CURE co-operative and its focal landscapes are the reason North Carolina's bobwhite story is not simply the decline it is elsewhere. - American woodcock
Migratory bird: HIP certification is required in addition to the hunting licence. - American woodcock
North Carolina sits near the southern end of the Atlantic flyway, so the season opens late — the birds arrive on hard cold fronts in December rather than living here in October. - American woodcock
Not on NCWRC's hunter-orange list, which names grouse, pheasant and quail. The possession limit is three times the daily bag. - Wild turkey (spring)
North Carolina has no fall turkey season. This is the state's only one, and unlike Michigan's and Virginia's fall hunts it takes male or bearded birds only. - Wild turkey (spring)
Turkey is not on NCWRC's hunter-orange list. - Wild turkey (spring)
A youth season runs the weekend before the general opener.
Youth hunts, apprentice and mentored licences, dog training seasons, and the ORV rules on state land are all real regulations and none of them is covered here. They are in the NC Inland Fishing, Hunting and Trapping Regulations Digest, and they are listed again under what this page does not cover so a reader does not take the silence for “no rule”.
Where to hunt
The hunting-legal public land BirdTrout draws in North Carolina — 140 units, about 1,913,995 acres. This is not every public parcel: national wildlife refuges, military land and city parks are all public and none is here, because hunting them is restricted, closed, or decided unit by unit.
| Land class | Units | Acres |
|---|---|---|
| National forest | 11 | 1,258,837 |
| State game land | 129 | 655,158 |
PAD-US says who manages a parcel, not where its boundary runs on the ground and not whether a unit carries a local closure. Context, not permission. NCWRC's public land →
Open the live map in hunt mode → — the same land, drawn, with observed bird occurrence, upland cover and a wind-and-weather read on the day you are going. Per-species pages are the next thing planned; today the depth is in the app.
Recent changes
Nothing has moved since the previous build. This page is rebuilt nightly and this section fills in the night a season date, a bag limit or a required stamp changes.
What this page does not cover
Named rather than left silent. Every line below is a real North Carolina season or rule that is not in the data behind this page, so its absence here says nothing at all about it.
- White-tailed deer — the seven zones, each with its own archery, blackpowder and gun dates, plus the two CWD management areas
- Black bear, and the mountain, piedmont and five coastal bear management units
- Waterfowl — duck, goose and the migratory seasons set by proclamation
- Rabbit, squirrel, raccoon, opossum, bobcat and fox
- Crow, which runs on named days of the week rather than a continuous season
- The per-game-land rules. This is the big one in North Carolina: game lands carry their own rules on Sunday hunting, dogs, permit hunts and which days are open at all, and none of that is in this app
And NCWRC publishes no bag limit we could cite for Ring-necked pheasant, Ruffed grouse, Northern bobwhite, Wild turkey (spring) — those fields are blank above on purpose.
The official documents
We do not reproduce NCWRC's digest or its licence pages. These are the originals, and they are the authority.
-
NC Inland Fishing, Hunting & Trapping Regulations Digest →
The document this page is a searchable compilation of -
NCWRC season dates →
The page every date above was read from -
Buy a North Carolina hunting licence →
North Carolina Wildlife Resources Commission, official portal -
NCWRC hunting regulations →
Including any in-season change or emergency order