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Where to hunt northern bobwhite near Kinston, North Carolina

Last updated 2026-09-24 · seasons from NCWRC · 2026–27 season year

There are 4 public units within 40 miles of Kinston, North Carolina that hold ground where northern bobwhite is recorded — 33,739 acres of it. The most of it is in Croatan National Forest, 29.7 miles out, with 27,954 recorded acres. The closest is Neuse River Game Land at 19.4 miles. The season runs November 21, 2026 to February 28, 2027 — 100 days afield, read against the 2026–27 season year from NCWRC. Public-land boundaries here are PAD-US, which records who manages a parcel rather than where the line runs or whether a unit carries a local closure — check with NCWRC before you park.

• The ground within 40 miles
• Season and limits
• What to walk

Public land within 40 miles of Kinston

Distance is measured to the nearest edge of a unit rather than to its middle, in a straight line — this app carries no road network and will not print a drive time it cannot compute. A unit whose ground reaches inside the circle is listed for the acreage that is inside it, never for its statewide total.

Ordered by recorded acres — how much of each unit lies inside subbasins where northern bobwhite is recorded at regular strength or better — rather than by how big the unit is. The biggest block in a state is often not in the half of it the bird is in. PAD-US splits a forest into many parcels, so acreage is summed over the unit's name, and the share is measured against the unit's drawn boundary rather than a centroid: a national forest can be two polygons across half a peninsula.

NCWRC names no geographic restriction on this season, so no unit is excluded for being outside one.
Season geography here is read off a dates table rather than the rule itself, and a dates table carries no boundary.

A unit marked part of the unit has ground outside the circle as well, and the acreage here is only what is inside it. PAD-US records who manages a parcel, not where its line runs on the ground and not whether it carries a local closure: context, not permission. Check the unit with NCWRC before you park.

Season and limits

NCWRC's dates for the 2026–27 season year, read from NCWRC. North Carolina lists this season as Northern bobwhite.

What to walk when you get there

Broomsedge and native warm-season grass with bare ground under it, brushy field borders, and the edge of a cut field against a hedgerow. Quail need to walk under the cover, not through it, which is why manicured ground holds none.

Hunt the edges of managed early-succession fields and the borders between crop and brush. Coveys hold in a few known spots and use them year after year; the singles after a covey rise scatter into the thickest nearby cover.

Written for this app rather than read off an agency page — the cover a bird uses does not change at a state line. Everything above that is a date, a limit or an acreage names the source it came from.

Read next

• Where to hunt northern bobwhite in North Carolina — every unit, ranked
• Northern bobwhite hunting in North Carolina — season, limits and range
• How to hunt northern bobwhite in North Carolina
• Northern bobwhite — biology, range and how it is hunted
• North Carolina hunting regulations

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