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Where to hunt northern bobwhite near New Bern, North Carolina
Last updated 2026-09-24 · seasons from NCWRC · 2026–27 season year
There are 6 public units within 40 miles of New Bern, North Carolina that hold ground where northern bobwhite is recorded — 115,045 acres of it. The most of it is in Croatan National Forest, 2.4 miles out, with 101,246 recorded acres. 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.
Public land within 40 miles of New Bern
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.
| Unit | Class | Miles | Recorded acres | Acres in range | Where the records are |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Croatan National Forest | National forest | 2.4 | 101,246 | 161,851 | 63% regular, 37% present |
| Goose Creek Game Land | State game land | 21.8 | 7,523 | 8,379 | 90% regular, 10% present |
| White Oak River Game Land | State game land | 18.9 | 3,732 | 3,732 | 100% regular |
| Neuse River Game Land | State game land | 3.3 | 1,506 | 9,019 | 17% regular, 83% present |
| Croatan Game Land | State game land | 25.3 | 586 | 586 | 100% regular |
| Carteret County Game Land part of the unit | State game land | 29.7 | 452 | 5,570 | 8% regular, 92% present |
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.
| Segment | Opens | Closes | Days |
|---|---|---|---|
| Statewide | November 21, 2026 | February 28, 2027 | 100 |
- Open today
- Shut — next opening November 21, 2026
- Bag limit
- not shown No single bag limit is shown for this species here — read the notes below and check the current NCWRC regulations before you go.
- Hunter orange
- requiredAnyone 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.
- Shooting hours
- not carried
- 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 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.
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