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Where to hunt ring-necked pheasant near Wilmington, North Carolina
Last updated 2026-09-24 · seasons from NCWRC · 2026–27 season year
There are 3 public units within 40 miles of Wilmington, North Carolina that hold ground where ring-necked pheasant is recorded — 31,755 acres of it. The most of it is in Juniper Creek Game Land, 25.4 miles out, with 20,523 recorded acres. The closest is Cape Fear River Wetlands Game Land at 10 miles. The season runs September 5, 2026 to February 28, 2027 — on dates that depend on the zone, 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 Wilmington
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 ring-necked pheasant 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.
Season boundary not carried
NCWRC zones this season and this app does not hold the boundary, so
these units are not narrowed to it. Nothing here says the season is
open on any of them — read the boundary with NCWRC before you go.
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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Juniper Creek Game Land | State game land | 25.4 | 20,523 | 20,541 | 100% regular |
| Columbus County Game Land part of the unit | State game land | 30.9 | 8,769 | 8,769 | 100% regular |
| Cape Fear River Wetlands Game Land | State game land | 10 | 2,463 | 7,391 | 33% stronghold, 18% present, 49% no records |
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 Ring-necked pheasant. It is zoned, and a circle drawn round a town is not a zone — check which zone a unit falls in before you go.
| Zone | Opens | Closes | Days |
|---|---|---|---|
| Remainder of the state | September 5, 2026 | February 28, 2027 | 177 |
| Barrier islands of Carteret, Dare and Hyde counties | November 21, 2026 | February 28, 2027 | 100 |
- Open today
- Open in Remainder of the state
- 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.
- 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.
What to walk when you get there
The seam between grass nesting cover and grain: switchgrass and CRP-style fields, cattail sloughs, weedy fencelines and picked corn. A pheasant runs before it flies, so the cover that matters is the cover it can run through.
Work fields toward a hard edge — a road, a ditch, a corner — so running birds run out of ground rather than out the far end. Blocking a corner is worth more than another pass through the middle.
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 ring-necked pheasant in North Carolina — every unit, ranked
- Ring-necked pheasant hunting in North Carolina — season, limits and range
- How to hunt ring-necked pheasant in North Carolina
- Ring-necked pheasant — biology, range and how it is hunted
- North Carolina hunting regulations