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Where to hunt northern bobwhite near Newport News, Virginia
Last updated 2026-09-24 · seasons from VDWR · 2026–27 licence year
There are 5 public units within 40 miles of Newport News, Virginia that hold ground where northern bobwhite is recorded — 13,469 acres of it. The most of it is in Mockhorn Wildlife Management Area, 31.7 miles out, with 7,703 recorded acres. The closest is Guinea Marsh at 15.9 miles. The season runs November 7, 2026 to January 31, 2027 — 86 days afield, bag 6 per day, read against the 2026–27 licence year from VDWR. 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 VDWR before you park.
Public land within 40 miles of Newport News
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.
VDWR 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Mockhorn Wildlife Management Area | State wildlife management area | 31.7 | 7,703 | 7,703 | 100% regular |
| Wildlife Management Area | State wildlife management area | 28.3 | 2,653 | 2,653 | 100% regular |
| Big Woods Wildlife Management Area | State wildlife management area | 29.6 | 2,208 | 2,208 | 100% stronghold |
| Guinea Marsh | State wildlife management area | 15.9 | 784 | 784 | 100% regular |
| Airfield Pond Public Fishing Lake | State wildlife management area | 30.1 | 121 | 121 | 100% stronghold |
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 VDWR before you park.
Season and limits
VDWR's dates for the 2026–27 licence year, read from VDWR. Virginia lists this season as Northern bobwhite.
| Segment | Opens | Closes | Days |
|---|---|---|---|
| Statewide | November 7, 2026 | January 31, 2027 | 86 |
- Open today
- Shut — next opening November 7, 2026
- Bag limit
- 6 per day
- Hunter orange
- requiredEvery hunter, and anyone accompanying one, must wear a solid blaze orange or blaze pink hat, or solid blaze upper-body clothing visible from 360 degrees, or display at least 100 square inches of solid blaze material at shoulder level, visible from 360 degrees.
- Shooting hours
- One half-hour before sunrise to one half-hour after sunset.
- Sundays
- Virginia allows Sunday hunting, with two exceptions: not within 200 yards of a house of worship, and not for deer or bear with dogs.
- Virginia requires solid blaze orange or blaze pink — a hat, 360-degree upper-body clothing, or 100 square inches at shoulder level. Waterfowl and dove hunters are exempt; upland bird hunters are not.
- Quail is closed on all public land west of the Blue Ridge Mountains, and on Flippo-Gentry WMA in Sussex County until further notice. That is a rule about the parcel you are standing on, not about a line on this map, and this app cannot draw it — check the ownership of the ground before you hunt quail in the mountains.
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 Virginia — every unit, ranked
- Northern bobwhite hunting in Virginia — season, limits and range
- How to hunt northern bobwhite in Virginia
- Northern bobwhite — biology, range and how it is hunted
- Virginia hunting regulations