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Where to hunt american woodcock near Charlottesville, Virginia
Last updated 2026-09-24 · seasons from VDWR · 2026–27 licence year
There are 3 public units within 40 miles of Charlottesville, Virginia that hold ground where american woodcock is recorded — 10,672 acres of it. The most of it is in Rapidan Wildlife Management Area, 22.1 miles out, with 10,007 recorded acres. The season runs November 11, 2026 to January 18, 2027 — 45 days afield, bag 3 per day, 9 in possession, 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 Charlottesville
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 american woodcock 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Rapidan Wildlife Management Area | State wildlife management area | 22.1 | 10,007 | 10,031 | 100% stronghold |
| Virginia Department of Game and Inland Fisheries Easement part of the unit | State wildlife management area | 26.8 | 544 | 544 | 100% stronghold |
| Lake Orange Public Fishing Lake | State wildlife management area | 28.2 | 121 | 121 | 100% regular |
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 American woodcock.
| Segment | Opens | Closes | Days |
|---|---|---|---|
| Segment 1 | November 11, 2026 | December 1, 2026 | 21 |
| Segment 2 | December 26, 2026 | January 18, 2027 | 24 |
- Open today
- Shut — next opening November 11, 2026
- Bag limit
- 3 per day, 9 in possession
- 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.
- Migratory bird: HIP registration is required in addition to the hunting licence, and it lapses every July 1.
- Two segments, split around the late-December break. The birds in the second are flight birds moving through on cold fronts, not Virginia's own.
What to walk when you get there
Wet alder runs, damp aspen bottoms and shrub swamp — soft ground the bird can probe for worms. Woodcock cover is often two hundred yards of a creek bottom rather than a whole block of forest.
Hunt the low wet ground inside grouse country, and hunt it again after a cold front: this is a migratory bird and a covert that was empty on Tuesday can hold a flight on Friday. Birds sit tight and flush straight up through the alders.
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 american woodcock in Virginia — every unit, ranked
- American woodcock hunting in Virginia — season, limits and range
- How to hunt american woodcock in Virginia
- American woodcock — biology, range and how it is hunted
- Virginia hunting regulations