Wild turkey hunting in the Virginia Alleghenies

Last updated 2026-09-24 · from VDWR data · 2026–27 licence year

Wild turkey hunting in the Virginia Alleghenies. The season runs October 3, 2026 to January 23, 2027 — on dates that depend on the zone, bag 1 per day. 27 public units and 1,560,874 acres fall inside this region, the largest of them George Washington National Forest at 960,981 acres. The bird is a stronghold in Virginia.

The ground
The cover
Season and limits
Public land here
Weather and timing
The place

The ground

The western mountains — George Washington and Jefferson national forest, and the state's biggest wildlife management areas. Cover is mountain laurel, old clearcut and the greenbrier edges of logging roads, on ground that goes up steeply and keeps going.

Written for this app — not an agency description. Everything below that is a rule or a number names the source it came from.

The cover, and how it is hunted

Mature hardwoods that carry mast — oak ridges and beech — against open ground: pasture, food plot, log landing or field edge where birds strut and feed. Roost trees are usually the biggest timber near water.

Locate first and call second. Fall hunting is often a matter of finding a flock, scattering it and calling it back together; spring hunting is working a gobbler off the roost from a set-up he can walk to without crossing anything.

Dogs are legal for fall turkey in some states and not in others, and the rule is the state's rather than a preference — the regulations page for each state carries it.

Season and limits

VDWR's dates for the 2026–27 licence year, read from VDWR. Virginia lists this season as Wild turkey (fall). It is zoned, and this region is not a zone — check which zone a unit falls in before you go.

Zone	Opens	Closes	Days
Albemarle, Alleghany, Augusta, Bath, Greene, Highland, Madison, Page and Rockingham counties	October 17, 2026	October 30, 2026	14
	November 26, 2026	November 26, 2026	1
Bedford, Bland, Botetourt, Caroline, Carroll, Clarke, Craig, Culpeper, Dickenson, Essex, Fairfax, Fauquier, Franklin, Giles, Grayson, King and Queen, King George, King William, Lancaster, Lee, Loudoun, Montgomery, Nelson, Northumberland, Prince William, Pulaski, Rappahannock, Richmond, Roanoke, Rockbridge, Russell, Scott, Smyth, Stafford, Washington, Westmoreland, Wise and Wythe counties, plus Camp Peary, Hampton and Newport News	October 17, 2026	October 30, 2026	14
	November 25, 2026	November 26, 2026	2
	November 30, 2026	December 26, 2026	27
	January 9, 2027	January 23, 2027	15
Accomack, Amelia, Dinwiddie, Gloucester, Greensville, Isle of Wight, James City, Mathews, Middlesex, New Kent, Northampton, Powhatan, Prince George, Southampton, Surry, Sussex and York counties, plus Suffolk	October 17, 2026	October 30, 2026	14
	November 25, 2026	November 26, 2026	2
	November 30, 2026	December 12, 2026	13
Amherst, Appomattox, Brunswick, Buchanan, Buckingham, Campbell, Charles City, Charlotte, Chesterfield, Cumberland, Floyd, Fluvanna, Frederick, Goochland, Halifax, Hanover, Henrico, Henry, Louisa, Lunenburg, Mecklenburg, Nottoway, Orange, Patrick, Pittsylvania, Prince Edward, Shenandoah, Spotsylvania, Tazewell and Warren counties	October 17, 2026	October 30, 2026	14
	November 25, 2026	November 26, 2026	2
	November 30, 2026	December 12, 2026	13
	January 9, 2027	January 23, 2027	15
Statewide archery	October 3, 2026	November 13, 2026	42

Open today: Shut — next opening October 3, 2026
Bag limit: 1 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.
Virginia names the fall turkey zones as county lists rather than as drawn boundaries, and this app does not join them to its geography. Confirm your county against the VDWR table before opening day.
Three turkeys per licence year across the fall and spring seasons in any combination, of which at most one may be beardless. That is a yearly total, not a daily or possession limit.
Archery runs October 3 to November 13 across the state, on its own dates, in addition to the firearms zones below.

Public land in the Virginia Alleghenies

27 units and 1,560,874 acres, out of 130 units in Virginia that name wild turkey.

Ordered by recorded acres — how much of each unit lies inside subbasins where wild turkey 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 VDWR 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 VDWR 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	Manager	Recorded acres	Acres	Where the records are
George Washington National Forest	National forest	USFS	352,464	960,981	37% regular, 41% present, 22% occasional
Jefferson National Forest	National forest	USFS	317,203	712,459	3% stronghold, 42% regular, 52% present, 4% occasional
Highland Wildlife Management Area	State wildlife management area	SFW	13,719	13,719	100% regular
Gathright Wildlife Management Area	State wildlife management area	SFW	12,926	13,204	98% regular, 2% present
Lake Moomaw Public Fishing Lake	State wildlife management area	SFW	2,132	2,132	100% regular
Short Hills Wildlife Management Area	State wildlife management area	SFW	1,973	4,233	47% regular, 53% present
Clinch Mountain Wildlife Management Area	State wildlife management area	SFW	868	24,854	3% regular, 97% occasional
Virginia Department of Game and Inland Fisheries Easement	State wildlife management area	SFW	553	5,541	10% regular, 90% present
George Washington and Jefferson National Forest	National forest	USFS	317	866	37% regular, 63% present
Highland	State wildlife management area	SFW	192	192	100% regular
Monongahela National Forest	National forest	USFS	20	55	36% regular, 47% present, 18% occasional
Short Hills	State wildlife management area	SFW	14	83	17% regular, 83% present

Class	Units	Acres
National forest	11	1,448,893
State wildlife management area	16	111,981

A region here is a bounding box — 36.9° to 39.5° north, 82.0° to 79.2° west — and not a boundary anybody drew on the ground. A unit that straddles the edge is placed by where its middle is. PAD-US says who manages a parcel, not where its line runs and not whether it carries a local closure: context, not permission. Check the unit with VDWR before you park.

Weather and timing

Elevation is the variable. Ridge tops drop their leaves weeks before the valleys, and a November hunt at 3,000 feet is a different season from the same day in the valley.

The place

Virginia's grouse country, and a fraction of what it was: the young forest the bird needs has aged out across most of the range. Hunters here talk in terms of flushes per day, and the number is small.

Other regions in Virginia

Open the hunting map →Public land and bird cover, drawn for the bird you are after.