• Zone classifications changed for thirty counties, and all thirty see higher bag limits for 2026-27.
• The special antlerless-only September season for Zone 1-3 counties in the CWD Surveillance Zone has been extended from two days to four.
• Proposed regulation changes would create new firearms antlerless seasons in certain counties and open some WMAs to them. They were still pending when the guide went to print — check fw.ky.gov before you plan around them.

Modern gun

Guide p. 12

• Any calibre centrefire rifle or centrefire handgun.
• Shotgun no larger than 10-gauge, shooting slug ammunition only, saboted bullets included.
• Muzzle-loading rifle, handgun or shotgun shooting round balls, conical bullets or saboted bullets.
• Air gun of .35 calibre or larger charged by an external tank, shooting single expanding projectiles.
• Scopes are allowed on all hunting equipment.

• A magazine capable of holding more than ten rounds.
• A fully automatic rifle or handgun.
• Full metal jacketed or tracer ammunition.

Archery

Guide p. 12

• Longbows, recurves and compound bows of any draw weight, with no minimum.
• Wood, carbon or metal arrows.
• Fixed-blade or mechanical broadheads at least 7/8 inch wide with the blades extended.

• Chemically treated arrows or broadheads.

Crossbow

Guide p. 12

• Crossbows of any draw weight, with a working safety.
• Wood, carbon or metal bolts, with fixed-blade or mechanical broadheads at least 7/8 inch wide extended.

• Chemically treated bolts or broadheads.

Muzzleloader

Guide p. 12

• Muzzle-loading rifles or handguns of any calibre shooting round balls, conical bullets or saboted bullets.
• Open sights or telescopic sights.
• Muzzle-loading shotguns no larger than 10-gauge.

Any legal method

Guide pp. 12 and 14

• Whatever is legal for the season the day falls in — firearm, bow, crossbow or muzzleloader.

Legal Shooting Hours

Guide p. 11

Thirty minutes before sunrise to thirty minutes after sunset.

Fluorescent Orange

Guide pp. 10-11

Solid, unbroken hunter orange visible from all sides on the head, back and chest. Required during any firearms season for deer, bear or elk, of hunters and of anyone accompanying them — including hunters using archery and crossbow equipment. The one exception is a state-owned or state-managed WMA where firearms hunting for those animals is prohibited.

Sundays

Guide pp. 10-12, which print no Sunday exception for deer

Kentucky sets no Sunday restriction on deer hunting: the seasons run every day they are open.

Bag limits

Guide pp. 10-11

• There is no daily bag limit on deer.
• Only one antlered deer may be taken statewide, whatever the zone or the method.
• Each county sits in one of four zones, and the zone sets the rest of the limit.
• Male fawns whose button antlers are not readily visible count as antlerless deer.

Bait, stands and other methods

Guide p. 12

• Bait is legal on private land, subject to the CWD rules, and prohibited on WMAs, state parks and many federal properties open to deer hunting.
• Tree stands on private land are regulated by the landowner.

• Using a drone to harass or hunt deer.
• Electronic decoys and calls.
• Antler traps — devices used to entangle or trap a deer's antlers.

Guide p. 11

Every deer must be reported by midnight on the day the deer is recovered.

• Fill in the Harvest Log before the carcass is moved
• Report through Telecheck by phone on 1-800-245-4263, or online at fw.ky.gov
• Keep proof of sex with the animal if the head or hide is removed before it is Telechecked, and use a carcass tag if the deer leaves your possession for any reason

Guide pp. 13-14

Chronic wasting disease is fatal to white-tailed deer and has been detected in Kentucky and in all of its border states. Twenty-three counties sit inside a CWD Surveillance Zone with its own season, its own sampling requirements and its own rules about moving a carcass.

• Testing is mandatory for deer taken during the four-day September antlerless season in the Zone 1-3 counties of the surveillance zone.
• Deer taken in the first three days of modern gun season in Pulaski, Wayne, McCreary and Henderson counties must be taken to a staffed check station in those counties.
• Whole carcasses and high-risk parts — head, intact skull or skull cap with brain material, spine — may not leave the surveillance zone. Deboned meat, antlers on a clean skull cap, clean skulls and teeth, hides and finished taxidermy may.
• The same list governs what may be brought into Kentucky from any other state or Canadian province.
• Bait may be used inside the surveillance zone only if it is not distributed through a contact feeder — no troughs, funnel feeders or gravity feeders without broadcasting.

• The zones here are 301 KAR 2:172's own county lists, not the guide's map. The map lays a diagonal hatch over the thirty counties that changed zone this year, and the hatch reads like a darker fill — which puts Russell, Clinton, Jackson and Rockcastle in the wrong zone if you read the picture rather than the regulation.
• Proposed new firearms antlerless seasons for certain counties were still awaiting review when the guide went to print, along with new laws from the 2026 General Assembly affecting deer seasons. They are not carried here. Check fw.ky.gov before planning around a season this app does not show.
• Bonus antlered deer are allowed on Reelfoot National Wildlife Refuge, the Fort Campbell and Fort Knox reservations and Blue Grass Army Depot under each area's own rules. This app carries the statewide one-buck limit.
• Kentucky publishes no open statewide parcel service, so there are no property lines on the map here. The county PVA's own search is linked from the pin.
• Kentucky straddles two time zones and this app carries one. Legal light here is shown on Eastern time, which is right for Louisville, Lexington and the east; the western third of the state — Paducah, Hopkinsville, Bowling Green and the counties around them — is on Central time and is an hour behind what this screen says.

Telecheck

1-800-245-4263

Fish & Wildlife

1-800-858-1549, or fw.ky.gov

Report a game violation

1-800-25-ALERT, or the KFWLaw app