• Antlerless deer zone bag limits and season dates have changed.
• For youth and veteran special hunting days the definition of youth has changed from 15 to 17 years of age.
• Cable restraints are now a legal method of take for trapping.

Archery

Regulations, printed p. 35

• Compound bows of 30 pounds draw or more; recurves, longbows and self-bows of 40 pounds or more. Hand-held releases and mechanical draw-locks are legal.
• Broadheads at least 7/8 inch wide, mechanicals included when fully open.
• Crossbows of at least 100 pounds draw with safety devices, bolts at least 14 inches. Leverage gaining devices are legal.

• Carrying or using any firearm in conjunction with archery equipment during any archery season.
• Arrow rifles during the archery season — they are for the open rifle seasons only.
• Laser sights, thermal tracking devices and light enhancement devices including nightscopes, from sunset to sunrise.

Firearms

Regulations, printed p. 35

• Centrefire rifles firing a single soft-nosed or hollow point bullet of at least 55 grains, with no magazine capacity restriction whatever the calibre.
• Any centrefire shotgun firing a single slug.
• Any centrefire handgun firing a single bullet of at least 55 grains, with no minimum barrel length.
• Arrow rifles of at least 2000 psi with a visible pressure gauge, firing arrows or bolts at least 18 inches long with a broadhead of at least 7/8 inch — on a one-time Arrow Rifle Permit.
• Suppressors, on private and public land alike.

• Fully automatic firearms, laser sights unless certified 100 per cent disabled or legally blind, thermal tracking devices, and light enhancement devices including nightscopes from sunset to sunrise.

Muzzleloader

Regulations, printed p. 35

• Muzzleloading rifles and pistols of .40 calibre or larger firing a single ball or bullet, loaded from the muzzle.
• Muzzleloading shotguns of 20 gauge or larger firing a single slug.
• Archery equipment, in the muzzleloader season.

• Blackpowder firearms loaded from the breech.
• Carrying or using any modern firearm with a muzzleloader during any muzzleloader season.

Legal Shooting Hours

Regulations, printed p. 35, "Shooting Hours"

Half an hour before official sunrise to half an hour after official sunset, for all big game.

Fluorescent Orange

Regulations, printed p. 35

A head covering and an outer garment above the waistline, together totalling at least 400 square inches of daylight fluorescent orange, clearly visible in the field. Camouflage orange counts so long as 400 square inches of orange is there. Required of every hunter in a firearm deer season, on public and private land alike. An archery hunter out during any open firearm deer season needs less — either a head covering or an outer garment above the waistline of hunter orange — and that applies even on public land closed to the firearm season.

Sundays

Regulations, which print no Sunday exception for deer

Oklahoma sets no Sunday restriction on deer hunting: every season runs each day it is open.

Bag limits

Regulations, printed p. 36

• Six deer combined across the archery, youth gun, muzzleloader and gun seasons, of which no more than two may be antlered.
• An antlered deer is any deer, regardless of sex, with at least three inches of antler above the natural hairline on either side.
• Deer taken in the holiday antlerless season or on a controlled hunt do not count against the six.
• Deer taken between 1 and 15 January count against the 2026 combined limit.
• The harvest of antlerless mule deer is prohibited in every season.
• Antlerless deer may only be taken during firearm seasons, on the days and in the zones open to antlerless harvest.

More than one method of take in the field

Regulations, printed p. 35

A hunter may carry both archery equipment and a muzzleloader during the muzzleloader season, and both archery equipment and a legal firearm during any modern gun season, provided they hold the right licences and follow the rules of the season they are hunting. During an archery season, no firearm may be carried or used in conjunction with archery equipment.

Tracking with dogs

Regulations, printed p. 35

A leashed dog may be used to locate downed game after notifying a game warden by message, email or call with the location and time. No one tracking with a dog may have a means of take on their person.

Carcass disposal and importation

Regulations, printed p. 35

• Dumping a carcass in any well, spring, pond or stream, or leaving it within a quarter mile of an occupied dwelling or public highway without burying it properly.
• Importing, transporting or possessing any cervid carcass or carcass part from outside Oklahoma, beyond the listed exceptions — antlers, clean skull plates and the like.

Selective Surveillance Area

ODWC deer season page

Hunters in Cimarron, Texas, Woodward, Major and Woods counties should read ODWC's Selective Surveillance Area rules, which govern chronic wasting disease monitoring there.

Regulations, printed p. 44

Every deer must be reported field tag immediately, then E-Check before leaving the hunt area and before the carcass is processed.

• Attach a field tag to the carcass at once, carrying your name, customer ID number, and the date and time of harvest — any item will do so long as it carries that information
• Then E-Check the deer online at GoOutdoorsOklahoma.com, in the Go Outdoors Oklahoma app, or with an authorised department employee
• The carcass tag or online confirmation number stays with the carcass to its final destination or through processing

• Oklahoma publishes its antlerless deer zones only as a colour map, and several of the zone lines run along highways through counties rather than around them — I-40 across Beckham, Washita and Custer; US 281 through Caddo; US 75 through Tulsa and Okmulgee; state highways 1, 3 and 7 through Pontotoc, Garvin and Murray. Every county here is assigned to the zone covering most of it, and the ones a line crosses carry a flag saying so. Check the map on printed p. 37 before you fill an antlerless tag near a boundary.
• The zone changes only the antlerless allowance, never the dates: all five deer seasons run on the same days everywhere in the state. So a mis-read zone would change a number, not open or close a day.
• Antlerless limits may vary on public land from the zone's own — see ODWC's Special Area Regulations for the wildlife management area you are hunting.
• What may be shot turns on the licence as well as the season, and each of the three deer licences carries its own bag. This app shows the season's own dates and limits; it cannot know which licences are in your pocket.
• Controlled hunts have their own dates, areas and draws, and are not in the season table. Deer taken on one do not count against the combined limit of six.
• Oklahoma is Central time throughout, but the panhandle's far west sits close enough to the Mountain boundary that a pin near the Colorado or New Mexico line should be double-checked against a local clock.
• Oklahoma's peak breeding date is ODWC's own, from historical fawn birth dates: on or around 15 November. It is one figure for the whole state, and unlike every date in the season table it is not transcribed from a digest.
• Oklahoma publishes no open statewide parcel service, so there are no property lines on the map here.

Licences and E-Check

GoOutdoorsOklahoma.com, or the Go Outdoors Oklahoma app

Deer regulations

wildlifedepartment.com/hunting/regs/deer-big-game-season