• Act No. 231 changed the deer tags. "This change implements a new base set of deer tags for the 2026 deer season consisting of three antlerless tags and three unrestricted antlered deer tags. This does not change the format of any additional tags available for purchase in addition to the base set." Effective 1 July 2026. Guide, "What's New for 2026-2027, Changes in Law", printed p. 2.
• The Guide was published in July 2026 and says its own contents may be overtaken: "Property-specific regulations outlined in this booklet could change due to the need for emergency regulations ... SCDNR will issue news releases to clarify any changes to regulations, errors or omissions in this booklet." Guide, printed p. 4.

Archery

Guide, printed p. 61

• Archery equipment during the archery-only seasons in Game Zones 2 and 4, and throughout the gun seasons.

Primitive weapons

Guide, printed p. 61

• Primitive weapons during the ten-day October season in Game Zones 1 and 2.

Firearms

Guide, printed p. 61

• Any legal firearm during the gun hunts.

• Buckshot, on WMA hog hunts.

Legal Shooting Hours

Guide, printed p. 118 — SCDNR's own answer to "How long can I sit in the stand to hunt deer?"

A full hour before official sunrise to a full hour after official sunset — the widest shooting-light window of any state here, and twice the half hour most states allow. SCDNR prints a sunrise/sunset table for the state at printed p. 120; this app computes from the sun at your pin instead.

Fluorescent Orange

Guide, printed p. 78 — SC Code 50-11-365

A hat, coat or vest of solid international orange. Required on wildlife management area land during any deer hunting season, of every user except those hunting dove, ducks, geese and other migratory birds — so it binds hikers and anglers on a WMA as well as hunters. An archery hunter during an archery-only deer season is exempt. On private land South Carolina sets no orange requirement.

Sundays

Guide, which prints no Sunday exception for private-land deer hunting

South Carolina sets no statewide Sunday restriction on deer hunting on private land. Some wildlife management areas close on Sundays — check the area's own schedule.

Bag limits and tags

Guide, printed pp. 59-61

• Five antlered bucks a season on personal tags for a resident, four for a non-resident — and two of them must have four points on one antler or a twelve-inch inside spread.
• Two a day, antlered or antlerless, on personal tags.
• Antlerless: three for the season in Game Zone 1, nine in Zones 2, 3 and 4, across all seasons and methods.
• The free base set is six tags — three antlerless and three unrestricted antlered.
• Every deer must be tagged at the point of kill, and the tag stays attached until the carcass is quartered or reaches a processor.
• On a property enrolled in the Deer Quota Program the limit is on the property, not the hunter, and the statewide, zone and daily limits do not apply.

What counts as a restricted buck

Guide, printed p. 59

For the two optional antler restriction tags a deer must have at least four points on one antler or a minimum twelve-inch inside spread. A point is a projection at least one inch long, measured from the base where it arises from the top of the beam or another point. Inside spread is measured at a right angle to the centre line of the skull, at the widest point between the main beams.

Deer processors

Guide, printed p. 60

A hunter must give the processor the harvest report confirmation number, and the processor must record and keep it for each deer until the processed meat is received by the hunter or their designee.

Guide, printed pp. 59-60

Every deer must be reported tag at the point of kill, and report the harvest.

• Tag the deer at the point of kill; the tag stays attached until the carcass is quartered or a processor receives it
• Report the harvest and keep the confirmation number
• Give the confirmation number to your processor, who must record and keep it
• Temporary tags can be printed from SCDNR's Customer Privileges Portal if permanent ones have not arrived

• Shooting light in South Carolina is a full hour either side of the sun, not the half hour most states allow. If this app's opening and closing times look generous against another state's, that is why.
• These are the private-land seasons. Wildlife management areas run their own deer seasons, area by area, and many are shorter — the guide's WMA tables are the source for those, and none of it is carried here.
• Game Zone 1's boundary is not a county line: it runs along the Norfolk Southern main line and SC Highway 183 through Oconee, Pickens and Greenville counties. The shipped layer is SCDNR's own, so a pin is settled against the real line — but if the layer will not load, the county fallback finds nothing.
• The Deer Quota Program replaces the bag limit entirely on an enrolled tract: the quota is on the property, not the hunter, and the statewide, zone and daily limits do not apply there. This app shows the ordinary limits.
• South Carolina's rut really is the earliest in the country, and SCDNR's own peak breeding map is what says so: 1 October to 1 November on the lower coast, 15 October to 15 November across most of the state, 15 November to 15 December in the mountain corner. The rut meter carries 31 October, the middle band's midpoint, flat across the state — a single date cannot hold a six-week spread, and the spread here does not run north to south. The bands cannot be carried game zone by game zone either: the coastal band is a strip that cuts through the seaward counties rather than following any county or zone line, and the mountain band is a corner of two.
• South Carolina publishes no open statewide parcel service, so there are no property lines on the map here.

SCDNR

803-734-3886

Tags and licences

GoOutdoorsSouthCarolina.com

Temporary tags

www2.dnr.sc.gov/customerprivilegesportal