• Antlerless deer permits may now be used during the regular season, not only in the muzzleloader seasons.
• The antler restriction now applies in WMU D1: a legal buck there must have at least two points on one antler.
• The expanded archery season, 15-30 September in designated zones, is new.

Archery

Guide, printed p. 3

• Bow and arrow
• Crossbow — no separate permit needed

• Arrowheads narrower than 7/8 inch, or with fewer than two cutting edges
• Carrying a rifle, shotgun or muzzleloader while archery hunting deer in the archery season
• Using a pistol or revolver to take game or dispatch a deer, even though one may be carried

Muzzleloader

Guide, printed p. 4

• A single-shot, single-barrel muzzleloading rifle or smoothbore, barrel 20 inches or more, bore 0.43 inches or more
• A single-shot muzzleloading pistol, barrel 10 inches or more, bore 0.43 inches or more
• Flintlock, caplock, matchlock, in-line or wheellock ignition

• Any firearm loadable at the breech without tools
• Carrying any other firearm, or a bow and arrow or crossbow, while hunting a muzzleloader season

Regular season

Guide, printed p. 3

• Rifle
• Shotgun
• Muzzleloader
• Handgun
• Bow and arrow
• Crossbow

Legal Shooting Hours

Guide, printed p. 1

"Hunting hours are one half hour before sunrise to one half hour after sunset." One sentence, no exceptions, no seasonal variation — the plainest hours rule of any state here.

Fluorescent Orange

Guide, printed p. 6 — the mentors' page, which is where the department puts the recommendation

Vermont has no blaze orange law. The department recommends it — "Wear Orange. Make sure other hunters see you. Studies show that hunter orange is the safest color to wear while deer hunting, and deer do not see orange the same as we do" — but it is advice, not a requirement, in every season including the sixteen-day regular season.

Sundays

Guide, which prints no Sunday exception

Vermont sets no Sunday restriction on deer hunting. Both weekends of the regular season are open, and so is youth and novice weekend.

Limits

Guide, printed p. 1

• No more than four deer a year, only one of which may be a legal buck.
• A youth or novice hunter may take two legal bucks provided one comes during the youth or novice season — still inside the four.
• Any hunter may take one additional buck, still inside the four, with all three of: a purchased second buck tag, an antlerless deer already taken and reported this year, and a first buck carrying at least three points on one antler. The three may be met in any order.
• Only one buck may be taken per season.
• An antlerless deer is one without antlers, or with no antler longer than three inches.

What counts as a legal buck

Guide, printed p. 1

In WMUs C, D2, E1, E2, G, I, L, M, P and Q a legal buck is any deer with at least one antler three inches or more in length. In WMUs A, B, D1, F1, F2, H, J1, J2, K, N and O a legal buck is any deer with at least one antler carrying two or more antler points an inch in length or longer. A point is an antler projection of at least an inch measured base to tip, and a broken main beam counts as a point regardless of length.

Baiting and lures

Guide, printed p. 10

• It is illegal to hunt or take any wild animal using bait during any deer hunting season. Bait is any animal, vegetable, fruit or mineral matter placed with the intention of attracting wildlife.
• Artificial scents and lures are legal provided they are not designed to be eaten or licked.
• Deer lures containing any cervid urine, blood, gland oil, faeces or other bodily fluid are illegal in Vermont — the state was among the first to ban natural urine lures, because CWD prions in deposited fluid can be taken up by plants and go on infecting deer for years. Synthetic and food-scented lures are still permitted.
• Exceptions to the bait rule: incidental feeding inside active livestock operations, standing food-plot crops, grain scattered by normal agricultural, gardening, soil-stabilisation or logging practice, and vegetation or seed naturally deposited.

Tagging and transport

Guide, printed pp. 7-9

• Tag the deer immediately when taken. The tag goes on the carcass open to view and stays there until the carcass is cut up for consumption.
• Free Optional Vermont Big Game Tags are available from licence agents as durable alternatives to the paper tags on a licence. A qualifying landowner writes "landowner" in place of a licence number.
• A tagged deer may be transported only during the open season and for 20 days after — by the person who shot it, or accompanied by them, or by a mentored hunter, or by common carrier with both names and the stations marked.
• No carcass may leave the state without being reported first.

Retrieval

Guide, printed p. 9

A person may not knowingly kill a covered wild animal — deer among them — and then knowingly fail to make a reasonable effort to retrieve it. The animal has to be processed as food, fur, hide or feathers, or used for taxidermy. Exceptions are narrow: unfit for consumption, theft, loss to another animal, no access because of posting, defence of person or property, and sick or diseased animals.

Guide, printed p. 8

Every deer must be reported within 48 hours.

• Field dress the deer before reporting — that is required, not advice
• Archery and muzzleloader deer may be reported online; regular, youth and novice deer must be reported in person at a Big Game Reporting Station or to a State Game Warden
• Have your Conservation ID number, your tag number, the town and WMU of the kill, the date and time, the sex, the weight (an estimate is fine) and the number of legal antler points on each antler
• A photograph is optional: the head area showing antlers or their absence with the filled-out tag attached, or your own face with the tag
• Take a warden to the kill site if one asks

Guide, printed p. 10

Vermont has no detected CWD but treats the risk as live: it was one of the first states to ban natural deer urine lures outright, because prions deposited in soil can be taken up by plants and go on infecting deer for years.

• Any lure containing cervid urine, blood, gland oil, faeces or other bodily fluid is illegal to use in Vermont.
• Synthetic and food-scented lures are permitted.
• Carcass import restrictions apply — see the department's CWD page before bringing a deer in from out of state.

• Whether antlerless deer may be taken during the archery, youth or novice season is set WMU by WMU each summer by the Fish and Wildlife Board, and this app does not carry that determination. The archery season is shown as the buck season the guide states without condition; if the Board opened your unit, a doe is legal too on an archery antlerless tag. Confirm with the department.
• Seven of the eight Expanded Archery Zones are parts of named towns — Bennington, Brattleboro, Burlington, Montpelier, Newport, Rutland and St. Johnsbury — and the app cannot draw them. Only the WMU A zone, which is all of Grand Isle County, matches a unit. And city ordinances in Burlington, South Burlington, Winooski and Rutland City prohibit discharging archery equipment anywhere inside them.
• The antlerless permit allocation is a Board decision remade every year, and the numbers carried here are the 2026 ones. E1 and E2 got none.
• The second buck is not a tag you can simply buy: you need the tag, a reported antlerless deer already this year, and a first buck with three points on one antler. The app cannot count for you.
• Vermont has no blaze orange requirement. If the app shows no orange rule for Vermont, that is not an omission.
• Vermont's peak breeding date is an estimate. The department says only that mating occurs between October and December and publishes no peak; the rut meter uses 12 November.
• Vermont publishes no open statewide parcel service, so there are no property lines on the map here.

Licensing

802-828-1190

Hunter Education

802-828-1193

Antlerless permit questions

802-828-1190

Report a deer

vtfishandwildlife.com/online-deer-harvest-reporting