Florida Deer Season 2026-27: Zone A-D Dates & What to Know

Florida's 2026-27 deer season dates are confirmed by FWC, and the earliest whitetail hunting in the country starts soon: Zone A archery opens August 1, 2026, Zone C follows September 19, Zone B on October 17, and Zone D on October 24. Florida runs everything by zone, so the table below is the post — find your zone first (roughly: A = South Florida, C = most of the peninsula and eastern Panhandle, B = the Green Swamp region of central Florida, D = the western Panhandle).

012026-27 antlered deer season dates by zone (FWC-confirmed)

All dates are 2026 through early 2027 within each zone's window. These apply to private land; every WMA publishes its own brochure with different dates and quota requirements.

02Antlerless deer days

Antlerless harvest (antlers absent or shorter than 5 inches) is much tighter and varies by Deer Management Unit within each zone:

• Zone A: archery/crossbow — DMU A2: Aug. 1-9; DMU A3: Aug. 1-16. General gun — A2: Nov. 21-22; A3: Nov. 21-24.
• Zone B: same windows as antlered for archery, crossbow, and muzzleloader; general gun antlerless runs Dec. 26 – Jan. 3.
• Zone C: archery/crossbow/muzzleloader same as antlered; general gun — DMUs C1, C2, C3, C4, C6: Nov. 21-29; DMU C5: Nov. 7 – Dec. 6.
• Zone D: antlerless windows mirror the antlered dates.

Antler-point regulations are set per DMU, not statewide — check your DMU page on MyFWC before passing or pulling the trigger.

Bag limits: 2 deer daily, 4 in possession, 5 annually — no more than 2 antlerless (3 in DMU D2).

03License basics

Florida deer hunters need a hunting license plus a deer permit, and season-specific permits to hunt archery, crossbow, or muzzleloading gun seasons. Harvest reporting is mandatory: log the deer before moving it from the point of harvest and report it within 24 hours (or before processing/leaving the state, whichever comes first) via GoOutdoorsFlorida.com, the Fish|Hunt Florida app, or 888-486-8356.

04Check the official source

• 2026-2027 Season Dates and Bag Limits — MyFWC
• Zone map and DMU antler regulations — MyFWC
• Deer harvest reporting — MyFWC

Accessed July 1, 2026. WMA dates differ — always pull the area brochure.

05Plan the season

Florida's rut is the strangest in the whitetail world — South Florida deer breed in late July and August, while Panhandle deer rut in February. Your zone's season is built around it:

• Florida Rut Prediction 2026 — rut windows from Big Cypress to the Panhandle
• Florida Solunar Calendar — daily feeding peaks
• Best Time to Hunt Today in Florida — hour-by-hour scoring
• Trail Pro Intel's free Hunt Forecast folds heat, storms, wind, and solunar data into one huntability score — worth a look before an August swamp sit.

Zone A hunters: you're 30 days out. Cameras should already be soaking.