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 is already underway: Zone A archery opened 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

FWC revisits its zone and DMU rules season to season — antler-point regulations and antlerless days are set per DMU rather than statewide, and the Commission can amend them. Before you hunt, confirm your zone's statewide dates and your DMU's rules on FWC's own pages, and pull the area brochure on top of that if you are hunting a WMA:

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

FWC's published season dates and bag limits are the source of record. If they differ from anything above, FWC is right and this post is wrong. A day outside your zone's season is a citation, not a near miss.

Verified against FWC's published 2026-2027 season dates and bag limits, August 16, 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: your archery season opened August 1 and is underway. Cameras should already be soaking.