Changes in effect for 2024-25 deer hunting season in Western NC

RALEIGH — New rules adopted by the North Carolina Wildlife Resources Commission (NCWRC) have shifted the timing of the western zone black-powder and gun seasons, and increased antlerless hunting opportunities in many western zone counties.

The new black-powder season will begin on Saturday, Nov. 16, and end Friday, Nov. 29. Thanksgiving Day and the Friday after Thanksgiving (Nov. 28 and 29, 2024) are designated as Youth Days in the western zone. Youth under 18 may use a gun to harvest antlered or antlerless deer during those two days of the black-powder season. Gun season will begin on Saturday, Nov. 30 and end on Jan. 1, 2025.

These changes were adopted by NCWRC to better align the western zone deer seasons with important deer management objectives, including protecting yearling buck dispersal, deer harvest relative to timing of the rut, balancing the buck-to-doe sex ratio, and improving synchrony between breeding and fawning periods, which is an important deer life-history trait that ensures fawns are born at the optimal time of year relative to food and cover resources. Additionally, due to the growth of deer herds across most of the western zone, particularly on private lands, these changes provide hunters with additional opportunity to harvest antlerless deer.

Detailed information may be reviewed here explaining how these changes are intended to better manage the growing deer herds in the western zone.

View pages 62-66 in NCWRC’s 2024-25 Regulations Digest for specific information about these season changes on private lands, including information on antlerless seasons by county across the western zone.