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What’s New for 2023–2024

Deer

  • The firearm deer season on private land in Roanoke County has been increased from two weeks to four weeks in length.
  •  An early antlerless-only firearm deer season has been established on private lands in Carroll, Floyd, Montgomery, and Pulaski counties.
  • An early and late antlerless-only firearm deer season has been established on private lands in Bedford and York counties.
  • Either-sex hunting days have been increased during the general firearms season on private lands in Bland, Chesterfield, Gloucester, King George, Lancaster, Northumberland, Nottoway, Richmond, and Westmoreland counties as well as the cities of Chesapeake, Suffolk (east of the Dismal Swamp line), and Virginia Beach.
  • Either-sex hunting days have been increased during the general firearms season on certain public lands in Bland, Craig, Giles, Nelson, Sussex, and Wythe counties.
  • Either-sex hunting days have been increased during the muzzleloader seasons in Craig, Dickenson, Giles, Lee, Russell, Scott, Smyth, Tazewell, and Wise counties.
  • Earn a Buck has been established in Augusta, Botetourt, and Page counties.
  • In all areas where Earn a Buck is in effect, hunters are only required to harvest one antlerless deer prior to harvesting a second antlered deer.
  • The antler point restriction (APR) has been eliminated in Augusta County.

Bear

  • The three-day early firearms season has been eliminated in 26 counties across northern and western Virginia.
  • The general firearms season has been increased from three weeks to five weeks across 35 counties in central and southern Virginia.

Turkey

  • The fall turkey season has been increased from four weeks to six weeks in Charles City County.
  • Non-meat parts of wild turkeys can now be sold.

Furbearers

  • Certain remote trap-checking or cellular camera-based systems may now be used as a remote trap checking system in lieu of a physical trap check.
  • The gray fox hunting season had been reduced to January 1 through the last day of February.
  • The bag limit for gray fox is now one gray fox per hunting party per day taken between noon one day and noon the following day.

Public Lands

  • Coastal Forest WMA (~8,000 acres) on Virginia’s Eastern Shore has been added to the Department’s Wildlife Management Area system.
  • Chesterfield State Forest will now be open for archery hunting and Chilton Woods State Forest will now allow hunting during the firearms season in addition to the archery and muzzleloader seasons (see the Department of Forestry’s website).

Chronic Wasting Disease (CWD)

  • Arlington, Fairfax, and Prince William counties have been added to Disease Management Area 2.
  • Patrick County has been added to Disease Management Area 3.
  • Augusta and Fluvanna counties have been added to the list of localities where feeding of deer is prohibited year-round.
  • Mandatory CWD testing will take place in Shenandoah, Prince William, Carroll, Patrick, and Pulaski counties on Saturday, November 18, 2023.