Deer season in Tennessee lasts about 100 days, running from late September through early January, with a bonus youth weekend pushing the final day into mid-January. For the 2025-2026 cycle, archery opens on September 27, 2025, the last day of regular gun season is January 4, 2026, and the closing youth hunt falls on January 10-11, 2026. A separate three-day archery hunt in late August adds an earlier window on select Wildlife Management Areas. The full span is divided into archery, muzzleloader, and gun segments, each with its own equipment rules and its own stretch of the calendar.
Archery Season Dates
Archery is the first and longest segment. It opens September 27 and runs through October 24, 2025, pauses for the youth weekend, then picks back up October 27 through November 7. That gives bowhunters roughly five and a half weeks before any firearm is legal in the woods.
Legal archery equipment during this segment includes longbows, recurves, compound bows, and crossbows. No firearms are permitted on archery-only dates.1Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency. General Hunting and Trapping Regulations
Muzzleloader Season Dates
The muzzleloader and archery segment runs November 8 through November 21, 2025, giving black-powder hunters two weeks. Muzzleloaders must be .36 caliber or larger, and modern rifles and shotguns are not allowed. Archery equipment stays legal through this window, so bowhunters can keep hunting without a break.1Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency. General Hunting and Trapping Regulations
Gun Season Dates
Gun season is the longest single stretch and the one most Tennessee hunters build their year around. It opens November 22, 2025, and runs through January 4, 2026: 44 days that cover the rut and the holiday weeks when many people have time off work.
Every previously legal weapon stays in play, with modern firearms added. Legal options during the gun segment include centerfire rifles and handguns, shotguns with slugs or single solid balls, muzzleloaders, air guns of .35 caliber or larger with a pre-charged pneumatic mechanism, and pre-charged pneumatic arrow guns. Full metal jacket ammunition is prohibited, and centerfire rifles and handguns cannot be used between 30 minutes after sunset and 30 minutes before sunrise.1Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency. General Hunting and Trapping Regulations
Fluorescent orange is mandatory during gun season. Hunters must wear at least 500 square inches of daylight fluorescent orange on the upper body and head, visible from front and back. The one carve-out is for hunters on their own property.2Justia Law. Tennessee Code 70-4-124 – Wearing Daylight Fluorescent Orange Color
Youth Hunt Weekends
Two weekends are set aside for young sportsman hunts: October 25-26, 2025, and January 10-11, 2026. The first falls in the gap between the two archery segments, and the second effectively extends the season a full week past the gun-season close. Hunters aged 6 through 16 may participate using guns, muzzleloaders, or archery equipment.3Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency. Youth Hunting in Tennessee
Each young hunter must be accompanied by a non-hunting adult at least 21 years old, positioned to take immediate control of the firearm or bow at all times. One adult can supervise more than one youth. The accompanying adult has to wear fluorescent orange or pink just like a legal hunter during deer season.3Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency. Youth Hunting in Tennessee
The August Velvet Hunt
Before any of the main segments open, Tennessee offers a short early-season archery hunt in August. For 2025, the velvet hunt ran August 22-24 and was limited to specific Wildlife Management Areas.4Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency. Tennessee Deer Season Dates, Regulations and Other Information It targets bucks still in velvet and draws a smaller, more specialized group of hunters than the fall seasons.
Why Dates and Limits Can Vary by Location
The season dates above are statewide, but Tennessee splits the state into six deer management units, and antlerless bag limits are set separately for each unit and can change from year to year based on population data.4Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency. Tennessee Deer Season Dates, Regulations and Other Information The units run roughly west to east: Unit 1 across the western counties, Unit 2 through the mid-state around Nashville, Unit 3 in the central highlands, Unit 4 on the Cumberland Plateau and northern tier, Unit 5 through the Chattanooga-Knoxville corridor, and Unit 6 in the eastern mountains.
A separate CWD unit applies to counties within the Chronic Wasting Disease management zone and brings its own rules on carcass transport and testing. If you hunt in or near those counties, the current season guide will show the updated zone boundary.5Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency. CWD in Tennessee
Statewide, the antlered limit is two deer for the entire season, one per day. An antlered deer is any deer with at least one antler of three inches or longer.4Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency. Tennessee Deer Season Dates, Regulations and Other Information
Confirming Dates for Your Season
Dates shift slightly from year to year, and regulation changes sometimes take effect mid-cycle. The Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency publishes an updated Hunting and Trapping Guide each year with the full calendar, unit maps, and bag limits.6Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency. Tennessee Hunting and Trapping Guide The TWRA deer page at tn.gov/twra carries the current season’s dates and any unit-specific updates.4Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency. Tennessee Deer Season Dates, Regulations and Other Information Checking before opening day is worth the few minutes it takes.