How Many Deer Can You Kill in Virginia: Bag Limits by Region

In Virginia, you can kill up to six deer per license year east of the Blue Ridge Mountains and up to five per license year west of the Blue Ridge, with a base daily limit of two. Within those annual totals, no more than three may be antlered east of the Blue Ridge and no more than two antlered west of it; the balance must be antlerless. Bonus deer permits, urban zones, and Earn a Buck rules can shift what you can legally take on a given day or in a given county, but the buck sub-caps hold almost everywhere.¹

Annual and Daily Limits by Region

Virginia draws its main dividing line down the Blue Ridge. Where you hunt on either side of that line decides both your season total and your buck cap.

East of the Blue Ridge

The standard limit is two deer per day and six per license year. Of those six, no more than three can be antlered, and at least three must be antlerless.¹

The daily limit jumps to unlimited in Arlington, Fairfax, Loudoun, and Prince William counties, and in most cities and towns east of the Blue Ridge. Chesapeake, Suffolk, and Virginia Beach are the exceptions. Even in the unlimited-daily jurisdictions, the three-antlered annual cap still applies.¹

West of the Blue Ridge

West of the Blue Ridge, and on National Forest lands in Amherst, Bedford, and Nelson counties, you may take two per day and five per license year. No more than two of the five can be antlered, and at least three must be antlerless. Cities and towns west of the Blue Ridge allow unlimited daily take, but the two-buck annual cap holds.¹

Public Land Limit

On National Forest land and on land owned or managed by the Department of Wildlife Resources, the daily bag drops to one deer, regardless of which side of the Blue Ridge you’re on.¹

What Counts as Antlered vs. Antlerless

Your buck cap turns on this definition, so it’s worth getting right. An antlered deer is any deer with antlers that break the skin and protrude above the hairline. Any such deer must be tagged with an either-sex tag and counts against your antlered total.¹

Antlerless deer include does, button bucks, and bucks that have shed their antlers. Button bucks are male fawns with hair-covered pedicels on their heads; because those bumps don’t break the skin, the deer counts as antlerless. A buck that drops its antlers late in the season also counts as antlerless. Any antlerless deer can be tagged with either an antlerless-only tag or an either-sex tag.²

Antler Point Restrictions in Five Counties

In Alleghany, Augusta, Bath, Highland, and Rockbridge counties, if you take two antlered bucks in a license year, at least one of them must have four or more antler points (each one inch or longer) on one side. The restriction does not apply within 25 miles of a confirmed Chronic Wasting Disease detection.³

Earn a Buck: Antlerless Before Your Next Buck

In Earn a Buck (EAB) counties and most cities and towns, you have to take antlerless deer before you can keep taking bucks. In most EAB counties, you must harvest at least one antlerless deer on private land in that county before you can take a second antlered deer there. East of the Blue Ridge, where a third buck is legal, you need at least two antlerless deer before taking that third one.⁴

In Arlington, Fairfax, Loudoun, and Prince William counties, the antlerless-before-antlered requirement applies on all lands, not just private. EAB applies in cities and towns statewide except Chesapeake, Suffolk, and Virginia Beach. Deer taken in one EAB county don’t carry over to another, and deer from out-of-season kill permits don’t count toward the EAB requirement.¹

Bonus Deer Permits: Going Past the Seasonal Cap

If you want to take antlerless deer beyond your five- or six-deer seasonal limit, bonus deer permits let you do that. They are valid for antlerless deer only, and they work on private land in every county and city where deer hunting is allowed except Buchanan, Dickenson, and Wise. On public land, bonus permits apply at state parks, state forests, national wildlife refuges, and military areas when the managing agency authorizes them. They are not valid on DWR-owned or National Forest lands unless specifically posted.³

Here’s the nuance: a deer taken on a bonus permit still counts against your daily bag limit, but it does not count against your seasonal total. So on a two-per-day limit, a bonus deer fills one of those two slots for the day, yet your five- or six-deer annual tally stays untouched.³

Extra Antlerless Opportunities in CWD Zones

Virginia has designated four Disease Management Areas (DMAs) covering counties within 10 miles of a confirmed Chronic Wasting Disease detection. For the 2025–2026 season:

DMA1: Clarke, Frederick, Shenandoah, and Warren counties.
DMA2: Arlington, Culpeper, Fairfax, Fauquier, Loudoun, Madison, Orange, Page, Prince William, Rappahannock, and Rockingham counties.
DMA3: Carroll, Floyd, Franklin, Montgomery, Patrick, Pulaski, Roanoke, and Wythe counties.
DMA4: Bland, Smyth, and Tazewell counties.

Counties in DMA1, DMA2 (except Rockingham), and parts of DMA3 get extra early and late antlerless-only firearms seasons on private lands, running September 6 through October 3 and January 4 through March 29. Earn a Buck is in effect for all of DMA1, DMA2 (except parts of Rockingham west of Routes 613 and 731), and most of DMA3. DMA4 has no extra antlerless seasons and no EAB requirement.⁵

If you hunt in a DMA, carcass transport is restricted. A whole deer carcass cannot leave a DMA for a non-DMA county. You can move boned-out meat, quarters with no spinal column or head attached, hides with no heads, clean skull plates with or without antlers, antlers with no tissue attached, cleaned jaw bones, and finished taxidermy. Between DMAs, whole carcasses from DMA1 stay in DMA1, DMA2 carcasses can move within DMA1 and DMA2, and carcasses from DMA3 and DMA4 cannot be brought into DMA1 or DMA2.⁶

Mandatory CWD sampling runs on November 15 in Shenandoah (DMA1); Patrick, Roanoke, and Wythe (DMA3); and Smyth and Tazewell (DMA4). Any deer killed in those counties on that date must be brought to a sampling station or voluntary fridge station.⁵

Tagging and Reporting Every Deer

Every deer you kill has to be reported. Before moving the carcass, validate an appropriate tag. For paper tags, remove the designated notch completely. For electronic tags, notch and report through the GoOutdoorsVA mobile app.⁷

If you validated a paper tag in the field, report through the DWR electronic harvest system at GoOutdoorsVirginia.com or in the app. Reporting must happen before you transport the carcass by vehicle or by the end of legal hunting hours, whichever comes first, without unnecessary delay. You’ll get a confirmation number, which must be written in ink on the notched paper tag. If the carcass is left unattended or handed to someone else, written documentation with your full name, kill date, and confirmation number must stay with it until processing.⁸

Each antlered deer requires an either-sex tag; each antlerless deer takes either an antlerless-only or an either-sex tag. Tags come with the deer/turkey license.¹

What Happens If You Exceed the Limit

Killing a deer in violation of Board regulations, exceeding the bag limit, or killing one during the closed season is a Class 2 misdemeanor in Virginia, carrying a fine of up to $1,000 and up to six months in jail. If you kill a deer illegally during the open season and immediately surrender the complete carcass in good condition to the conservation police officer in that county or city, the charge drops to a Class 3 misdemeanor, and you don’t pay replacement costs.⁹

On top of the misdemeanor, the court can assess the approximate replacement value of any deer taken illegally and require payment within 60 days. The court may also bar you from hunting, trapping, or fishing anywhere in Virginia for one to five years.⁹

1
Virginia Department of Wildlife Resources. Deer Hunting Regulations and Seasons
2
Virginia Department of Wildlife Resources. Antlered or Antlerless
3
Virginia Code Commission. Virginia Administrative Code 4VAC15-90-90 – Bag Limit, Bonus Deer Permits and Special Antlerless Provision for Youth Hunters
4
Virginia Code Commission. Virginia Administrative Code 4VAC15-90-89 – Earn a Buck
5
eRegulations. Virginia Deer Hunting – Chronic Wasting Disease
6
Virginia Department of Wildlife Resources. Transporting Carcasses Into, Within, and Out of DMA1 and DMA2
7
Virginia Department of Wildlife Resources. Tag Validation and Harvest Reporting
8
Legal Information Institute. Virginia Administrative Code 4VAC15-40-290 – Validating Tags and Reporting Bear, Deer, Elk, Turkey, and Bobcat
9
Virginia Code Commission. Virginia Code Title 29.1 Chapter 5 Article 5 – Penalties in General