White-tailed Deer

LIMITS

No more than three deer per year, only two may be legal bucks. Only one legal buck may be taken during each season. No antler restrictions apply for Youth Deer Weekend.

Black Bear

Successful bear hunting usually means successfully finding concentrated natural food sources in or near prime bear habitat. Early in the season, preferred foods include late-ripening berries, black cherries, and standing corn. As the season progresses, wild apples, beechnuts, and acorns become more important.

Stalking bears in a stand of nut-rich beech trees half way up a mountain on a crisp October afternoon is one of hunting’s most exciting challenges. The reward in terms of harvested meat is also great. When properly prepared, bear meat compares favorably to pork.

HELP COLLECT IMPORTANT DATA

Hunters are reminded to collect a small pre-molar tooth from each harvested bear. The collection of a premolar tooth is critical to the bear project as it provides important data for evaluating changes to the age structure of the bear population and for making population estimates.

Moose

NOTE: Successful applicants must possess a current year’s Vermont hunting license before returning their Permit Form in order to secure the permit. Unsuccessful applicants will not be notified.

Applicants who are successfully drawn in the lottery will be notified by mail and will receive a Moose Hunter’s Guidebook and Permit Form along with instructions to complete the Permit Form.

Wild Turkey

Tips & Techniques

Prime turkey habitat consists of a mix of agricultural land and forested areas. Areas where working dairy farms abut mature stands of nut-bearing oak and hickory trees are especially productive. Turkeys are most common in the southwestern foothills, southern Champlain Valley, and low-land portions of the eastern foothills. However, wherever one hunts, the key to success is pre-season scouting and securing landowner permission.

Small Game

COTTONTAIL RABBITS

Cottontail rabbits are primarily found in the Southwestern Foothills and Champlain Valley, including the Champlain Islands. They favor the varied habitat in agricultural lowlands, and are commonly encountered in brushy hedgerows, overgrown fields, briar thickets, and shrub-filled creek bottoms. Kicking up cottontails on a crisp fall day is an excellent challenge, whether hunters elect to chase them with a dog and shotgun or stalk them with a .22 rifle.

SNOWSHOE HARE

Snowshoe or Varying Hare are found statewide, but are most abundant in areas with active forest management, particularly in the Green Mountains and Northeast Kingdom. The greatest concentrations of are found in areas with dense, low-growing softwood stands, such as cedar swamps, spruce bogs, and cut-over areas with thickets of young spruce and fir. Snowshoes have seasonally white coats and large hind feet, adaptions that let them remain active throughout the winter. They are a favorite of hunters with hounds because they prefer to run a hard race rather than hole-up, as cottontails often do when hard pressed.

GRAY SQUIRREL

Squirrels are Vermont’s most over-looked game animal. “Bushytails” can be found wherever mature stands of oak, hickory, and beech trees provide them with abundant nuts, especially in the Southwestern Foothills, Champlain Valley, and along the Connecticut River in the Eastern Foothills. Although lightly hunted in Vermont, squirrels are a real challenge when stalked with a .22 rifle, and their delicate meat compares favorably with rabbit.

Upland Game Birds

RUFFED GROUSE

Ruffed grouse (aka partridge) are the king of game birds, and Vermont is one of their last strongholds in the Northeast.

Tips & Techniques

Check out overgrown apple orchards, abandoned hillside farm and fields, and regenerating clear cuts, particularly with aspen and birch. In the early season, try hunting near streams and swamps.

Although found statewide, the Northeast Kingdom generally offers the best grouse hunting in the state and some of the best hunting anywhere in the Northeast. Several Wildlife Management Areas (WMAs) are managed for grouse.

Furbearers

FURBEARER HUNTING SEASONS

Rivers, Streams, Associated Beaver Ponds and Unnamed Impoundments

General Fishing Regulations for Lakes, Ponds, Impoundments, Reservoirs, and Particular Rivers and Streams

General Fishing Regulations for Lake Champlain includes the setbacks at the same water level and the lower portion of its tributaries. Spawning waters not included.