Winter hunt offers last opportunity to bag deer with conventional firearms in the 2025-2026 season
Photo by Sizhu Liu, submitted to the 2019 Maryland DNR Photo Contest
The Maryland Department of Natural Resources will open the winter firearm deer hunting season on Jan. 9, 2026 in Deer Management Region B, which includes all of the state except the westernmost counties. Hunters with a valid hunting license, or those exempt from the license requirement, may use firearms to harvest sika and white-tailed deer during this season.
The season is open Jan. 9-10 in all of Region B. The season is also open Sunday, Jan. 11 on private and designated public lands in Cecil, St. Mary’s, Somerset, Wicomico, and Worcester counties, and on private lands only in Calvert, Caroline, Carroll, Charles, Dorchester, Frederick, Harford, Kent, Montgomery, Queen Anne’s, Talbot, and Washington (Zone 1) counties. Shooting hours end at 10:30 a.m. in Kent, Montgomery, Talbot, and Wicomico counties.
“The late firearms season provides hunters another chance before the end of Maryland’s 2025-2026 deer hunting season,” Wildlife and Heritage Service Director Karina Stonesifer said. “Beyond hunters filling their freezers or donating deer to those in need, the typically strong antlerless harvest during the January firearms season is a significant contribution to managing the abundant deer population in Region B.”
Hunters that participate in the late firearms season must possess a valid hunting license unless they are exempt from the hunting license requirement. If hunters intend to pursue sika deer, they must also purchase a sika hunting stamp.
Sika stamps, along with hunting licenses, may be purchased online through the MD Outdoors licensing website, at a licensing agent, or by calling DNR Licensing and Registration services at 866-344-8889. DNR encourages hunters to consult the 2025-2026 Maryland Guide to Hunting and Trapping for information on licensing, bag limits, registration procedures, and other regulations.
Hunters are reminded that an antler-point restriction remains in effect. Deer hunters may harvest one antlered white-tailed deer within the yearly bag limit that does not meet the requirement of having at least three points on one antler. Any additional antlered deer taken within the established bag limit must meet the minimum point restriction. All junior hunters, 16 years of age or younger, are exempt from this restriction.
The sika deer firearms season bag limit is three with no more than one being antlered. An antlered sika is defined as a deer with at least one antler visible above the hairline. The sika deer firearms season is open in every county.
During firearms season, Maryland requires deer hunters and their companions to wear daylight fluorescent orange or daylight fluorescent pink in one of the following manners: a cap of solid fluorescent daylight orange or pink, a vest or jacket containing back and front panels of at least 250 square inches of fluorescent daylight orange or pink, or an outer garment of camouflage daylight fluorescent orange or pink worn above the waist and containing at least 50 percent daylight fluorescent color.
Hunters should carefully inspect all tree stands and always wear a full-body safety harness while in the stand and while climbing in or out. The department strongly recommends using a sliding knot, commonly known as a prusik knot, attached to a line that is secured above the stand that allows the hunter to be safely tethered to the tree as soon as they leave the ground.
Hunters are encouraged to help others by donating deer taken in Maryland. A state tax credit offers hunters an incentive for donated deer. Other local or state programs are also available so please check with your deer processor.
