The Fall 2026 Kentucky Hunting and Trapping Guide got posted to the KYDFWR website this week. Click on the image to get the whole thing.
Be sure to read the rules cover-to-cover every year. You never know what you might miss.
Here’s the blue stuff (stuff that’s changed):
The big thing this year is zone changes. A lot of counties changed deer harvest zone– The biggest number of changes since the system was set up. All of them that changed moved up a notch (2 became 1, 3 became 2, etc.) . Overall, it means that deer populations continue to increase in most of the Commonwealth. The state set up these zones with the idea of managing all counties to eventually be Zone 2 or 3. Zone 1 needed herd reduction . Zone 4 needed the herd to increase.
Here’s a more detailed description a friend sent me from KY Afield
My advice on this is as follows: If you are a landowner and trying to manage your herd, don’t let something like a change of zone affect your decisions. I’m in a Zone 1 county (Bracken.) It has always been in Zone1. When they boosted the bag limit on antlerless deer, I didn’t tell the guys to go at it and let fly. We kept to harvesting just a buck and a doe each year, and we’ve stayed happy. We had a neighbor up the road who kept going. Pretty soon, he was out of deer on his place, and he was starting to affect our place. Whether that was him coming over to poach is unclear. All I know is that we had a couple of years with a lot of unfilled tags. He moved out, and the action picked up again.
One thing I can tell you is most of the Commonwealth’s hunters are not in any danger of shooting up all deer. The average KY hunter bags 1.25 deer/season. That means 1 in 4 take a second deer. Most hunt for a buck, and go home to the sofa after they’ve achieved that goal. This is probably a matter of freezer space more than anything. If they want to reduce the herd in ZONE 1, they should think about giving out vouchers for a second freezer.
A Quick Word on Drones
They put in that bit about drones. I always figured they were illegal anyway, under the umbrella of electronic means. I’ve got a drone. I never used it for hunting, but I did experiment with it early on. I was looking to see how hard it would be to take wildlife shots with the drone. Don’t bother. I’ve got a DJI Mini Pro III. Deer and turkeys are really scared of the thing. With deer, once they are able to hear it, they’re on alert. Once they see it, they’re gone. They may not run off, but they’re heading for cover. Turkeys are in a blind panic at the first sign. Another thought I had was using a couple of features to try and do a photo-mosaic of the farm. When the leaves are on the trees, all you see is leaves. When the leaves are down, most places still have so much cover that it makes stitching the photos unworkable. I can see where the addition of thermal might help recover game, but I don’t see it being worth the cost. Understand this: by the time you would have a workable system to hunt with a drone, you’re no longer hunting; you’re flying a drone.
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