New Indiana hunting regulations in place for deer

INDIANAPOLIS — As deer hunting season gets underway, Indiana hunters should familiarize themselves with the new regulations for 2025-2026.

“The primary goal for changing the deer hunting regulations was to simplify rules for hunters,” said the state’s deer program coordinator, Joe Caudell, with the Indiana Department of Natural Resources.

“We have a very complex set of regulations. We identified ones that we thought we could simplify. We reached out to hunters and asked what you all thought about these. Some made the cut, others didn’t.”

The Changes

• The statewide bag limit is six antlerless deer and one antlered deer, except in Deer Reduction Zones and during youth seasons.

• There is a newly created county antlerless bag limit instead of season antlerless bag limits and the county bonus antlerless quota.

• Hunters cannot harvest an antlerless deer with a firearm during firearms season on Indiana DNR Division of Fish & Wildlife-managed properties, as well as Salamonie, Mississinewa and Patoka lakes.

• Only one antlered and two antlerless deer can be harvested with the bundle license.

• The use of crossbow equipment is now allowed using the archery license.

• The minimum caliber for a muzzleloader rifle was reduced from 0.44 to 0.40 inches.

• Portable tree stands and ground blinds can be placed on DNR properties in Deer Reduction Zones between noon Sept. 1 and Feb. 8.

• Drones and/or devices with infrared sensors can be used to locate harvested deer — they still cannot be used to hunt deer.

• A new change in state law allows hunters to use rifles with a centerfire cartridge that has a minimum bullet diameter of 0.219 inches, or 5.56 mm, or larger on both public and private lands.

The Dates

The 2025-2026 deer hunting seasons is:

Reduction Zone: Sept. 15, 2025 to Jan. 31, 2026 where open.

Youth Season: Sept. 27-28, 2025.

Archery: Oct. 1, 2025 to Jan. 4, 2026.

Firearm: Nov. 15 to Nov. 30, 2025.

Muzzleloader: Dec. 6-21, 2025.