RALEIGH — The North Carolina Wildlife Resources Commission (NCWRC) has changed the dates of the gun and black powder seasons in the western zone. This has made it easier to shoot deer without antlers in many western zone counties.
The new black powder season will start on November 16 and end on November 29. Youth Days are held in the western zone on Thanksgiving Day and the Friday after Thanksgiving, 2024 (Nov. 28 and 29).
Under-18s can use a gun to kill deer with or without antlers during those two days of the black powder season. The hunting season will start on November 30, 2018, and end on January 1, 2025.
These changes were made by NCWRC to better align the western zone deer seasons with important deer management goals. These include protecting the dispersal of yearling bucks, harvesting deer at the right time during the rut, balancing the ratio of bucks to does, and improving timing between breeding and fawning periods.
This is an important part of a deer’s life that makes sure fawns are born at the best time of year for food and cover. Also, because deer populations have grown across most of the western zone, especially on private land, these changes give shooters more chances to kill deer without antlers.
You can read here in more detail how these changes are meant to make it easier to control the growing number of deer in the western zone.
For more information on these changes in seasons on private areas, including information on when deer don’t have antlers by county in the western zone, see pages 62–66 of NCWRC’s 2024–25 Regulations Digest.