Delaware's 10-Day Firearms Deer Season Opens Nov. 13 With Mandatory CWD Checks

Delaware’s general firearms deer season opens Friday, Nov. 13 and runs through Sunday, Nov. 22, the Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Control (DNREC) said in a Nov. 5 release. The 10-day season sits inside a statewide deer season that runs from Sept. 1 through Jan. 31 and typically accounts for about 40% of the state’s harvest.

It is the first firearms season since Chronic Wasting Disease (CWD) was found in Delaware. DNREC confirmed the state’s first case on April 21, 2026 in a hunter-harvested white-tailed deer from Sussex County, with a second Sussex County deer presumptive positive at the time, both from more than 600 deer sampled statewide in the 2025-26 season. A third deer collected in September 2026 also tested positive, and all three came from Wildlife Management Zone 14, the department’s hunting guide addendum says. The division has tested 12,938 samples since its surveillance began in 2003, and the April finding was the first detection on the Delmarva Peninsula.

Emergency orders signed Aug. 19 and Sept. 16 set up a CWD Management Zone covering Wildlife Management Zones 11, 14 and 16, according to DNREC’s CWD page. Inside the zone, deer may not be attracted or hunted over bait, and urine-based lures are banned statewide. Any deer taken in the zone during the general firearms season must be checked within 24 hours of harvest at one of three Sussex County stations, open 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. daily through Nov. 22:

• Delaware Solid Waste Authority’s Jones Crossroad Landfill, 28560 Landfill Lane, Georgetown
• Gumboro Community Center, 36849 Millsboro Highway, Millsboro
• Redden State Forest’s Jester Tract large parking lot, Redden Road, Kings Crossroads

It is the only time of year hunters must bring harvested deer to DNREC biologists for sampling, and deer may be field dressed first. Hunters should carry their deer registration with its new QR code, which lets staff pull up the record and cut waiting time. “Since the deer harvest rate is high during the general firearm season, it gives us an opportunity to efficiently collect a lot of CWD samples within a relatively short period of time,” said Joe Rogerson, DNREC Wildlife Section Administrator.

Hunters outside the zone can have a deer tested at no charge by leaving the head in a chest freezer at any Delaware Hunters Against Hunger drop-off, with results typically posted within 30 days. Division staff will also be at three processors during the season, Dutch Neck Deer Processing in Middletown, Miller’s Butcher Shop in Camden and Johnson’s Deer Cutting in Milton, where they will ask hunters to donate the head or take a sample kit to a taxidermist. A deer taken in the zone and moved elsewhere must go to a taxidermist or processor, or its remains must be bagged in plastic at least 2 mils thick and sent to a landfill or out with household trash.

Shotguns, muzzleloaders, handguns, authorized straight-walled pistol-caliber rifles and archery equipment are all legal during the general firearms seasons, the state’s deer season table says, and archery and crossbow hunters afield during the firearms season must wear at least 400 square inches of hunter orange. A hunter may take two antlered deer per license year by all methods combined, with no limit on antlerless deer for hunters holding antlerless tags. A second general firearms season runs Jan. 16 to 24, 2027, and the 2015-16 season’s 14,681 deer remain the state record.

After the season closes Nov. 22, DNREC will use the samples to assess CWD distribution and prevalence and gather feedback from hunters, landowners and the public to set its approach for the 2027-28 season. Test results and the response plan are posted on the department’s CWD page.