Tennessee Hunting License: Cost, Online, Big Game & 7-Day NR (2026)

Tennessee's hunting license year runs March 1 through February 28. The Resident Hunting/Fishing Combo license costs $33 and covers small game and fishing but requires additional Big Game supplements for deer and turkey. Each supplement — Resident Big Game Gun ($33) and Resident Big Game Archery ($33) — must be purchased separately. The Resident Sportsman license ($165) eliminates the need for any supplements and bundles all hunting, fishing, and trapping privileges into one all-inclusive package. Non-residents pay $305 for the NR Annual All Game license (no supplements needed) or $214 for a 7-day All Game license. Seniors 65+ can purchase a one-time $49 Senior Permanent lifetime license covering all privileges.

Tennessee has a unique license provision called the Native Tennessean license. Any person born in Tennessee who now lives in another state may purchase Tennessee hunting and fishing licenses at resident rates ($33 instead of $305 for All Game). Proof of Tennessee birth — typically a birth certificate — is required. This unusual provision preserves long-standing ties to the state for Tennessee natives who moved away and reflects Tennessee's strong hunting culture and heritage identity. It is one of the few states in the US offering resident-rate licensing to non-residents based on birthplace.

Hunter education is required for anyone born on or after January 1, 1969. The free course includes a mandatory in-person skills component. Youth under 13 hunt free; ages 13–15 pay $9 for a Junior license that covers all privileges including big game without supplements. A WMA Big Game Non-Quota Permit ($24) is required for big game hunting on Wildlife Management Areas — this is in addition to the base license and supplements. All deer and turkey harvests must be reported through TWRA's mandatory harvest reporting system via the GoOutdoorsTennessee app or website within 24 hours.

Tennessee's deer season is structured in overlapping phases. An August private-land archery season (August 22–24) gives a brief early opener. Regular archery runs September 27–October 24. A muzzleloader/archery combination season follows November 8–21. The main firearms/all-weapon season opens November 22 and runs through January 4 — a 45-day window that covers the full rut period across all three geographic zones (Eastern, Central, and Western Tennessee). Youth sportsman hunts (October 25–26 and January 10–11) bracket the regular season with exclusive youth-only firearms opportunity.

Deer bag limits in Tennessee depend on the Deer Management Unit (DMU). DMUs 1–3 (western Tennessee agricultural zones and bottomlands) allow 3 antlerless deer per day during gun season. DMUs 4–6 (central and eastern Tennessee) allow 2 antlerless per day. The state CWD map identifies affected western and southwestern counties, where TWRA posts current movement, reporting, and attractant restrictions for the management zone. Tennessee's deer herd is estimated at approximately 900,000 animals.

Black bear hunting in Tennessee is managed in the eastern portion of the state — primarily in Cherokee National Forest and the Great Smoky Mountains buffer zones. The season runs September 28 through January 1 in designated zones. One bear per year is the limit. Bears are included in the big game supplement without additional tag cost. Tennessee's elk population — reintroduced in 2000 in the North Cumberland Plateau — has grown to approximately 1,500 animals. Elk lottery tags ($20 application fee) are extremely limited; only a handful of permits are issued annually. Elk hunting in the North Cumberland is a unique bucket-list opportunity in the Southeast.

Tennessee's spring turkey season allows up to 4 bearded gobblers per hunter — one of the highest spring turkey limits in the United States. The spring season runs April 5 through May 11. A fall turkey season is also available November 8–21 for 1 additional turkey (either sex). Turkey hunting is covered by the Big Game Gun supplement or the Sportsman license. All turkey harvests must be reported within 24 hours. Tennessee's turkey population is estimated at approximately 250,000–300,000 birds, distributed across all three grand divisions of the state.

The Tennessee mountain counties in the eastern third of the state — particularly in the Cherokee National Forest and Appalachian ridge-and-valley terrain — produce exceptional spring turkey hunting with demanding terrain that filters hunting pressure. The central Tennessee cedar glades and highland rim counties (Smith, DeKalb, Putnam, Overton) are renowned for early-season gobbler activity. Western Tennessee's bottomland hardwood and agricultural landscape produces its own distinct turkey hunting character with high bird density in the floodplain forests along the Mississippi and Tennessee rivers.

Tennessee's Reelfoot Lake in the northwest corner of the state is one of the most unique hunting and fishing destinations in the mid-South — created by the New Madrid earthquakes of 1811–1812, this 15,000-acre shallow lake and cypress swamp provides extraordinary duck hunting in the Mississippi Flyway. TWRA manages public access to Reelfoot Lake as a state-managed wildlife area. The combination of turkey, deer, duck, and bear hunting across Tennessee's diverse landscape — from Appalachian mountain ridges to Mississippi River bottomlands — makes it one of the most hunting-diverse states in the southeastern US.