Coyote Hunting Laws in Ohio: Season, Licenses, and What You Need to Know

Ohio gives coyote hunters one of the most open regulatory frameworks in the Midwest. There is no closed season, no bag limit, and — unlike most furbearers — no fur taker permit required to hunt them. Whether you are a seasoned predator hunter or picking up a call for the first time, understanding the rules that do apply will keep you legal and in the field year-round.

This guide covers everything you need to know about coyote hunting laws in Ohio for the 2025–26 license year, from season structure and license requirements to night hunting restrictions, trapping rules, and landowner rights.

Is Coyote Hunting Legal in Ohio?

Yes, coyote hunting is fully legal in Ohio. Coyotes are classified as furbearers in Ohio, but they may be hunted year-round with no bag limit. That open-ended status makes Ohio one of the more permissive states for predator hunters, and it reflects the coyote’s role as both a wildlife management target and a livestock threat across the state.

In Ohio, there is no closed season for hunting coyotes and no limit on how many a hunter can take. A large part of the reason for this is that coyotes are often blamed for the loss of livestock and cited as a nuisance. Coyotes cause significant losses to Ohio’s livestock industry, particularly cattle, sheep, and goat operations.

Key Insight: Ohio does not require a fur taker permit specifically for coyote hunting. Under Ohio Administrative Code Rule 1501:31-15-09, it is lawful for any person to take coyotes without a fur taker permit — a significant distinction from most other furbearer species in the state.

While the season is open year-round, a handful of restrictions kick in during certain deer seasons. Those overlap rules are covered in detail in the sections below, and they are the most common source of confusion for Ohio coyote hunters.

Coyote Hunting Season Dates in Ohio

In Ohio, coyotes can be hunted year-round with no bag limit. There is no defined opening or closing date — you can pursue coyotes in January, July, or any month in between. However, the season is not entirely without structure, because Ohio’s deer seasons impose temporary restrictions on how and when you can hunt coyotes.

During the youth deer gun season, deer gun season, and deer muzzleloading season, your coyote hunting hours and legal weapons must align with those for deer hunting. It is unlawful to hunt or take coyotes at any time other than from one-half hour before sunrise to one-half hour after sunset during the youth deer gun season, deer gun season, and deer muzzleloading season.

Time of Year	Coyote Season Status	Key Restrictions
Year-round (outside deer gun/muzzleloader seasons)	Open — no bag limit	Standard hunting license required; night hunting allowed with light
Youth Deer Gun Season	Open with restrictions	Hours limited to 30 min before sunrise to 30 min after sunset; deer-legal implements required
Deer Gun Season	Open with restrictions	Hours and legal devices match deer gun season rules; deer permit required if using deer-legal implement
Deer Muzzleloading Season	Open with restrictions	Must use muzzleloader or archery equipment; no rifles; no night hunting

Coyote hunting in Ohio is traditionally done during the colder months when hides are prime for harvest. However, as the sport becomes more popular, hunters are extending their seasons into the spring and summer months. Winter remains the most productive window, particularly during the January–February breeding season when coyotes are more vocal and responsive to calls.

License and Permit Requirements for Coyote Hunting in Ohio

Ohio’s licensing structure for coyote hunting is straightforward compared to many other states. A valid hunting license is required for both residents and non-residents. Coyotes can be hunted year-round in Ohio with no bag limit. It shall be lawful for persons to take coyotes without a fur taker permit.

That last point is worth emphasizing: most other furbearers in Ohio — raccoon, fox, mink, and others — require a fur taker permit on top of a hunting license. Coyotes are the exception. Your standard hunting license is all you need to hunt them.

Pro Tip: You can purchase your Ohio hunting license through the ODNR’s HuntFish OH mobile app, which also stores your license digitally. Hunters must carry their license while in the field — a photo of a temporary tag does not fulfill this requirement.

All hunters in Ohio need a hunting license regardless of age. You can purchase a resident or nonresident annual license valid starting March 1 through the end of February of the following year. License categories include youth (age 17 and under), resident adult (ages 18–64), nonresident adult (ages 18 and older), senior resident (ages 65 and older born on or after January 1, 1938), and free senior (Ohio residents born on or before December 31, 1937).

If you plan to hunt coyotes during any deer season using implements legal for deer, you will also need a valid deer permit. It is unlawful to hunt or take coyotes from one-half hour before sunrise to one-half hour after sunset during the youth deer gun season, deer gun season, and the deer muzzleloading season without possessing both a valid hunting license and valid deer permit or management permit.

New hunters should also note that all first-time hunters in Ohio need a hunter safety certification before buying a license and hunting. If you are not yet certified, Ohio offers an apprentice hunting license option. Ohio residents and nonresidents may purchase an apprentice hunting license without having taken a hunter education course. Apprentice licenses allow new hunters to sample the experience of hunting under the mentorship of a licensed adult prior to completing a hunter education course. To hunt, apprentice license holders must be accompanied by a licensed hunter 21 years old or older.

For more on Ohio’s broader hunting license framework, see the hunting laws in Ohio overview.

Legal Methods and Weapons for Coyote Hunting in Ohio

Ohio gives coyote hunters considerable flexibility when it comes to legal hunting implements. Outside of deer seasons, your weapon choices are broad. Coyote hunting allows any caliber rifle or handgun, plus airguns. Archery equipment and crossbows are also legal. Rifles and night vision scopes are legal for coyote hunting, except for hunting coyotes during any deer gun or deer muzzleloader season, at which point the hours and legal hunting devices are the same as for the deer season.

• Rifles — any caliber, outside of deer gun and muzzleloader seasons
• Handguns — any caliber
• Airguns and air rifles
• Shotguns — any legal gauge and load
• Archery equipment — longbow, compound bow, or crossbow
• Night vision and thermal optics — legal outside deer gun and muzzleloader seasons

During deer gun season, the weapons you carry for coyote must comply with deer gun season rules. It is unlawful for any person to hunt or take coyotes during the youth deer gun season or the deer gun season without using a hunting implement described for deer hunting. During the muzzleloading deer season, coyotes must be taken with a muzzleloader or archery equipment as described in the deer muzzleloading season rules.

Important Note: During deer gun season, you cannot possess rifle ammunition or shotgun slugs while hunting, and you must wear hunter orange. These deer season rules carry over to coyote hunters who are afield during those dates.

Hunter orange is required when hunting coyotes during the youth deer gun season, deer gun season, and deer muzzleloading season. Hunter orange must be worn during the youth deer gun season, deer gun season, statewide muzzleloader deer season, and during the early muzzleloader deer season in October on designated areas.

If you are curious how Ohio’s coyote weapon rules compare to neighboring states, you can review hunting laws in Indiana or hunting laws in Virginia for comparison.

Night Hunting and Electronic Call Rules in Ohio

Night hunting for coyotes is legal in Ohio, but it comes with specific equipment requirements and a hard blackout during deer firearms seasons. Coyotes are most active at night and during early morning hours, making these times ideal for hunting. Ohio’s regulations accommodate this behavior while building in safety guardrails.

It is unlawful for any person to pursue, hunt, or trap furbearing animals from sunset to sunrise without carrying a continuous white light visible for a distance of at least one-quarter of a mile. However, persons hunting fox, raccoon, or coyote with a call from a stationary position may use a continuous single beam light of any color. When two or more persons are hunting or trapping together, one light only is required and may be carried by any member of the party.

The single-beam exception is significant for serious predator hunters. It means that when you are set up in a stationary calling position, you can use a colored light — red, green, or infrared — rather than a white light that could spook approaching animals. Night vision scopes excel over thermal imaging when you need to positively identify what you are about to shoot. The last thing anyone wants is to shoot an out-of-season fox, a small deer, or someone’s pet.

According to the Ohio Department of Natural Resources, while rifles and night vision scopes are legal for coyote hunting, the use of rifles and night hunting is prohibited between 30 minutes after sunset and 30 minutes before sunrise during any deer gun and deer muzzleloader seasons. Plan your night hunts around those blackout windows.

Electronic calls are legal and effective for coyote hunting in Ohio. Using a predator call during the prime hunting season, particularly in November, can be especially advantageous. Many young-adult coyotes have never encountered a predator call before, making them easier targets for hunters at this time.

Pro Tip: Position your electronic call downwind and away from your shooting position. Coyotes tend to circle the call source before committing, so placing the call 30–50 yards from where you are set up gives you a better shooting angle and keeps their attention off your location.

Using dogs to pursue coyotes at night also has a specific restriction. It is unlawful for any person or any member of a party to have in their possession a firearm or any other device that could be used in hunting while training or working a dog pursuing coyotes, at any time except from sunrise to sunset daily.

For a look at how other states handle night hunting rules, compare with hunting laws in Kansas or hunting laws in Tennessee.

Trapping Coyotes in Ohio

Trapping is a legal and widely used method for taking coyotes in Ohio, and it is one of the most effective tools for livestock producers dealing with persistent predation. Unlike hunting, trapping coyotes does require a fur taker permit in addition to your hunting license — the no-permit exemption applies only to hunting, not trapping.

Under current wildlife regulation, there is no closed season for coyote, which means hunters are permitted to take coyote in any legal manner at any time, including through gun hunting, trapping, or any other legal means. This year-round trapping window was preserved after the ODNR considered — and ultimately withdrew — a proposal that would have restricted coyote trapping to the standard furbearer trapping season.

Ohio law specifies which trap types are permitted. It is unlawful for any person to place, set, or maintain any type of trap other than a cage trap, body gripping trap, foot encapsulating trap, foothold trap, or snare for the purpose of taking a wild animal. It is also unlawful to use a trap having teeth on the gripping surface.

Additional trapping rules include:

• It is unlawful to use any flesh bait for the purpose of trapping a wild animal that is not totally covered.
• It is unlawful for any person to set, use, or maintain a trap or snare in or upon any path or road ordinarily used by domestic animals or human beings.
• Snares used on public hunting areas must meet specific loop diameter requirements (minimum 10 inches, maximum 15 inches) and must be constructed of multi-strand steel cable.
• It is unlawful for any person to erect, post, or place any stake, flagging, or other type of marker for the purpose of identifying a proposed trap set location on any area designated as a public hunting area unless authorized by the chief of the division of wildlife.

When a coyote is captured as a nuisance animal rather than during a regulated hunt or trapping season, Ohio law is direct about what must happen next. It is unlawful to fail to euthanize, or release on site, any nuisance raccoon, skunk, beaver, coyote, red fox, or opossum that is captured, trapped, or taken. You cannot relocate a live coyote to another property.

For comparison with trapping frameworks in other states, see hunting laws in Montana or hunting laws in Minnesota.

Landowner Rights and Depredation Rules in Ohio

Ohio provides meaningful protections for landowners dealing with coyote problems. The most important provision is the hunting license exemption for landowners and their immediate family members.

Ohio resident landowners, their spouses, children, parents, and grandchildren under 18 years of age are not required to have a hunting license, fur taker permit, either-sex deer permit, deer management permit, spring or fall turkey permit, or Ohio Wetlands Habitat Stamp when hunting or trapping on land they own. This exemption covers coyote hunting and trapping on your own property without any license or permit at all.

Tenants and their children on land on which they reside, pay rent, and from which they derive the majority — more than 50 percent — of their income from agricultural production on that land are not required to have a hunting license, fur taker permit, either-sex deer permit, deer management permit, spring or fall turkey permit, or Ohio Wetlands Habitat Stamp when they are hunting or trapping on land where they reside.

Out-of-state landowners may also qualify for an exemption. A resident of another state who owns land in Ohio, and the spouse and children living with the property owner, may hunt on their property without a license or permit if their state of residence allows Ohio residents who own property in that state to also hunt their property without a license.

Important Note: The landowner exemption covers hunting and trapping on land you own. If you are hunting coyotes on a neighbor’s property — even with permission — you must carry a valid hunting license. Written or verbal permission from the landowner is required to hunt any private land in Ohio that you do not own.

For hunters accessing private land, written or verbal permission is required to hunt private land in Ohio. There is no formal written permission form required by state law, but getting permission documented protects both parties.

When coyotes are actively causing damage to livestock or property, Ohio’s nuisance wildlife rules apply. Nuisance wild animals that cannot be live-trapped because of certain conditions may be killed only after applying for and receiving written permission from the chief of the division of wildlife or their designee. No such written permission is required to kill or use lethal means of control for certain nuisance wild animals — and coyotes fall into the category where lethal control is broadly available to landowners, particularly since coyote hunting is already open year-round with no bag limit.

Landowners dealing with recurring coyote depredation on livestock should also contact the ODNR Division of Wildlife directly. The agency can provide guidance on legal control methods and, in some cases, coordinate with USDA Wildlife Services for assistance with persistent predation problems.

You may also find useful context in these related Ohio wildlife and hunting resources:

• Turkey hunting season in Ohio
• Goose hunting season in Ohio
• Dove hunting season in Ohio
• Roadkill laws in Ohio
• Dog leash laws in Ohio

Final Thoughts on Ohio Coyote Hunting Laws

Ohio’s coyote hunting regulations are among the most accessible in the country. A standard hunting license, no fur taker permit, no bag limit, and a year-round open season give you enormous flexibility as a predator hunter. The rules that do apply — primarily the deer season overlap restrictions on weapons, hours, and night hunting — are manageable once you understand the framework.

Keep these key points in mind every time you head out:

• You need a hunting license, but not a fur taker permit, to hunt coyotes
• The season is open year-round with no bag limit
• Rifles and night hunting are prohibited during deer gun and muzzleloader seasons
• Night hunters must carry a white light visible for a quarter mile, or a single-beam colored light when calling from a stationary position
• Electronic calls are fully legal
• Trapping requires a fur taker permit; hunting does not
• Ohio resident landowners hunting on their own land are exempt from license requirements

Always verify the latest regulations directly with the ODNR Division of Wildlife before heading out, as rules can change between license years. For hunters who pursue coyotes across state lines, compare regulations with hunting laws in Arkansas, hunting laws in South Carolina, or hunting laws in Idaho to stay legal wherever you hunt.