Opening Day Isn't One Day in Hopkins County: How the 2026 Deer Season Calendar Actually Runs

People in Hopkins County call Nov. 7 opening day. By then, bowhunters will have been in their stands for five weeks, and the first youth weekend will be a week behind them. And for anyone planning to hunt public ground at Cooper Lake, Nov. 7 opens nothing at all.

The county has two deer calendars. The private-land calendar comes from the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department's Hopkins County regulations page, and it opens in stages from early October to mid-January. The public-land calendar for Cooper Wildlife Management Area's South Sulphur unit is a single 16-day archery window in December. Your plans for the season depend on which calendar you're on. That holds even if you never hunt, because one of those windows closes a popular trail.

The Private-Land Calendar, in Order

This post goes up Oct. 22, and here is the 2026–27 sequence from that date. TPWD prints these dates for Hopkins County, which sits in the North Zone.

Archery hunters also need an archery endorsement on top of their license. Youth-only weekends are limited to licensed hunters age 16 or younger, according to TPWD's youth season rules.

The general season gets the attention, but the table shows how much of the season sits outside it. Archery started in early October, and the youth and muzzleloader seasons stretch into the middle of January. A buck taken in a bow stand on Oct. 10 and one taken with a muzzleloader on Jan. 15 count against the same county limit.

The Limit Shapes the Calendar

Hopkins County's limit is 4 deer, no more than 2 bucks and no more than 2 antlerless, "all seasons combined." The county is under antler restrictions. A legal buck has at least one unbranched antler or an inside spread of 13 inches or more, and only one of your two bucks can be the 13-inch kind.

The calendar gets tighter with antlerless deer. During the general season, you can take does on a hunting license tag only from Nov. 7 to 29. That's about three weeks of a season that runs nearly two months. Archery, muzzleloader and youth-only seasons also allow antlerless deer on a license tag. The exception is property where antlerless MLDP tags have been issued, where take is by MLDP tag only.

On the private-land calendar, that leaves three doe windows: the current archery season, the late-November stretch, and the January youth and muzzleloader seasons. If a family is counting on venison from does, the week after Thanksgiving matters more than opening weekend. The license-tag doe window closes Sunday, Nov. 29.

Cooper's Calendar Starts After the County's Doe Window Closes

Cooper WMA is public hunting land in Hopkins and Delta counties. TPWD's Cooper WMA hunting page allows white-tailed deer hunting there by archery only. The 2026–27 map for the South Sulphur unit, unit 1155 in TPWD's public hunting program, gives the deer season as Dec. 5–20. The general season will be four weeks old by then, and the county's license-tag doe window will have been closed for six days.

That unit map lists its own rules, and they differ from the county page in several ways:

• Weapon: Only lawful archery equipment may be used or possessed during these hunts.
• Bag: 2 deer of either sex, no more than 1 buck. A legal buck needs at least one unbranched antler or an inside spread of at least 13 inches.
• Feral hogs: An archery-only feral hog season runs the same Dec. 5–20 window, with no bag limit.
• Entry: You must enter at designated entry points, and you must carry the on-site registration form while you're on the area.
• Check-in: Deer taken on the unit must go to the Cooper WMA Deer Check Station within 24 hours of harvest.

The 24-hour deadline needs a second look. TPWD's general Cooper WMA page gives 48 hours. The unit-specific 2026–27 map gives 24, which is the stricter rule, and it's the one printed on this season's map.

To hunt there at all, you need TPWD's Annual Public Hunting permit. It costs $48 for 2026–27 and goes on top of a valid Texas hunting license and any required endorsements. Hunters 17 and older need the APH. Under TPWD's public hunting rules, a youth under 17 has to be under the immediate supervision of a permitted adult who is at least 18. Cooper's WMA page says only hunters need the permit.

A bowhunter who works both private land and Cooper can hunt October and early November on private ground, switch to the gun season in mid-November, and come back to archery for Cooper in December. The county doesn't run one deer season. It runs back-to-back windows, and the public land gets the latest one.

The Same Dates Close Trails for Non-Hunters

Cooper's hunt schedule also affects the hikers, horseback riders and campers who use Cooper Lake State Park through the winter. The park's current alert page lists two closures.

1. Coyote Run trail at the South Sulphur unit: closed from 10 p.m. Dec. 4 to 8 a.m. Dec. 21. The equestrian trails stay open.
2. The entire park: closed from 10 p.m. Jan. 8 to 8 a.m. Jan. 11.

Only permitted hunters are allowed in during those dates. The alert page doesn't print a year, but both windows match the TPWD Commission's May 28, 2026 agenda. That agenda proposed a Cooper South Sulphur deer and feral hog hunt for Dec. 5–20, 2026, with partial visitation restrictions, and a Cooper youth hunt for Jan. 9–10, 2027, with the whole park closed to visitors.

So if your December routine includes walking Coyote Run, plan on riding the equestrian trails or going somewhere else for those 16 days. A mid-January weekend at Cooper won't work that Friday night through Monday morning. The park also notes that its trails close to horseback riders after rain, so call ahead before hauling a trailer out at any time of year.

What the Season Looks Like From Here

TPWD biologists expect good harvest opportunities this season, KSST Radio reported on Oct. 2. The story put the statewide white-tailed population at an estimated 5.64 million. According to the same KSST piece, most of Texas went into spring in drought, and rain in late spring and early summer improved habitat conditions. That is a statewide picture, not a Hopkins County forecast. The article also reminds hunters to review TPWD's chronic wasting disease carcass-disposal and sampling guidance.

For supplies before the youth weekend, the Hopkins County Chamber lists two feed stores in Sulphur Springs: 903 Farm & Feed at 330 Gilmer Street and Feeders Supply at 624 7th Street.

If you end up with more venison than your freezer holds, Feeding Texas runs Hunters for the Hungry. Participating processors take legally tagged, field-dressed deer at no cost to the hunter, and the meat goes to hunger-relief programs. The program's current processor list shows 7-H Processing at 170 CR 2112 in Quitman, over in Wood County. No participating processor is listed in Hopkins County or in Delta, Franklin, Hunt, Rains, Titus or Camp. That list is a live sheet, so check it before you load the truck.

All of these dates and rules come from TPWD, and TPWD's pages are the final word. This post is general information, not legal advice, so confirm your own license, permits and property rules with TPWD before you head out.

If you spend more of the season looking at land than you'd like, our team at Renee Jennings knows that how a Hopkins County tract hunts depends on its fences, water and neighbors as much as its acreage. When you're ready to look at country property with that in mind, we'd be glad to walk it with you. Contact Us.