Hopkins County Deer Season 2026: Your Two-Calendar Guide

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. At Cooper Wildlife Management Area's South Sulphur unit, Nov. 7 is not deer season opening day.

The Texas Parks and Wildlife Department's Hopkins County regulations page lists a calendar that 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. One of those windows also closes a popular trail.

The Hopkins County 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.

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.

Cooper's Calendar Starts in December

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.

The unit map also lists an archery-only feral hog season for Dec. 5–20.

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.

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.