This record does not carry a regulation the state has. kind: cross-references / uncited pages of the same section — description: **THE DEER HUNTING SECTION RUNS PDF pp.22-29 (printed 20-27) AND ONLY TWO OF ITS EIGHT PAGES ARE CITED.** Said page by page rather than as a total, because 'PAGES beginning or ending one page short' is the single most productive defect class in this repository and a vague gap is how it hides. Every page below was rendered and read before this text was written. NONE of them prints a deer season date that is not already in the cited table -- that was the thing checked first. * PDF p24 (printed 22): CHRONIC WASTING DISEASE. What CWD is, that it was recently detected in Delaware, the CWD Management Zone, carcass movement and testing. CARRIES REGULATION and none of it is here. * PDF p25 (printed 23): METHOD OF TAKE -- the legal definitions of a handgun (barrel 5.75-12.5 in., .30-.50 calibre, case length rules), of an authorized straight-walled pistol-caliber rifle and where it may NOT be used (north of the Chesapeake and Delaware Canal), the Sharps rifle allowance, crossbow minimum pull weight 125 lb, vertical bow minimum 30 lb, and baiting. Also HUNTER ORANGE in full. **The cited table names these implements in every one of its seven rows and defines none of them.** CARRIES REGULATION. * PDF p26 (printed 24): the Hunters Against Hunger donation programme, the youth and non-ambulatory hunt in prose (supervision by a person 21 or older, hunter education for ages 13-15), **DEER HUNTING HOURS -- '1/2 hour before sunrise until 1/2 hour after sunset'** -- deer hunting on public lands, and the prohibition on selling deer parts. CARRIES REGULATION. This is also the page carrying 11,025 unmapped glyphs, all of them one advertiser's tiled logotype; its regulation text is ordinary mapped text. * PDF p27 (printed 25): continues the deer section. * PDF pp.28-29 (printed 26-27): **THE WILDLIFE MANAGEMENT ZONE DESCRIPTIONS AND MAP.** This is the sharpest of these gaps: the published Handgun and Straight-walled Pistol-caliber Rifle row carries the page's own words 'Season closed in Wildlife Management Zones 1A and 1B', and **a hunter cannot tell from anything published here whether they are standing in 1A or 1B.** The boundaries are written out in prose on those two pages and drawn on a map beside them. CARRIES REGULATION.
This record does not carry a regulation the state has. kind: cross-references / the article continues off the cited range — description: The article on the second cited page ends with the publisher's own words **'Continued on page 23'** -- printed p23, PDF p25 -- which then ends 'Continued on page 24', which ends 'Continued on page 25'. The continuation is published as a pointer row rather than left silent. **So the cited range stops in the middle of an article the publisher explicitly says is unfinished.** That is stated here as a limit of this compilation and not as a clean result. What is on the far side of it is itemised in the gap above.
This record does not carry a regulation the state has. kind: cross-references / adjacent page not cited — description: PDF p21 (printed 19), the page immediately BEFORE the cited range, is 'DEER AND TURKEY HARVEST REPORTING' -- a separate printed section with its own banner. It carries the mandatory 24-hour registration rule, the Deer/Turkey Possession Tag requirement, and the antler-spread and point-count reporting requirements for antlered deer. It was rendered and read: it contains ZERO date-bearing lines and no season table begins on it, which is the specific thing that took Idaho, South Carolina, Arkansas, Nevada and Utah offline. **It does carry regulation, and none of it is here.**
This record does not carry a regulation the state has. kind: cross-references / not in this booklet at all — description: **LICENCE REQUIREMENTS, PUBLIC-LAND STAND ALLOCATION AND THE FEDERAL REFUGE HUNTS ARE NOT CARRIED**, and neither are the deer rules for State Wildlife Areas (printed p42 per the booklet's own pointer). The cited pages tell a hunter when the seven seasons run, what implement each permits, how many antlered deer may be taken and what tags are needed. They do not, on their own, make it lawful to hunt.
This record does not carry a regulation the state has. kind: source / first-party rule text not consulted — description: Delaware's adopted rules live in Title 7 of the Delaware Administrative Code (Chapter 3900, Wildlife). **Nobody has checked whether the first-party rule states these season dates**, and this compilation therefore reads a digest where an authoritative source may exist. The digest's own class of publication says as much: every hunting digest examined in this repository disclaims being the law. Recorded as a gap rather than as a footnote because it is the same question North Carolina's `15A NCAC 10B .0203` route raised, and it is unresolved for Delaware.
huntregs is not the law and is not an official edition of any state’s regulations: no state agency writes, reviews, publishes or approves it, and where a page here differs from the agency document it cites, the agency document is the regulation and this page is wrong.
It is an editorial compilation of state agency regulation documents: every row is carried verbatim out of one named document, cited by title, identified by the sha256 of the exact bytes we read, and printed beside the source lines it was read from.
What we do carry
rows verbatim — no row is summarised, and every field the source row carried is rendered, including the ones we have no column for;
each record’s own declaration of what it does not contain, printed in full and unedited, above the rows rather than under them;
our own withdrawals — dated, with the reason as written, and the state’s rows gone from every route while the withdrawal stands.
What we do not carry
the law itself. Every state page links the agency’s own document; that is the thing to read.
declared gaps. Where a record says regulation exists that it does not carry, that regulation is not here — it is named, in the record’s words, and it is still missing.
zone, unit or boundary geometry. The compilation holds no maps and this app draws none; several records declare that as a gap themselves.
shooting hours. Clock, sunrise and sunset text is shown exactly as written — nothing here computes a sunrise, a sunset or a timezone.
legal advice, or any judgement about whether a particular hunt is lawful for you.
every state. Some have no record in this compilation at all and some are withheld by the verification ledger today; which is which is measured on the index page each time it is loaded, not listed here.
Error direction — If this record is wrong, it is most likely wrong toward saying you MAY do something you may not.
That is the direction that ends in a citation, or in a hunter on ground the state has closed. Read the signals below before you use any row on this page.
Derived by rule from this record's own declared gaps, its own integrity fields and its own rows. It is not a score and there is no confidence number: the counts below count signals, nothing more.
3 over-permissive · 4 undeterminable · 0 under-permissive · 7 declared gap(s), 5 of which the record says carry regulation · 42 row(s) scanned
5 signal(s), most dangerous first. The evidence lines below are the rule's own excerpts, cut at 220 characters; every gap is printed in full and verbatim under what this record does not carry.
overOVER: the gap names a restriction, requirement, closure or supersession the record does not carry [closure='closed', prohibition='may NOT', visibility='HUNTER ORANGE', disease_or_bait='CHRONIC WASTING', hours_method_zone='METHOD OF TAKE', eligibility='supervis']; a row read without it is broader than the regulation
known_gaps[2]: **THE DEER HUNTING SECTION RUNS PDF pp.22-29 (printed 20-27) AND ONLY TWO OF ITS EIGHT PAGES ARE CITED.** Said page by page rather than as a total, because 'PAGES beginning or ending one page short' is the single most p…
overOVER: the gap names a restriction, requirement, closure or supersession the record does not carry [obligation='mandator', tag_check_report='HARVEST REPORT']; a row read without it is broader than the regulation
known_gaps[4]: PDF p21 (printed 19), the page immediately BEFORE the cited range, is 'DEER AND TURKEY HARVEST REPORTING' -- a separate printed section with its own banner. It carries the mandatory 24-hour registration rule, the Deer/T…
overOVER: a restriction/requirement this record does not carry [obligation='REQUIREMENT', not_an_entitlement='make it lawful']; the gap ALSO names an opportunity it does not carry [season_not_carried='HUNTS ARE NOT CARRIED'], so it errs both ways and the dangerous direction is reported
known_gaps[5]: **LICENCE REQUIREMENTS, PUBLIC-LAND STAND ALLOCATION AND THE FEDERAL REFUGE HUNTS ARE NOT CARRIED**, and neither are the deer rules for State Wildlife Areas (printed p42 per the booklet's own pointer). The cited pages t…
unknowncannot be determined: the gap carries regulation but its description names neither a restriction nor an opportunity in terms this rule can read (kind='cross-references / the article continues off the cited range'). Boundary, map and definition gaps land here and belong here — not knowing which unit you are in cuts both ways
known_gaps[3]: The article on the second cited page ends with the publisher's own words **'Continued on page 23'** -- printed p23, PDF p25 -- which then ends 'Continued on page 24', which ends 'Continued on page 25'. The continuation …
unknowncannot be determined: the gap carries regulation but its description names neither a restriction nor an opportunity in terms this rule can read (kind='source / first-party rule text not consulted'). Boundary, map and definition gaps land here and belong here — not knowing which unit you are in cuts both ways
known_gaps[6]: Delaware's adopted rules live in Title 7 of the Delaware Administrative Code (Chapter 3900, Wildlife). **Nobody has checked whether the first-party rule states these season dates**, and this compilation therefore reads …
what this rule cannot see
It reads this record's OWN prose. A restriction nobody declared is invisible to it — and an undeclared restriction is what takes a state offline.
It takes each gap's carries_regulation flag at face value. A gap mis-declared as non-regulatory is a silent miss.
It cannot weigh. One missing county list and fourteen missing pages of special-permit hunts each score once. There is no severity here, and that is why no score is shown.
It classifies a whole gap, never a row. A gap that qualifies four rows and a gap that qualifies all of them read identically.
Across the published records the record-level answer is almost always over. That is a statement about how regulation is written — what is missing from a compilation is usually a restriction — not a ranking of states.
Record integrity
Current through — the document this record was read from, and nothing later than it:
2026/2027 Delaware Hunting and Trapping Guide (revision 26DEHD_LR4), Delaware DNREC Division of Fish & Wildlife, "DEER HUNTING SECTION", printed pp.20-21 = PDF pp.22-23
The document is those bytes. A URL is a name; if the publisher replaces the file behind it, this hash stops matching and the mismatch is the finding.
We fetched it on 2026-08-08. That is our retrieval date, not a publication date. This record carries no date on which its publisher issued, adopted, amended or last revised that document, so this page states none. Any effective, issue or adoption date the document states of itself is inside the citation above, in the publisher’s own words — nothing here lifts it out or restates it as a fact of ours.
The publisher is named inside that citation, in the publisher’s own words. This record carries no publisher field of its own, so nothing here names one separately.
The record states its own regulation year as 2026. That is the record’s field, not a currency claim: a record may state a year older than the day we fetched it, and where it does, it says so here.
Do not take our word for it. The document every row on this page was read out of is one tap away, and checking us against it is exactly what the citation, the sha256 and the source lines under each row are for.
If that document says something this page does not, the document is the regulation and this page is wrong. The copy we read is the one whose sha256 is above; if the publisher has replaced the file since 2026-08-08, yours will not match ours, and that difference is the thing worth knowing.
What this record does not carry
derived Delaware declares 7 gaps, of which 5 are regulation this compilation does not carry.
5 gap(s) the record says carry regulation
These are regulation that exists and is not in here. They are printed in full, in the record's own words.
cross-references / uncited pages of the same section
**THE DEER HUNTING SECTION RUNS PDF pp.22-29 (printed 20-27) AND ONLY TWO OF ITS EIGHT PAGES ARE CITED.** Said page by page rather than as a total, because 'PAGES beginning or ending one page short' is the single most productive defect class in this repository and a vague gap is how it hides. Every page below was rendered and read before this text was written. NONE of them prints a deer season date that is not already in the cited table -- that was the thing checked first. * PDF p24 (printed 22): CHRONIC WASTING DISEASE. What CWD is, that it was recently detected in Delaware, the CWD Management Zone, carcass movement and testing. CARRIES REGULATION and none of it is here. * PDF p25 (printed 23): METHOD OF TAKE -- the legal definitions of a handgun (barrel 5.75-12.5 in., .30-.50 calibre, case length rules), of an authorized straight-walled pistol-caliber rifle and where it may NOT be used (north of the Chesapeake and Delaware Canal), the Sharps rifle allowance, crossbow minimum pull weight 125 lb, vertical bow minimum 30 lb, and baiting. Also HUNTER ORANGE in full. **The cited table names these implements in every one of its seven rows and defines none of them.** CARRIES REGULATION. * PDF p26 (printed 24): the Hunters Against Hunger donation programme, the youth and non-ambulatory hunt in prose (supervision by a person 21 or older, hunter education for ages 13-15), **DEER HUNTING HOURS -- '1/2 hour before sunrise until 1/2 hour after sunset'** -- deer hunting on public lands, and the prohibition on selling deer parts. CARRIES REGULATION. This is also the page carrying 11,025 unmapped glyphs, all of them one advertiser's tiled logotype; its regulation text is ordinary mapped text. * PDF p27 (printed 25): continues the deer section. * PDF pp.28-29 (printed 26-27): **THE WILDLIFE MANAGEMENT ZONE DESCRIPTIONS AND MAP.** This is the sharpest of these gaps: the published Handgun and Straight-walled Pistol-caliber Rifle row carries the page's own words 'Season closed in Wildlife Management Zones 1A and 1B', and **a hunter cannot tell from anything published here whether they are standing in 1A or 1B.** The boundaries are written out in prose on those two pages and drawn on a map beside them. CARRIES REGULATION.
derived family: cross-reference, unread page or section
Who does have it
Not us. Delaware’s agency publishes the document this record was read from, and that document — not this page — is where the material above has to be chased:
Where the description above names some other document, register, office or telephone number, that naming is the record’s own and is printed in full above. Nothing here has followed it up for you, and nothing here has re-typed it.
cross-references / the article continues off the cited range
The article on the second cited page ends with the publisher's own words **'Continued on page 23'** -- printed p23, PDF p25 -- which then ends 'Continued on page 24', which ends 'Continued on page 25'. The continuation is published as a pointer row rather than left silent. **So the cited range stops in the middle of an article the publisher explicitly says is unfinished.** That is stated here as a limit of this compilation and not as a clean result. What is on the far side of it is itemised in the gap above.
derived family: cross-reference
Who does have it
Not us. Delaware’s agency publishes the document this record was read from, and that document — not this page — is where the material above has to be chased:
Where the description above names some other document, register, office or telephone number, that naming is the record’s own and is printed in full above. Nothing here has followed it up for you, and nothing here has re-typed it.
cross-references / adjacent page not cited
PDF p21 (printed 19), the page immediately BEFORE the cited range, is 'DEER AND TURKEY HARVEST REPORTING' -- a separate printed section with its own banner. It carries the mandatory 24-hour registration rule, the Deer/Turkey Possession Tag requirement, and the antler-spread and point-count reporting requirements for antlered deer. It was rendered and read: it contains ZERO date-bearing lines and no season table begins on it, which is the specific thing that took Idaho, South Carolina, Arkansas, Nevada and Utah offline. **It does carry regulation, and none of it is here.**
derived family: cross-reference
Who does have it
Not us. Delaware’s agency publishes the document this record was read from, and that document — not this page — is where the material above has to be chased:
Where the description above names some other document, register, office or telephone number, that naming is the record’s own and is printed in full above. Nothing here has followed it up for you, and nothing here has re-typed it.
cross-references / not in this booklet at all
**LICENCE REQUIREMENTS, PUBLIC-LAND STAND ALLOCATION AND THE FEDERAL REFUGE HUNTS ARE NOT CARRIED**, and neither are the deer rules for State Wildlife Areas (printed p42 per the booklet's own pointer). The cited pages tell a hunter when the seven seasons run, what implement each permits, how many antlered deer may be taken and what tags are needed. They do not, on their own, make it lawful to hunt.
derived family: cross-reference
Who does have it
Not us. Delaware’s agency publishes the document this record was read from, and that document — not this page — is where the material above has to be chased:
Where the description above names some other document, register, office or telephone number, that naming is the record’s own and is printed in full above. Nothing here has followed it up for you, and nothing here has re-typed it.
source / first-party rule text not consulted
Delaware's adopted rules live in Title 7 of the Delaware Administrative Code (Chapter 3900, Wildlife). **Nobody has checked whether the first-party rule states these season dates**, and this compilation therefore reads a digest where an authoritative source may exist. The digest's own class of publication says as much: every hunting digest examined in this repository disclaims being the law. Recorded as a gap rather than as a footnote because it is the same question North Carolina's `15A NCAC 10B .0203` route raised, and it is unresolved for Delaware.
derived family: source availability
Who does have it
Not us. Delaware’s agency publishes the document this record was read from, and that document — not this page — is where the material above has to be chased:
Where the description above names some other document, register, office or telephone number, that naming is the record’s own and is printed in full above. Nothing here has followed it up for you, and nothing here has re-typed it.
2 further gap(s) the record says carry no regulation
declared by the record, which states these carry no regulation. They are published because the reason a thing was not read is part of the evidence.
photo / advertisement graphic
PDF p22 (printed 20) is 38.6% image by the exact union measurement in `core.page_graphics`. All of it is the bottom 45% of the page: the Dutch Neck Deer Butchering advertisement (a photograph of a white-tailed deer in a field, with display type over it) and the CoolBot advertisement (four photographs of a walk-in cooler build). **Neither carries regulation.** Every word of the DEER SEASONS table and all three of its footnotes is live text and is published above; nothing in this figure area is read, and nothing in it needs to be.
derived family: photograph/graphic/advertisement
photo / advertisement graphic
PDF p23 (printed 21) is 41.9% image and 22.4% curves. That is the two advertisements below the article (Spicher Custom LLC and Baker Sporting) plus one small line drawing beside the QUALITY BUCK TAGS paragraph -- a buck's head with a '15"' dimension arrow across the antler spread. **The drawing carries no regulation THAT THE TEXT DOES NOT ALSO STATE**: the same paragraph prints 'an outside antler spread of at least 15 inches' in words, and that sentence is published. This is deliberately NOT the Florida antler-point map's situation, where the rule existed in colour alone and nowhere in the text layer, and the difference was checked on the rendered page rather than assumed. The advertisements carry no regulation.
derived family: photograph/graphic/advertisement
Coverage
100.0% of 23 drawn table-cell rectangles and 27 reconstituted visual lines of the words outside them, on PDF p22; plus 103 pypdf text lines on PDF p23, which is three columns of prose and is read line-wise because a coordinate reading splices the columns together. 153 units in total, and they are NOT the same kind of thing: a p22 cell is a whole table cell, a p22 loose line is one printed line, and a p23 line is one printed line of one column
derived: this percentage is over the units named above, on the pages this record cites. It is not a percentage of the state's regulation. The gaps above are what a full percentage would have to count and cannot.
2 page(s) cited
22
23
19 library repair(s)
line: -1; was: Sept. 1– Jan. 31; now: Sept. 1–Jan. 31; basis: the chars stream inside the drawn cell has NO space adjacent to the en dash; pdfplumber is character-exact and pypdf inserts one
line: -1; was: Oct. 9 –18; now: Oct. 9–18; basis: the chars stream inside the drawn cell has NO space adjacent to the en dash; pdfplumber is character-exact and pypdf inserts one
line: -1; was: Jan. 25 – Jan. 31; now: Jan. 25–Jan. 31; basis: the chars stream inside the drawn cell has NO space adjacent to the en dash; pdfplumber is character-exact and pypdf inserts one
line: -1; was: Nov. 13 – 22; now: Nov. 13–22; basis: the chars stream inside the drawn cell has NO space adjacent to the en dash; pdfplumber is character-exact and pypdf inserts one
line: -1; was: Jan. 16 – 24; now: Jan. 16–24; basis: the chars stream inside the drawn cell has NO space adjacent to the en dash; pdfplumber is character-exact and pypdf inserts one
line: -1; was: Oct. 2– 4,; now: Oct. 2–4,; basis: the chars stream inside the drawn cell has NO space adjacent to the en dash; pdfplumber is character-exact and pypdf inserts one
line: -1; was: Dec. 12– 20; now: Dec. 12–20; basis: the chars stream inside the drawn cell has NO space adjacent to the en dash; pdfplumber is character-exact and pypdf inserts one
line: -1; was: Straight- walled; now: Straight-walled; basis: the label wraps inside a hyphenated compound; the booklet prints 'Straight-walled' whole 14 times and the coordinate reading keeps it whole
line: -1; was: * S traight-walled; now: * Straight-walled; basis: pypdf splits the footnote's first letter from its word -- Florida's drop-cap shape; the chars stream reads '* Straight-walled' and the rendered page agrees
line: -1; was: ** I t; now: ** It; basis: the same split on the second footnote's first word; the chars stream reads '** It is legal'
line: -1; was: mate- rial; now: material; basis: a column-wrap hyphen; core.close_wrapped_hyphens closes it against this booklet's own vocabulary
line: -1; was: sea- son; now: season; basis: the same, in the Handgun row's ADDITIONAL INFORMATION cell
line: -1; was: se a; now: sea; basis: pdfplumber splits this token inside the wrapped word 'sea- son'; the whole reading is kept and the hyphen closed
line: -1; was: https:/ /dnrec.alpha.delaware.gov/; now: https://dnrec.alpha.delaware.gov/; basis: pypdf splits the Sunday-hunting web address at its own slash; the chars stream reads 'website: https://dnrec.alpha.delaware.' with no space and the rendered page agrees. APPLIED -- see _tokens_with_lines
line: -1; was: dis -; now: dis-; basis: a column-wrap hyphen pypdf leaves as its own token; closed to 'discretion' against this booklet's vocabulary
line: -1; was: hunt -; now: hunt-; basis: the same, closed to 'hunting'. **THIS ENTRY EXISTS BECAUSE `library_divergence` COMPARES TOKEN SETS AND CANNOT TELL ONE OCCURRENCE FROM ANOTHER.** The divergent token is the fragment 'hunt' inside a wrapped word; the token 'hunt' that reaches published data is the ordinary verb in the '**' footnote, 'It is legal to hunt deer with a handgun'. Both libraries read THAT one identically. Indiana's docstring records the same hole and it is not a property of either state
line: -1; was: DDEEEERR BBUUTTCCHHEERRIINNGG; now: DEER BUTCHERING; basis: advertisement display type drawn twice (fill + stroke); pypdf's single reading is correct and the block is ruled out
line: -1; was: AAllll BBoonneelleessss CCuuttss; now: All Boneless Cuts; basis: the same advertisement
line: -1; was: 88 FFllaavvoorrss ooff SSnnaacckk SSttiicckkss; now: 8 Flavors of Snack Sticks; basis: the same advertisement
50 swept source line(s) in 10 reason group(s) — NOT declared gaps
These are not gaps.
ruled_out entries are source lines the extractor accounted for and did NOT publish, each with the reason it gave. They are not declared gaps: a declared gap is regulation the record says exists and it does not carry.
18 × — a paid advertisement (Dutch Neck Deer Butchering & Euro Mounts, Middletown DE) occupying the bottom 45% of the page, plus the CoolBot advertisement beside it. It carries no regulation. Its display type is drawn twice -- a fill pass and a stroke pass -- so pdfplumber reads every letter of it doubled ('DDUUTTCCHH NNEECCKK'); that is an artefact of the advertisement's typesetting and reaches no published field
15 × — two paid advertisements above the running head (Spicher Custom LLC, Marydel DE; Baker Sporting, Greenwood DE), together about 45% of the page. Neither carries regulation. **THE SPICHER ADVERTISEMENT IS SET IN A SUBSET FONT WITH NO ToUnicode MAP**: 9 of these lines come back as /gidNNNNN from pypdf and as (cid:N) from pdfplumber -- 142 unmapped glyphs, and `prospect.py survey` reports `undecodable 0` for this page because its divergence lane counts U+FFFD only. The subset maps gid+1 onto the alphabet, which decodes the block to 'DELAWARE HUNTING RIFLES / WATERFOWL SHOTGUNS / SCOPES . RED DOTS / AMMO & MORE / Spicher Custom LLC / 803 Strauss Ave / Marydel, DE / 302-365-0935 / spichercustom.com'. IT IS AN ADVERTISEMENT. Not one unmapped glyph on either cited page is in a season name, a date, a footnote or any other published field
10 × — a printed heading of the DEER HUNTING SECTION, carried on every rule row beneath it as `section` (15.0pt PalatinoLTStd-Bold) or `subsection` (8.5pt PalatinoLTStd-Black). Heading level is taken from the page's measured type, not from indentation: without it 'DEER HARVEST / REPORT CARDS / AND "TAGS"' and 'RESIDENT LICENSED HUNTERS' are four consecutive all-capital lines and would merge into one heading string the page does not print
SUNDAY DEER
HUNTING
OPPORTUNITIES
DEER HARVEST
REPORT CARDS
AND "TAGS"
RESIDENT LICENSED HUNTERS
NON-RESIDENT DEER TAGS
LICENSED EXEMPT HUNTERS
QUALITY BUCK TAGS
1 × — the call-to-action strip of the CoolBot advertisement in the bottom right of the page, drawn as a filled rectangle. A commercial offer, not regulation
Go to eregulations.com/coolbot to save $20 on your order!
1 × — the printed folio '20'. The PDF page index is 22; the offset is +2 throughout the booklet and both numbers are in the citation
20
1 × — the printed folio '21'. The PDF page index is 23
21
1 × — the printed running head 'DEER HUNTING SECTION', repeated on every page of the section
DEER HUNTING SECTION
1 × — the printed running head banner 'DEER HUNTING SECTION' at the top of the page, drawn as a filled rectangle. It names the section and states no rule
DEER HUNTING SECTION
1 × — the table's column headers, 'SEASONS DATES ADDITIONAL INFORMATION'. NOT DRAWN AS CELLS -- the header is a filled band with no rectangle, which is why the three column bands are taken from the seven data rectangles instead. Checked against this string before the table was read
SEASONS DATES ADDITIONAL INFORMATION
1 × — the table's printed title, 'DEER SEASONS'; it names the rows below it and states no rule of its own
Hunters may use archery equipment when it is lawful to hunt deer with a firearm or muzzleloader provided they wear at least 400 square inches of hunter orange material displayed on the head chest, and back.
Hunters may use archery equipment when it is lawful to hunt deer with a firearm or muzzleloader provided they wear at least 400 square inches of hunter orange mate- rial displayed on the head chest, and back.
2026/2027 Delaware Hunting and Trapping Guide (revision 26DEHD_LR4), Delaware DNREC Division of Fish & Wildlife, "DEER HUNTING SECTION", printed pp.20-21 = PDF pp.22-23
Hunters may use crossbow equipment when it is lawful to hunt deer with a firearm or muzzleloader provided they wear at least 400 square inches of hunter orange material displayed on the head, chest, and back.
Hunters may use crossbow equipment when it is lawful to hunt deer with a firearm or muzzleloader provided they wear at least 400 square inches of hunter orange mate- rial displayed on the head, chest, and back.
2026/2027 Delaware Hunting and Trapping Guide (revision 26DEHD_LR4), Delaware DNREC Division of Fish & Wildlife, "DEER HUNTING SECTION", printed pp.20-21 = PDF pp.22-23
Shotguns, muzzleloaders, handguns, authorized straight-walled pistol-caliber rifles, and archery equipment may be used during the general firearm seasons.
Shotguns, muzzleloaders, handguns, authorized straight-walled pistol-caliber rifles, and archery equipment may be used during the general firearm seasons.
2026/2027 Delaware Hunting and Trapping Guide (revision 26DEHD_LR4), Delaware DNREC Division of Fish & Wildlife, "DEER HUNTING SECTION", printed pp.20-21 = PDF pp.22-23
Shotguns, muzzleloaders, handguns, authorized straight-walled pistol-caliber rifles, and archery equipment may be used during the general firearm seasons.
Shotguns, muzzleloaders, handguns, authorized straight-walled pistol-caliber rifles, and archery equipment may be used during the general firearm seasons.
2026/2027 Delaware Hunting and Trapping Guide (revision 26DEHD_LR4), Delaware DNREC Division of Fish & Wildlife, "DEER HUNTING SECTION", printed pp.20-21 = PDF pp.22-23
Shotguns, muzzleloaders, handguns, authorized straight-walled pistol-caliber rifles, and archery equipment may be used during the Special Antlerless only deer seasons. However, archery and crossbow hunters may take antlered deer during both of these seasons.
applies_to
Statewide
footnote
Straight-walled pistol-caliber rifles and handguns may be used during the Special Antlerless only deer seasons. However, archery and crossbow hunters may take antlered deer during the Special Antlerless only deer seasons.
Shotguns, muzzleloaders, handguns, authorized straight-walled pistol-caliber rifles, and archery equipment may be used during the Special Antlerless only deer seasons. However, archery and crossbow hunters may take antlered deer during both of these seasons.
2026/2027 Delaware Hunting and Trapping Guide (revision 26DEHD_LR4), Delaware DNREC Division of Fish & Wildlife, "DEER HUNTING SECTION", printed pp.20-21 = PDF pp.22-23
Shotguns, muzzleloaders, handguns, authorized straight-walled pistol-caliber rifles, and archery equipment may be used during the Special Antlerless only deer seasons. However, archery and crossbow hunters may take antlered deer during both of these seasons.
applies_to
Statewide
footnote
Straight-walled pistol-caliber rifles and handguns may be used during the Special Antlerless only deer seasons. However, archery and crossbow hunters may take antlered deer during the Special Antlerless only deer seasons.
Shotguns, muzzleloaders, handguns, authorized straight-walled pistol-caliber rifles, and archery equipment may be used during the Special Antlerless only deer seasons. However, archery and crossbow hunters may take antlered deer during both of these seasons.
2026/2027 Delaware Hunting and Trapping Guide (revision 26DEHD_LR4), Delaware DNREC Division of Fish & Wildlife, "DEER HUNTING SECTION", printed pp.20-21 = PDF pp.22-23
Shotguns, straight-walled pistol-caliber rifles, muzzleloaders, and crossbows may be equipped with a scope.
printed_footnote
Only 2 antlered deer may be taken during any license year (July 1 – June 30) by all methods and seasons combined. There is no limit on antlerless deer provided a hunter has an antlerless deer tag in their possession before harvesting additional antlerless deer. Shotguns, straight-walled pistol-caliber rifles, muzzleloaders, and crossbows may be equipped with a scope.
an antlerless deer tag in their possession before harvesting additional antlerless deer. Shotguns, straight-walled pistol-caliber rifles, muzzleloaders, and crossbows may be
equipped with a scope.
2026/2027 Delaware Hunting and Trapping Guide (revision 26DEHD_LR4), Delaware DNREC Division of Fish & Wildlife, "DEER HUNTING SECTION", printed pp.20-21 = PDF pp.22-23
More information on statewide Sunday deer hunting dates and public lands open to Sunday deer hunting is available at the Sunday deer hunting website: https://dnrec.alpha.delaware.gov/ fish-wildlife/hunting/sunday/ or by calling the Wildlife Section office 302-739-9912.
Quality Buck Tags are available for $20 and come with a free Hunter’s Choice Tag and will be included on a hunter’s Deer Harvest Report Card if purchased.
Hunters will only be allowed to harvest a maximum of 2 antlered bucks (all seasons combined) by using the Hunter’s Choice Tag and the Quality Buck Tag.
License exempt hunters will receive a Deer Harvest Report Card that contains 4 antlerless deer “tags” and 1 Hunter’s Choice deer “tag” for residents and 1 Antlered Deer “tag” for non-residents at no charge.
The distance between the tips of a deer’s ears when both ears are held straight out from the head in the “alert” position is approximately 15 inches so a deer in which this tag would be applicable would generally need to have antlers that are at least as wide as the space between his ear tips.
Only 2 antlered deer may be taken during any license year (July 1 – June 30) by all methods and seasons combined. There is no limit on antlerless deer provided a hunter has an antlerless deer tag in their possession before harvesting additional antlerless deer. Shotguns, straight-walled pistol-caliber rifles, muzzleloaders, and crossbows may be equipped with a scope.
value
Only 2 antlered deer may be taken during any license year (July 1 – June 30) by all methods and seasons combined.
Only 2 antlered deer may be taken during any license year (July 1 – June 30) by all methods and seasons combined. There is no limit on antlerless deer provided a hunter has
2026/2027 Delaware Hunting and Trapping Guide (revision 26DEHD_LR4), Delaware DNREC Division of Fish & Wildlife, "DEER HUNTING SECTION", printed pp.20-21 = PDF pp.22-23
Only 2 antlered deer may be taken during any license year (July 1 – June 30) by all methods and seasons combined. There is no limit on antlerless deer provided a hunter has an antlerless deer tag in their possession before harvesting additional antlerless deer. Shotguns, straight-walled pistol-caliber rifles, muzzleloaders, and crossbows may be equipped with a scope.
value
There is no limit on antlerless deer provided a hunter has an antlerless deer tag in their possession before harvesting additional antlerless deer.
Only 2 antlered deer may be taken during any license year (July 1 – June 30) by all methods and seasons combined. There is no limit on antlerless deer provided a hunter has
an antlerless deer tag in their possession before harvesting additional antlerless deer. Shotguns, straight-walled pistol-caliber rifles, muzzleloaders, and crossbows may be
2026/2027 Delaware Hunting and Trapping Guide (revision 26DEHD_LR4), Delaware DNREC Division of Fish & Wildlife, "DEER HUNTING SECTION", printed pp.20-21 = PDF pp.22-23
Straight-walled pistol-caliber rifles and handguns may be used during the Special Antlerless only deer seasons. However, archery and crossbow hunters may take antlered deer during the Special Antlerless only deer seasons.
* Straight-walled pistol-caliber rifles and handguns may be used during the Special Antlerless only deer seasons. However, archery and crossbow hunters may take antlered
deer during the Special Antlerless only deer seasons.
2026/2027 Delaware Hunting and Trapping Guide (revision 26DEHD_LR4), Delaware DNREC Division of Fish & Wildlife, "DEER HUNTING SECTION", printed pp.20-21 = PDF pp.22-23
It is legal to hunt deer with a handgun and authorized straight-walled pistol-caliber rifle during any General Firearm deer season, including the Special Antlerless Seasons.
applies_to
NO SEASON LABEL ON THIS PAGE CARRIES A '**' MARKER. The rule is published because the page prints it; the row it qualifies is not stated by the page and is not guessed here. On its wording it concerns the General Firearm and Special Antlerless seasons
** It is legal to hunt deer with a handgun and authorized straight-walled pistol-caliber rifle during any General Firearm deer season, including the Special Antlerless Seasons.
2026/2027 Delaware Hunting and Trapping Guide (revision 26DEHD_LR4), Delaware DNREC Division of Fish & Wildlife, "DEER HUNTING SECTION", printed pp.20-21 = PDF pp.22-23
