This year Kentuckians can enjoy two special weekend hunting seasons. A youth hunt, scheduled October 9-10, and the early muzzleloader weekend, October 16-17 are the only gun hunting seasons before Kentucky’s rifle season starts on Nov. 13. Muzzleloaders are permitted in the rifle season. Muzzleloading hunters do get another extra season December 11-19.

The Kentucky Department of Fish and Wildlife has the following rules for muzzleloaders used to hunt deer in 2021:

MUZZLELOADING EQUIPMENT

• Muzzle-loading rifles or handguns of any caliber, shooting round balls, conical bullets or saboted bullets.

• Muzzle-loading firearms equipped with open sights or telescopic sights (scopes).

For more information see this flyer from the KY FWR:

Learn more about the Kentucky muzzleloader season rules here

While the conventional gun season is timed to coincide with the deer’s high activity period of the rut, the reproductive cycle peak, the earlier youth and muzzleloader hunts have another advantage. The modestly drawing early gun seasons put shooters out there before a heavy influx of hunters, giving those earlier hunters access to deer that haven’t been pressured as much and are perhaps less wary.

General regulations for both the youth hunt and the early muzzleloader season are the same as for any firearms season. These include familiar bag limits on whitetail. Kentucky hunters have a harvest limit of one antlered buck for the entire hunting year for any or all weapons-based deer hunting seasons.

The initial deer permit (regular or youth) is good for four deer, all antlerless or as many as three antlerless and one antlered buck. If all options are used for the initial deer permit, additional deer permits, each of which is good for two deer, can be purchased ($15). A hunter can buy and fill as many additional deer permits as wanted in Zone 1 counties.

The inflexible part of this is that a hunter can take only a single antlered buck, period.