Hunting hours
Hunting hours begin ½ hour before sunrise and end ½ hour after sunset. (Exception: on WMAs stocked with pheasant or quail during the pheasant or quail season, hunting hours are sunrise to sunset.)
Required licenses
To hunt gray squirrel in Massachusetts you must have the certain licenses, which you can buy through MassFishHunt.
Massachusetts residents:
- Hunting or sporting license
Non-residents:
- Small game or big game license
Bag limits
- 5 per day
- 10 in possession
- No annual bag limit
Hunting implements
When hunting gray squirrel on WMAs stocked with pheasant or quail, only shotguns and archery equipment are allowed during the pheasant or quail season. Stocked WMAs are listed in 321 CMR 3.01(1)(o). Trapping or netting is prohibited.
Shotguns (including smoothbore muzzleloaders): Do not use birdshot larger than #1 (pellet diameter equal to or less than 0.160 inches) for hunting gray squirrel.
Archery equipment: Archery equipment is legal. You must use a device that works by flexing and releasing a bowstring. You may not use poisoned arrows, explosive tips, bows drawn by mechanical means, or any device that propels an arrow, dart, or bolt by gunpowder, compressed air, or any other means. You may only use a crossbows if you have a permit.
Rifles and handguns (including rifled muzzleloaders): Rifles and handguns are prohibited in zones 10–14. Rifles and handguns are legal in zones 1–9 except on WMAs stocked with pheasant or quail during the pheasant or quail season.
Trapping or netting is prohibited.
Blaze orange requirements
Hunters must wear a hunter orange cap when hunting for gray squirrel on WMAs where pheasant or quail are stocked during the pheasant or quail season.
Tagging, transporting, and reporting requirements
You do not have to report harvest for gray squirrels.
Hunting season framework
Gray squirrel may be taken from the first Saturday after Columbus Day to Jan. 2 in Zones 10–14 (except during the shotgun deer season), and from the second Monday in September through Jan. 2 in Zones 1–9 (except during the shotgun deer season).
Gray squirrel hunting regulations
This page is to be used as a reference. It doesn't lay out the entire law, and it may change. Refer to the gray squirrel hunting regulations in the Code of Massachusetts Regulations, 321 CMR 3.02(7) and to several provisions of the Massachusetts General Laws, Chapter 131 for more information about gray squirrel hunting laws and regulations.
Hunting methods
Prohibited:
- Wanton waste (as of 7/20): It is unlawful for hunters to intentionally or knowingly leave a wounded or dead game animal in the field or the forest without making a reasonable effort to retrieve and use it. Each retrieved animal shall be retained or transferred to another until processed or used for food, pelt, feathers, or taxidermy. This does not apply to animals unfit for consumption or use—animals and their parts that are damaged, destroyed, decayed, rotting, diseased, or infected.