Hunting hours
Hunting hours begin ½ hour before sunrise and end at midnight. Click here for a sunrise/sunset table.
Required licenses
To hunt foxes in Massachusetts you must have certain licenses, which you can buy through MassFishHunt.
Massachusetts residents:
- Hunting or sporting license
Non-residents:
- Small game or big game license
Bag limits
None
Hunting zones
All Wildlife Management Zones statewide.
Hunting implements
Shotguns: Only shot size up to #1 birdshot (pellet diameter equal to or less than 0.160 inches).
Archery equipment: Archery tackle is legal, with no minimum pull. Crossbows may only be used by permit. Poisoned arrows, explosive tips, bows drawn by mechanical means are prohibited.
Rifles and handguns:
- Daytime hunting: During the period from ½ hour before sunrise to ½ hour after sunset, there are no restrictions on size or caliber of rifles or handguns.
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Nighttime hunting: During the period from ½ hour after sunset to midnight rifles are restricted to those chambered not larger than .22 long rifle and handguns are restricted to those chambered not larger than .38 caliber.
Muzzleloaders: Smooth bore muzzleloaders: Only shot size up to #1 birdshot (pellet diameter equal to or less than 0.160 inches) can be used. Rifled bore muzzleloaders: no restrictions on caliber size.
Hunting methods
Legal methods:
- Electronic calls
- Manual calls
- Decoys
- Bait
- Use of dogs
Prohibited:
- Artificial light
- Wanton waste: 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.
Blaze orange requirements
- When hunting on a pheasant or quail stocked WMA during the pheasant/quail season, a blaze orange cap is required.
Trapping
Tagging, transporting, and reporting requirements
- You must report your fox within 48 hours of harvest.
- Report at an official check station or online.
- If you report your harvest online, write the confirmation number on a tag and attach the tag to the carcass or pelt.
- These confirmation numbers must stay attached to the pelt or carcass until that pelt or carcass is prepared for mounting or sold or tanned.
Hunting season framework
November 1 – last day of February the following year. Hunting is prohibited on Sundays. Fox hunting is closed during the shotgun deer season.
Fox hunting regulations
This page is to be used as a reference, it is not the entire law and is subject to change. You can refer to the fox, coyote, and bobcat hunting regulations in the Code of Massachusetts Regulations, 321 CMR 3.02(3) and to several provisions of the Massachusetts General Laws, Chapter 131 for more information about fox hunting laws and regulations.