Coyote Hunting NJ, Laws, Regulations, Season, & License Info

Coyote classification & license in New Jersey

What is the classification of coyotes in New Jersey?

A furbearer, hunted under the small game rules. The coyote’s seasons sit in the digest’s small game chapter alongside fox, and its trapping rules in the trapping chapter.¹³

Two pieces of paper decide what you may do to a coyote here:

The Special Coyote & Fox Permit that used to sit between those two was eliminated with the 2026 Game Code.⁴

One class of license is shut out of the animal entirely. “Apprentice hunters may not hunt for black bear, coyote or fox,” and apprentice holders are not eligible for a Rifle Permit.⁵

Are coyotes protected in New Jersey?

No bag limit, but a real closed season.

No daily or seasonal bag limit.¹

The season closes on March 15 and stays shut until the next Daytime Season opens. In 2026 that was September 8, late because of the date the new Game Code took effect; from 2027 the code as proposed would open it on August 1, and that date was not yet confirmed in an adopted rule when this was checked in October 2026.¹⁶ That closed spring and summer is not true of any neighboring state except Massachusetts.

And every coyote must be reported the same day:

Harvest Reporting of Coyote AND Gray Fox is REQUIRED by 10 p.m. on the day of harvest.¹

The deadline moved from 8 p.m. to 10 p.m. in 2026, and gray fox reporting went from requested to required.⁷

Is a hunting license required to hunt coyotes in New Jersey?

Yes, and a Rifle Permit on top if you carry a rifle.

2026–27 fees:

⁴

The Rifle Permit is the one people forget. It is required of “all persons in possession of a rifle (modern or muzzleloading rifle including a smoothbore muzzleloader firing a single projectile) while hunting or trapping,” and you must have passed a hunter education course that includes rifle.⁵⁴ An air gun is not a rifle and needs no permit.⁵

The prices above are resident prices. A non-resident pays more, and may need a different license; see what a non-resident needs.

Is hunter education required in New Jersey?

Yes, and from 2026 there is only one way to show it:

A first-time license requires a Hunter Education course completion card. A past hunting license from another state is no longer accepted as proof of qualification.⁵

Trappers face the same change in trapper form: a first-time trapping license needs a trapper education card.³

The course has an online component. All hunter education students must first complete the HunterCourse.com online program before the in-person element.⁵

The apprentice license is the exemption, and it does not help you here. An apprentice may hunt without hunter education, but apprentices may not hunt coyote or fox and cannot hold a Rifle Permit.⁵ Individuals are limited to two apprentice licenses per type per lifetime.⁵

Can a non-resident hunt coyotes in New Jersey?

Yes. The non-resident Firearm license is $135.50, as is the non-resident Bow & Arrow license. A non-resident 2-day small game firearm license at $36.50 exists and is the cheap route for a short trip; it is not valid for deer, black bear or turkey.⁴

Bring your hunter education card. A license from your home state no longer qualifies you for a first New Jersey license.⁵ And New Jersey’s 450-foot safety zone around any building, occupied or not, makes written landowner permission the practical key to most of the state. See private property.

See also is a hunting license required: the license rules there, and the exemptions and add-ons that go with them, apply to you too.

Season, hours & limits in New Jersey

What is the season for coyote hunting in New Jersey?

Two seasons, and this table is the page.

¹²

From January 1 the two run side by side, so between them they cover the clock. By day you may still run hounds and hunt over bait with a rifle; after dark the dogs and the bait come off and the shotgun is the only gun.

What is the bag limit for coyotes in New Jersey?

No daily or seasonal limit, in either season.¹²

What are the legal hunting hours for coyotes in New Jersey?

Half an hour before sunrise to half an hour after sunset in the Daytime Season, and half an hour after sunset to half an hour before sunrise in the Nighttime Season, January 1 to March 15.¹²

The night half is a different hunt with different rules; see night hunting.

Can you hunt coyotes on Sunday in New Jersey?

No, and New Jersey’s Sunday closure is close to airtight for a coyote hunter.

No person may hunt with firearms or carry a gun in the woods or fields or on the waters on Sunday except on semi-wild and commercial shooting preserve lands for the purpose of shooting stocked game or when using a .22 rifle for dispatching trapped animals.⁸

That is a carry offense, not just a hunting offense, the same construction as Massachusetts.

And the archery exception does not reach the coyote:

Sunday bowhunting for deer is legal only on state wildlife management areas and private property.⁸

Sunday bowhunting is granted for deer. A coyote bowhunter is outside it.

Sunday hunting is also prohibited in NJ State Parks and Forests and on national wildlife refuges.⁸

The one Sunday exception in the small game rules is for raccoon and opossum, 12:01 a.m. to one hour before sunrise during their season.⁸ The coyote gets nothing.

Plan a New Jersey trip as six days. A Saturday night sit is legal right up to half an hour before sunrise on Sunday morning, but a gun in the woods after that is the offense, so know your times.

Can you hunt coyotes during deer or big game season in New Jersey?

Yes, with two interruptions.

Dogs come off during the firearm deer week. The 2026–27 digest allows dogs from September 8, 2026 to March 15, 2027 “except Dec. 7–12 & 16, 2026.”¹

Hunter orange is required in the Daytime Season whenever you carry a rifle, shotgun or air gun, and a solid hunter orange hat, no camouflage, is required as part of the 200 square inch requirement when hunting small game with a firearm on any pheasant or quail stocked WMA.¹

The general rule is broader than that, and it is written as a choice:

Firearm hunters must wear a cap made of solid daylight fluorescent orange or an outer garment containing at least 200 square inches of fluorescent orange material visible from all sides at all times while engaged in hunting. A camo-orange hat alone is not adequate. This applies to all persons while hunting with a firearm for deer, bear, rabbit, hare, squirrel, coyote, fox, railbirds and game birds including while in a tree stand.⁹

Two things to take from it. A solid orange cap on its own satisfies the requirement, but a camouflage-pattern orange hat satisfies neither. And “including while in a tree stand” closes the gap most hunters assume exists: elevation is not an exemption in New Jersey the way it is in Connecticut.

At night, hunter orange is optional. The law does not apply to coyote and fox hunting “(nighttime hours only).” A daytime rifle hunter in January wears orange like everyone else.⁹

Can I shoot a coyote that walks past while I am deer or turkey hunting?

Yes to both, and the two answers are governed by opposite kinds of condition: one about your intent, one about your setup.

Turkey hunters may take a coyote during any turkey season, but not a fox, and only if you have done nothing to bring it in:¹⁰

the hunter may not: Have any type of coyote call in their possession. Have any coyote decoys. Take any action intended to attract a coyote.

Read the first one. It is not “may not use a call”; it is may not have one in your possession. A diaphragm in your vest that you never touched is enough to put you outside the exemption. If you turkey hunt and coyote hunt with the same vest, empty it.

Deer hunters may take a coyote or fox “during any bow or firearm deer season” with weapons and ammunition normally restricted to deer, which lets a deer rifle, slug gun or bow be used on a coyote. Two things switch it off:¹⁰

• You are hunting from a tree stand or other structure within 300 feet of a baited area, which also applies to bowhunters.
• You have taken the season bag limit of deer.

The reporting duty does not care which of the three you were doing. “Regardless of whether you are hunting canines, deer or turkey – ALL coyote and gray fox harvests must be reported by 10 p.m. on the day of harvest.”¹⁰ So an incidental coyote taken from a deer stand at first light is on the same clock as a called one. Report through the Automated Harvest Report System, by phone on (855) 448-6865 or online.¹⁰

Night hunting in New Jersey

Can you hunt coyotes at night in New Jersey?

Yes, from January 1 to March 15, with no permit, and the regulation prescribes how.

Nighttime Season (Hunting license required; no permit needed). Jan. 1 – Mar. 15, 2027, ½ hr. after sunset–½ hr. before sunrise. Shotgun ONLY 10 or 12 ga. using shot sizes #4 fine – #3 buckshot. Hunter Orange: Optional. Method: On the ground, elevated, or in man-made structure. Manner: Standing and calling only. Predator call: Must possess manual or electronic call. Dogs: Prohibited. Decoys: Allowed (no live decoys). Bait: Prohibited. Portable lights: Permitted.²

Four provisions there are unusual enough to spell out.

“Standing and calling only” regulates the manner of the hunt. Stalking is lawful in the Daytime Season, which lists “Running with hounds, stalking or stand and call” as permitted manners.¹ At night only the last of those three survives. You set up, you call, you shoot from where you are.

You must possess a call. Manual or electronic, but it must be on you. This is the second of only two such requirements in the country; Rhode Island has the other.

No rifle after dark. Rifles are a Daytime Season weapon. The night is shotgun only.

No bait at night. Bait is lawful in the Daytime Season at 300 feet from a stand or blind, and prohibited in the Nighttime Season. A bait pile you hunt by day is off limits once the sun is down.¹²

Can you use artificial lights for coyote hunting in New Jersey?

Yes, in the Nighttime Season, and this makes New Jersey the most light-permissive state in the Northeast.

Portable lights: Permitted.²

The general rules say the same from the other direction: it is unlawful to “hunt for or shoot any wildlife by aid of a light, except when hunting raccoon/opossum or when hunting coyote or fox during the nighttime season.”¹¹ So the light is a January-to-March privilege.

Never from a vehicle, though. New Jersey prohibits

Hunting or shooting with the aid of a light attached to or carried in a vehicle.¹²

That is an absolute prohibition. The light has to be on you or on the gun, not on the truck.

Can you use night vision in New Jersey?

Yes in the Nighttime Season, with two limits that come from the general rules rather than the coyote table.

Nothing in the coyote and fox provisions or the general hunting regulations names night vision, thermal or infrared.²¹¹ But two prohibitions in the general rules reach some of the hardware:

It is unlawful to … Use “smart” rifles or guns equipped with any target tracking system, any electronically-controlled, electronically-assisted or computer-linked trigger or a ballistics computer.¹¹

A digital night vision scope with a built-in ballistic calculator is a ballistics computer on a gun. Turn the feature off and it is still installed, so use a unit without one.

The illuminator is the second question. A handheld infrared light is a portable light, which the night season permits. A light on the truck is out whatever its wavelength.¹² And the general rules ban “sights which project a spot or light onto the game animal,”¹¹ which a gun-mounted illuminator arguably is. Keep the illuminator in your hand, not on the rifle rail.

Can you use thermal in New Jersey?

Yes in the Nighttime Season, and the same ballistics-computer ban applies. The word thermal does not appear in the coyote and fox provisions or in the general hunting regulations.²¹¹ A thermal casts no light, so the light rules do not touch it, but a thermal riflescope with a ballistic calculator falls under the smart-rifle ban.¹¹

Think about what the New Jersey night hunt actually is before you buy one. Shotgun only, #4 fine to #3 buckshot, standing and calling, with a light expressly permitted. That is a forty-yard hunt. A thermal on a buckshot gun is a very different proposition from a thermal on a .223, and New Jersey has not given you the .223 after dark.

Where thermal earns its keep here is as a hand-held spotter, confirming what came to the call before you commit the light and the shot.

Are there specific weapons restrictions for hunting coyotes at night in New Jersey?

Yes, the tightest night weapon specification of any state that permits night hunting at all.

Shotgun ONLY 10 or 12 ga. using shot sizes #4 fine – #3 buckshot.²

Three things follow from that sentence:

No rifle. Not even the rimfire that is legal by day.

No 16 or 20 gauge. The digest narrows the night gun to 10 or 12 gauge; the daytime shotgun runs 10–20.

Buckshot is legal at night now, up to #3. The old night rule stopped at T shot. Anything larger than #3 buckshot is still out, and slugs are not on the list.

Firearms, ammo & suppressors in New Jersey

Are suppressors allowed for coyote hunting in New Jersey?

No. The digest lists it flatly among the prohibited acts:

[It is unlawful to] Possess or use silencer or noise suppressor on any firearm (NJSA 2C:39-1 g.)¹¹

It is a possession offense under New Jersey’s criminal code rather than a hunting rule, and there is no hunting exception.

What firearms are allowed or restricted for coyote hunting in New Jersey?

By season, and the rifle is now a whole-season daytime gun.

Daytime Season, September 8 to March 15:

Bow minimum 35 lbs. draw/peak wt. or crossbow (min. 75 lbs. pull wt.) using well-sharpened broadheads (min. 3/4” width)

Shotgun 10–20 ga. using shot sizes #4 fine - #3 buckshot. Pellets must be lead or a tungsten-nickel-iron hybrid.

Centerfire Rifle .25 cal. max., using hollow or soft point bullets (max. 80 grain). Rimfire rifle .22 cal. max., using hollow or soft point bullets (max. 50 grain).

Muzzleloader rifle or single-barrel smoothbore .44 cal. minimum. Air gun .25 cal. only using wadcutter, domed or pointed or hollow point pellets.¹

Nighttime Season, January 1 to March 15: shotgun only, 10 or 12 gauge, #4 fine to #3 buckshot.²

Three limits that are easy to miss.

Between Sept. 8 and Dec. 31, 2026, rifle use for coyote and fox is prohibited on all State WMAs, Parks and Forests & Recreation Areas.¹

That is a fall restriction. From January 1 the digest no longer bars a rifle on those lands, but check the area’s own rules before you carry one onto a state park.

A Rifle Permit is required for any rifle, modern or muzzleloading, including a smoothbore muzzleloader firing a single projectile.⁵

And three rounds is the ceiling: “All firearms used may not have more than three (3) rounds of ammunition while hunting.”¹³

A .25 air gun is now a legal coyote gun by day, with no Rifle Permit.¹⁵

Are there any ammunition restrictions in New Jersey?

More than in any other state on this site, and they are the substance of the regulation rather than a footnote to it:

Every row is from the coyote and fox tables or the Division’s ammunition page.¹²¹³

The bullet-weight caps are the unusual part. An 80-grain ceiling on a centerfire rules out most heavy-for-caliber .243 and 6mm loads even before the .25 caliber cap does, and the hollow-or-soft-point requirement rules out full metal jacket entirely. New Jersey is legislating against over-penetration in a densely settled state, and it shows. Steel shot is not on the list for coyote: pellets must be lead or a tungsten-nickel-iron hybrid.¹

Can you hunt coyotes in New Jersey using a .22 LR or other rimfire cartridge?

Yes, all Daytime Season, at .22 caliber or smaller with hollow or soft point bullets not exceeding 50 grain.¹

You need a Rifle Permit to carry it, and from September 8 to December 31 you may not use it on state WMAs, parks, forests or recreation areas.¹⁵ After dark a rimfire is not a legal coyote gun.

Is there a magazine capacity limit in New Jersey?

Yes, three rounds:

All firearms used may not have more than three (3) rounds of ammunition while hunting.¹³

New Jersey firearms law is a separate and stricter matter. The state regulates magazine capacity and firearm types under Title 2C independently of the hunting code, and a Firearms Purchaser Identification Card is part of the licensing picture; the digest notes that Firearm Apprentice Licenses are limited to those 18 and over because of the FID card rules.⁵

Resolve any semi-automatic rifle’s status under New Jersey firearms law before you travel with it. That question sits outside a hunting page and is not one to guess at in this state of all states.

Calls, bait & dogs in New Jersey

Are electronic calls allowed for coyote hunting in New Jersey?

Yes: optional by day, and compulsory at night.

Predator call: Manual or electronic; use optional.¹

That is the Daytime Season. In the Nighttime Season:

Predator call: Must possess manual or electronic call.²

Combine that with “Manner: Standing and calling only”² and New Jersey has effectively defined the lawful night coyote hunt as a calling hunt: you must be equipped to call and you may not do anything else.

Are decoys allowed for coyote hunting in New Jersey?

Yes in both seasons, but not live ones:

Decoys: Allowed (no live decoys)¹²

Is baiting allowed for coyote hunting in New Jersey?

By day yes, at a distance. At night, no.

Daytime Season:

Bait: Min. 300’ when in tree stand/ground blind. Baiting not allowed on National Wildlife Refuges.¹

So the bait may be out, but you must be at least 300 feet from it if you are in a stand or a blind. That is a deliberate design: it separates the hunter from the pile rather than banning the pile.

Nighttime Season:

Bait: Prohibited.²

On national wildlife refuges, baiting and hunting over bait are prohibited outright, and there is no Sunday hunting on those lands.⁸

Can you use dogs to hunt coyotes in New Jersey?

Yes by day, all season. No at night.

Dogs: Allowed Sept. 8, 2026–Mar. 15, 2027 (except Dec. 7–12 & 16, 2026)¹

The excepted days are the six-day firearm deer season and one more deer day. Dogs are prohibited in the Nighttime Season.²

That is a real change for hound hunters. The old permit season banned dogs from January on; under the 2026 code you can run hounds with a rifle in the daylight right through March 15.

The general dog rules apply on top: allowing dogs to run at large is prohibited, and dogs may be trained without firearms in daylight at any time except during any open firearm deer season.¹¹

The digest names running with hounds as a lawful manner in the Daytime Season, “Running with hounds, stalking or stand and call,”¹ which makes New Jersey one of the few Northeast states that positively contemplates hound hunting for coyotes.

Property, access & methods in New Jersey

Can you hunt coyotes from a motorized vehicle in New Jersey?

No, and New Jersey’s vehicle rules go further than most.

[It is unlawful to] Possess or discharge a loaded firearm from in, or on, any vehicle, moving or stationary, including ATVs. Such possession is considered proof of pursuing or taking wildlife.¹²

Read that second sentence twice. A loaded gun in the truck is not merely an offense in itself; it is evidence that you were hunting, which pulls in every other rule that applies to hunting at that moment.

Also prohibited: transporting an uncased firearm in or on a motor vehicle or ATV; transporting a cocked crossbow in or on a vehicle; discharging a bow from any vehicle, moving or stationary; and hunting or shooting with the aid of a light attached to or carried in a vehicle.¹²

Drones are prohibited for hunting purposes.¹²

A permit exists to shoot from a standing vehicle for hunters with permanent disabling conditions.⁵

Is it legal to shoot coyotes on private property in New Jersey?

Yes with permission, and in New Jersey the permission has to be in writing and in your pocket.

The firearm SAFETY ZONE is the area within 450 feet of a building or school playground, even if not occupied. For bowhunters, the SAFETY ZONE around buildings is 150 feet but remains 450 feet from a school playground.¹⁴

No firearm hunter or trapper may hunt or carry a loaded firearm within 450 feet of a school playground or any building (even if unoccupied) without written permission, in possession, from the landowner or lessee.¹⁴

Three things follow.

“Even if unoccupied” is the phrase that matters. A derelict barn or an empty summer cabin creates a 450-foot circle exactly as an occupied house does.

The written permission must be carried. Not obtained: carried, while hunting or trapping.¹⁴

Bowhunters inside 150 feet must shoot downward. “Persons authorized to bow hunt within 150 feet of a building must hunt from an elevated position to shoot down toward the ground.”¹⁴

Shooting into a safety zone is prohibited regardless of where you are standing.¹⁴

In a state with New Jersey’s building density, the 450-foot circles are the map. Draw them before you plan a stand.

Can you hunt coyotes on public land in New Jersey?

Yes, on wildlife management areas and other public ground, but not with a rifle in the fall:

Between Sept. 8 and Dec. 31, 2026, rifle use for coyote and fox is prohibited on all State WMAs, Parks and Forests & Recreation Areas.¹

So until the end of December, public land is a shotgun, bow and air gun proposition.

Sunday hunting is prohibited in NJ State Parks and Forests,⁸ on top of the statewide Sunday firearm closure.

On pheasant and quail stocked WMAs, a solid hunter orange hat with no camouflage is required as part of the 200 square inch orange requirement when hunting small game with a firearm.¹

On national wildlife refuges, baiting and hunting over bait are prohibited and there is no Sunday hunting.⁸

Is it legal to trap or snare coyotes in New Jersey?

Trapping yes, on a trapping license and trapper education. New Jersey’s trap law is among the most restrictive in the country and rules out the leghold entirely.

New Jersey prohibits the manufacture, sale, possession, import and use of animal traps of the steel-jaw leghold type.³ The coyote trapper’s tool is the cable restraint, built to the Division’s specification: aircraft cable or crucible wire between 5/64 and 3/16 inch, a swivel, a relaxing lock and a deer stop, with a loop no wider than 12 inches. Carry your Snare Course Completion Card whenever you use one.³

The 2026–27 coyote and fox trapping season runs November 15, 2026 to March 15, 2027 statewide, except that on stocked WMAs it opens January 1.³

Trapper education is required: a first-time trapping license needs a trapper education course completion card.³

A Rifle Permit is required to possess a rifle while trapping, not only while hunting,⁵ which catches the trapper who carries a .22 to dispatch.

And the Sunday exception exists here and nowhere else: the Sunday firearm prohibition does not apply “when using a .22 rifle for dispatching trapped animals.”⁸ Checking a trapline on a Sunday with a .22 is lawful; hunting with it is not.

Is it legal to poison coyotes in New Jersey?

No. New Jersey publishes no provision permitting the poisoning of wild mammals, and poison appears nowhere among the legal methods of take for coyote or fox in either season.¹³

The legal-methods lists in the digest are closed lists, with weapon, ammunition, manner and method each specified, and anything not on them is not authorized.¹

Are there protected areas or additional local restrictions in New Jersey?

Yes, and the safety zone is the biggest of them. The 450-foot firearm zone around every building in the most densely populated state in the union removes more ground than any other single rule on this page.¹⁴

Statewide: no Sunday firearm hunting;⁸ no rifles for coyote or fox on state WMAs, parks, forests and recreation areas from September 8 to December 31;¹ no baiting or Sunday hunting on national wildlife refuges;⁸ and the drone and vehicle prohibitions.¹²

Municipal ordinances are the layer to check. New Jersey’s 564 municipalities regulate firearm discharge locally and the Division does not collect those rules. Ring the municipal clerk before hunting new ground.

Can you use two-way radios while coyote hunting in New Jersey?

Yes. NJ Fish & Wildlife’s Hunting and Trapping Digest does not restrict two-way radios or cell phones for coyote hunting, the night season included.

After the shot in New Jersey

Are there regulations for possessing or transporting dead coyotes or pelts out of New Jersey?

Yes, and New Jersey’s reporting deadline is the tightest in the Northeast:

Harvest Reporting of Coyote AND Gray Fox is REQUIRED by 10 p.m. on the day of harvest.¹

Not 24 hours, not 48 hours: 10 p.m. the same day. That matters most in the night season, because a coyote killed after 10 p.m. has missed the deadline the moment it hits the ground.

The digest’s answer for that case:

If a coyote or fox is harvested after 10 p.m., and the hunter is unable to report it by the designated time, the hunter shall immediately report the harvest by calling the nearest NJDEP Fish & Wildlife Law Enforcement Regional office and then report that harvest using AHRS the next day.²

So a late kill means a phone call to Law Enforcement that night and the online report the next day. Report by phone on (855) 448-6865 or online.¹⁰

Can you sell coyote pelts in New Jersey, and do you need a fur handler’s license?

Pelt sales in New Jersey run through the fur dealer licensing framework in the Division’s trapping rules, which govern who may buy and deal in raw furs.³

A hunter or trapper selling their own lawfully taken pelts to a licensed dealer is the ordinary transaction; dealing in raw furs as a business is what requires the license.

There is no coyote pelt tag or seal in New Jersey, unlike Connecticut and Massachusetts next door. What New Jersey requires instead is the same-day harvest report.¹

Is there a coyote bounty program in New Jersey?

No. New Jersey has no coyote bounty. The state manages the coyote through structured day and night seasons and mandatory same-day harvest reporting, and the reporting requirement gives the Division the harvest data a bounty would otherwise buy.¹

Are coyote contests legal in New Jersey, or can I hunt in New Jersey for an out-of-state contest?

New Jersey has not prohibited predator hunting contests. Neither the coyote and fox provisions nor the general hunting regulations contain any reference to contests, competitions or tournaments.¹¹¹

But the practical obstacles here are unusually high, and they are the reason New Jersey has not needed a ban:

No Sunday. A weekend contest is a one-day contest.

Same-day reporting by 10 p.m. Every animal is on the record before a weigh-in.

The night season is standing-and-calling only with no dogs and no bait, and outside January to March there are no legal night hours at all.

Written landowner permission carried on the person inside every 450-foot building zone.

A contest built to satisfy all of that would look very little like the events that prompted bans elsewhere.

On the out-of-state question, nothing in New Jersey law prevents an animal lawfully taken here from being entered elsewhere, but three of New Jersey’s neighbors have contest bans of their own, and the destination state’s rules govern.

Coyotes in New Jersey

Are there coyotes in New Jersey? How many, and where?

In nearly every municipality in the state, and they have been here longer than most people think:

The first known record of a coyote in New Jersey was near Lambertville, Hunterdon County, in 1939, and coyotes have since been documented in nearly 400 municipalities across all 21 counties, about 94% of the state’s land area.¹⁵

That makes New Jersey’s coyote colonization both earlier and more complete than its reputation suggests. The Division does not publish a headcount, which is consistent with every other state on this site.

Size: adult coyotes in New Jersey range from 20 to 50 pounds, with exceptionally large animals up to about 55 pounds.¹⁵

The wide bottom end of that range is worth noting for a hunter used to New England: a 20-pound New Jersey coyote is a smaller target than the 40-pound Massachusetts average, and the state’s ammunition rules are built for close, frangible work.

Are New Jersey coyotes dangerous to people or pets?

To people, very rarely. To pets and small livestock the risk is the usual one and it is concentrated on the suburban edge, which in New Jersey is most of the state.

The regulatory picture reflects the same judgment. New Jersey gives the coyote a real season, no bag limit, a night season and a same-day reporting duty: the profile of a species being managed with data rather than suppressed.

When is coyote mating season in New Jersey, and when do pups arrive?

Pups arrive in April and early May after about nine weeks of gestation, in litters that run from three to nine and average about six.¹⁵

Working back from that, breeding falls in February, which sits squarely inside the night season: the ten and a half weeks New Jersey opens to the night are the weeks coyotes are most vocal, most territorial and most responsive to a call.

The season closes on March 15, before the pups are born. That is not an accident of drafting.

When are coyotes most active in New Jersey?

Dusk to dawn, with the usual daylight movement in spring and summer while pups are being fed, which in New Jersey falls outside the season entirely.

The practical New Jersey pattern is this. From September to December you are hunting daylight, with a rifle off public land, with hounds, or over bait at 300 feet. From January 1 the night opens with no purchase, and the night is a standing, calling, shotgun hunt with a light, inside forty yards, on ground where every building is the center of a 450-foot circle.

It is a demanding way to hunt coyotes and it produces some of the closest work anywhere in the country.

For the full breakdown of season, weather and moon phase, see when to hunt coyotes.

Anything else worth noting about coyote hunting in New Jersey

New Jersey is the most rule-dense coyote state on this site, and almost all of the density is in one table. Learn which of the two seasons you are in and the rest follows.

Seven things:

There is no coyote permit any more. The $2 Special Coyote & Fox Permit was eliminated in 2026. A hunting license covers both seasons; a rifle still needs a Rifle Permit.

By day you get the rifle, the hounds and the bait, all season. At night you get a shotgun, a call and a light.

Night is shotgun only, 10 or 12 gauge, #4 fine to #3 buckshot. No rifle, no 20 gauge.

You must possess a predator call at night, and you may only stand and call.

Report coyote and gray fox by 10 p.m. the same day. Every animal, every season.

No rifle on state WMAs, parks or forests from September 8 to December 31, and three rounds in any gun, any time.

Carry written landowner permission for anywhere inside 450 feet of any building, occupied or not.

And one dated caution. The dates on this page are the 2026–27 digest’s, the first under the new Game Code. From 2027 the Daytime Season is set to open on August 1; check the current digest before the season opens.

Is it legal to own a coyote as a pet in New Jersey?

No. New Jersey regulates the possession of wildlife through the Division’s exotic and non-game species permit framework, and native predators are not species a private individual may keep as a pet. Permits exist for scientific, exhibition, educational and rehabilitation purposes.

The coyote is a game species with a declared season here,¹ and the Division’s importation and possession rules do not provide a route to keeping one.

If you have found an orphaned pup, contact NJ Fish & Wildlife on 609-292-2965 or a licensed wildlife rehabilitator rather than keeping it.

Know something we missed? Contact me and I’ll get it fixed.