Coyote Hunting New Hampshire, Laws, Regulations, Season, & License Info

Coyote classification & license in New Hampshire

What is the classification of coyotes in New Hampshire?

A fur-bearing animal, by statutory definition:

Fur-Bearing Animals: Beaver, otter, marten, sable, mink, fisher or fisher cat, raccoon, bobcat, fox, coyote, opossum, weasel, skunk, and muskrat.¹

And expressly not a game animal:

Game Animals: Moose, bear, caribou, elk, deer, wild rabbit, hare and gray squirrel.¹

Do not read too much into either label, and here is the trap. New Hampshire’s coyote night hunting statute sits in RSA chapter 208, titled “Game Animals,” under a subheading reading “Moose, Caribou, Elk, Mountain Lion, Canadian Lynx, Coyote.”² The chapter placement contradicts the definition, and the definition is what governs.

More importantly, the classification does no scoping work here. New Hampshire writes its central restriction against wildlife:

Wildlife shall be taken in the daytime between 1/2 hour before sunrise and 1/2 hour after sunset…³

Every limit in that section — the daylight rule, the six-round semi-automatic cap, the full-metal-jacket ban, the full-automatic ban — is written the same way. There is no category for a coyote to sit outside of. What the coyote gets instead is its own rule, Fis 303.06, which grants back a night season on stated conditions.

Are coyotes protected in New Hampshire?

No closed season and no bag limit for hunting:

Coyote — No closed season; Night hunting allowed, Jan. 1–Mar. 31. Daily limit: No. Season limit: No.⁴

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

Yes — and the cheap license is the wrong one. This is the opposite of the answer in Maine next door:

To hunt for furbearers, hunters must have a current Regular N.H. Hunting, Combination, or Archery License. A Small Game License does not allow for the hunting of furbearers.⁴

The resident Regular Hunting License is $32.00; the Regular Combination Hunting and Fishing License is $56.00, and a senior license for those 68 and over is $7.00.⁵

An annual habitat fee of $2.50 is charged once per year per hunter on top, plus transaction fees.⁵

To hunt at night you need no extra state permit — but you do need the landowner permit described under night hunting, and that is not something you buy.

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?

Yes, or proof you have held a license before. Every hunting license row in the fee table carries the same condition: “Previous Hunting license or Hunter Education card required.”⁵

An archery license requires a previous archery license or a bowhunter or combined hunter/bow education card.⁵

Can a non-resident hunt coyotes in New Hampshire?

Yes. The non-resident Regular Hunting License is $113.00, and the Regular Combination Hunting and Fishing License is $151.00.⁵

The night rules apply identically — and for a non-resident the landowner permit requirement is the binding constraint, because it cannot be arranged from out of state on the day. See night hunting.

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 & bag limits in New Hampshire

What is the season for coyote hunting in New Hampshire?

Two seasons, and the night one is short.

The rule states it directly:

(a) Coyote may be taken by use of firearm, crossbow, or bow and arrow year round ½ hour before sunrise to ½ hour after sunset. (b) Coyote may be taken by hunting at night in accordance with RSA 208:1-e and as follows: (1) The open season shall be from January 1 through March 31…⁶

Three months is the narrowest night window of the three New England states with one — Maine runs eight and a half months, and Vermont has no general night season at all.

What is the bag limit for coyotes in New Hampshire?

No daily limit and no season limit.⁴

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

By day: ½ hour before sunrise to ½ hour after sunset, which is both the general furbearer hunting hours rule and the statutory default for all wildlife.⁴³

By night, during the 1 January – 31 March season: whatever hours the landowner wrote on your permit. New Hampshire delegates this, and it is the single most unusual provision on this page — see night hunting.

Sunday hunting is legal in New Hampshire. There is no Sunday prohibition in RSA chapter 207 or in the Fis rules, which is worth knowing if you are coming from Maine or Massachusetts, where it is banned outright.

Can you hunt coyotes during deer or big game season?

Yes by day — the daytime coyote season is continuous and runs through every other season.

By night the seasons barely overlap, because the coyote night season opens on 1 January, after the firearm deer season has closed.

Note that during the deer season you may be inside the towns with special rules, which restrict what you can carry — and those same restrictions govern your night hunting all year. See firearms.

Night hunting in New Hampshire

Can you hunt coyotes at night in New Hampshire?

Yes, from 1 January to 31 March, and the paperwork is the hard part.

The statute creates the season by delegation:

The executive director of fish and game, with the consent of the commission, shall establish, by rules adopted under RSA 541-A, a night hunting season for coyote. Such rules shall include, but not be limited to, the method and manner of taking, reporting requirements, length of the season and requirements for landowner permission.²

The rule then requires the permit:

Any person hunting coyote at night shall obtain a written landowner permit described in Fis 1102.11 for the property on which he or she takes or attempts to take coyote…⁶

And here is what Fis 1102.11 actually demands. Read item (6) twice:

(a) Properly licensed hunters may hunt coyote at night on lands other than their own after obtaining written permission from the landowner or occupant of the land where the hunting shall be done… (c) The permittee shall provide the following: (1) Name and address of the permittee; (2) Name and address of the landowner or occupant; (3) Town and location of the land being hunted upon; (4) Date issued by the landowner or occupant; (5) Signature of the landowner or occupant; and (6) The hours that coyote can be hunted at night, specified by the landowner.

(d) Permits shall be in duplicate with the original mailed to the conservation officer assigned the town where the hunting for coyote at night is to be done. The copy shall be retained on the hunter’s person while hunting coyote at night.⁷

Four things follow from that, and none of them are obvious.

Your hours are private law. If the landowner writes “8pm to midnight,” hunting that ground at 1am is a violation even though the state season is open. There is no statewide closing time to fall back on.

The permit is per-property. Three farms means three permits and three envelopes.

It must actually be mailed, to the right officer. The original goes to the conservation officer assigned to that town. Filing it late, or with the wrong district, is not a technicality — it is the condition the rule attaches.

Blank forms come from Fish and Game. Do not draft your own; the department issues the form.⁷

Plan this in December. A non-resident who turns up on 2 January without a filed permit cannot legally hunt that night.

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

Yes during the night season, with one exclusion — and the structure is a prohibition with a carve-out, not a general permission.

The general rule bans the light outright:

No person shall possess, while hunting or trapping any wild bird, or wild animal, including bear, any snare, jack or artificial light, swivel, pivot or set gun, except as otherwise permitted.⁸

Fis 303.06 is the “otherwise permitted”:

Artificial lights, except lights from a motor vehicle or OHRV or snowmobile, may be used to illuminate coyotes.⁶

So the light is lawful only because the coyote rule says so, only in the 1 January – 31 March window, and never off a vehicle, OHRV or snowmobile.

The digest spells out both halves of the prohibition, and they are separate offences. The first is about carrying a weapon while lighting:

[It is prohibited to] Possess a firearm with ammunition, bow and arrow, or crossbow and bolt while attempting to locate or illuminate wild animals at night at any time of the year, except while coyote night hunting from January 1–March 31, raccoon hunting, or checking traps at night.⁹

The second bans the light on its own for four months, weapon or no weapon:

[It is prohibited to] Illuminate wild animals from Sept. 1 through Dec. 31.⁹

There is a narrow carve-out for viewing moose in Coos County between 9 a.m. and 11 p.m. from 1 September through the second Monday of October.⁹

So autumn scouting with a spotlight is unlawful in New Hampshire, even unarmed, and even though the coyote season is open by day. The lawful window for putting a light on a coyote is the same three months as the night season.

The penalty for getting this wrong is unusually harsh, and it is a forfeiture:

Any person convicted of illegal night hunting shall forfeit such firearms, jacks or other equipment used or usable in the illegal night hunting at the time of the violation. Prohibited articles, upon conviction… shall become the property of the fish and game department, and shall be sold at auction.⁸

Note “or usable.” A conviction can cost you the rifle and the optic, not just a fine.

Can you use night vision in New Hampshire?

New Hampshire has not legislated on it, and this is an exhaustively searched answer rather than an assumption.

Checked, in order:

• RSA 207:3, lawful methods of taking, which governs firearms, ammunition and hours for all wildlife — no optics provision.³
• RSA 207:10, prohibited devices, which lists exactly what you may not possess while hunting: a snare, jack or artificial light, swivel, pivot or set gun. A passive optic is none of those.⁸
• Fis 303.06, the coyote rule itself, which names artificial lights and electronic calls as permitted and says nothing about optics.⁶
• The whole of the Fis 300 rules — the hunting and furbearer chapters — and the whole of the Fis 1100 rules on licenses and permits. The words “thermal,” “night vision,” “infrared” and “image intensifier” appear nowhere in either.⁶⁷
• The 2025–26 Hunting Digest, cover to cover, which carries no optics restriction of any kind.⁴

Two cautions before you act on that. RSA 207:10 works by prohibiting a listed set of devices, and Fis 303.06(b) works by enumerating what may be used at night — a reader could argue that an enumerated list of permitted methods is meant to be exhaustive. And an absence is not a permission: nobody in Concord has written this down, so it can move in one rulemaking cycle.

Call NH Fish and Game at 603-271-3421 before you spend the money, and remember the forfeiture provision above if you get it wrong.

Can you use thermal in New Hampshire?

The same answer and the same search — see night vision above, because New Hampshire addresses neither.

One point of reasoning does favor thermal here, and it is worth understanding. RSA 207:10 prohibits possessing a “jack or artificial light.” A thermal imager is not a light — it emits nothing and illuminates nothing. So it sits outside the words of the prohibition in a way that is cleaner than for an image intensifier paired with an infrared illuminator, which does cast rays even if you cannot see them.

That is an argument about statutory language, not a ruling. New Hampshire has not confirmed it, and unlike Maine it has not defined night vision equipment to include thermal either. Make the call.

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

Yes, in about fifty-five towns, and this is the provision most likely to catch a hunter in the populated southeast.

In towns restricted to weapon types pursuant to RSA 208:3, 208:3-b, and 208:3-c, only pistols permitted under RSA 208:3-d, .17 and .22 caliber rimfire rifles, shotguns, muzzleloading rifles, crossbow, or bow and arrow shall be permitted for the taking of coyote at night.⁶

Read what is missing: the centerfire rifle. In a special-rules town, your .223 is out after dark and you are down to a rimfire, a shotgun, a muzzleloader or a bow.

These are the same towns that restrict deer hunting weapons, and they cover most of the Merrimack Valley and the Seacoast:

Firearms, ammunition & suppressors in New Hampshire

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

By day, a short positive list:

Coyote may be taken by use of firearm, crossbow, or bow and arrow year round ½ hour before sunrise to ½ hour after sunset.⁶

Air rifles are out. The digest is explicit that “furbearers shall not be taken with an air rifle,”⁴ which is notable because New Hampshire otherwise permits air rifles for small game and even for deer, bear and moose at specified energies.³

By night in a special-rules town, see above.

Are suppressors allowed for coyote hunting in New Hampshire?

Yes, and as in Maine the change came by repeal. The prohibition on using a silencing device to take wildlife was at RSA 207:4, which now reads simply:

207:4 Repealed by 2016, 234:2, I, eff. June 10, 2016.¹⁰

Nothing replaced it, and the words “suppressor” and “silencer” appear nowhere in the Fis 300 or Fis 1100 rules.⁶

Federal requirements are unchanged: ATF Form 4, a $200 stamp and the wait.

Are there any ammunition restrictions?

Yes, and this one reaches coyotes where in most states it would not:

A full jacketed metal case bullet shall not be used, either in its original form or any alteration thereof.³

Note the scope. That sentence sits in RSA 207:3, which governs the taking of wildlife. It is not a deer restriction, and there is no classification that removes the coyote from it. Military-surplus ball ammunition is illegal for coyote hunting in New Hampshire.

The exception in paragraph III covers .22 or smaller caliber rimfire firearms only.³

Can you hunt using a .22 LR or other rimfire cartridge?

Yes, and in New Hampshire the rimfire carries two legal advantages nowhere else on this page: it is exempt from both the six-round cap and the full-metal-jacket ban,³ and a .17 or .22 rimfire rifle is one of the few things you may use at night in a special-rules town.⁶

It is still a marginal cartridge on a 40-pound eastern coyote. Use it where the law leaves you no better option, not by preference.

Is there a magazine capacity limit for hunting coyotes in New Hampshire?

Yes — six rounds in a semi-automatic rifle:

A full automatic rifle shall not be used at any time. A semi-automatic rifle may be used provided it is loaded with no more than 6 rounds of ammunition at any time.³

The digest renders the same rule as a prohibition on hunting “with a semi-automatic rifle loaded with more than six cartridges (except rimfire rifles and pistols).”¹¹

Read the wording carefully, because it differs from Maine’s. New Hampshire limits how the rifle is loaded, not the capacity of the magazine you own — there is no requirement to permanently alter anything. A standard AR-15 is lawful for coyotes in New Hampshire provided you never have more than six rounds in it.

The exception is again .22 or smaller rimfire.³

Calls, decoys, bait & dogs in New Hampshire

Are electronic calls allowed for coyote hunting in New Hampshire?

Yes, expressly. Fis 303.06 names them among the things permitted at night — “Electronic calling devices may be used”⁶ — and the digest repeats it for coyote hunting generally.⁴

Are decoys allowed for coyote hunting in New Hampshire?

Yes. Nothing in RSA 207:3, RSA 207:10 or Fis 303.06 restricts a predator decoy, and the prohibited-devices list names specific mechanical devices rather than decoys.⁸

Is baiting allowed for coyote hunting in New Hampshire?

Yes — coyote is one of the few animals New Hampshire lets you bait, and the process is as formal as the night permit.

The statute authorizes it: “Coyote may be taken from baited areas pursuant to RSA 207:3-d.”²

What RSA 207:3-d requires:

No person shall engage in the act of baiting on the property of another unless he has secured from the owner or occupant of the property… a permit in writing, signed by the owner or occupant, and until he has filed a copy of the permit with the conservation officer in whose district the person plans to bait, together with a topographic map or copy thereof showing the specific location of the bait site.¹²

Notwithstanding the provisions of this section, no person shall place bait less than 300 feet from a dwelling or public roadway, pathway or trail.¹²

What the rules add:

• A closed season on baiting itself: no baiting of furbearing or game animals from 15 April to 31 August.¹³
• Apply from 1 December for permits to bait coyote for the year following, and submit two completed signed copies with a map to Fish and Game in Concord.¹³
• No baiting on ice-covered public waters.⁶
• A meat-only window: from the close of the bear baiting season through 15 December, baiting for coyote is restricted to meat, animal parts, carrion or fish.⁴

Note the 300-foot rule is the one that quietly rules out most suburban and roadside sites.

Can you use dogs to hunt coyotes in New Hampshire?

Yes by day. The statute permits it generally — “A person may take wildlife during the open season therefor with the aid of a dog, unless otherwise specifically prohibited”³ — and Fis 303.06 does not prohibit it for coyote.

At night the rule permits only lights and electronic calls, and does not extend to dogs; treat hounds as a daylight method here.⁶

A resident Dog Training Permit is $5.00 and requires a current NH Regular Hunting license.⁵

Private property, vehicles & public land access in New Hampshire

Is it legal to shoot coyotes on private property (e.g. in your backyard) in New Hampshire?

On rural private land by day, yes, subject to the town’s special rules and to local ordinances.

By night on your own land the landowner permit problem solves itself — Fis 1102.11 requires the written permit for hunting “on lands other than their own.”⁷ A landowner hunting their own ground at night is inside the season without the paperwork.

New Hampshire also requires landowner permission for placing game cameras, tree stands and blinds, and for entering posted land, with permission expiring on 31 December annually unless extended.¹¹

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

No:

[It is prohibited to] Hunt from inside of, or upon, any type of motorized vehicle, including aircraft, motor vehicle, snowmobile, or OHRV.¹¹

And separately, the coyote rule bars using a light from a motor vehicle, OHRV or snowmobile even where the light itself is lawful.⁶

Loaded rifles may not be carried in moving vehicles except in specified circumstances.¹¹

Can you hunt coyotes on public land in New Hampshire?

Yes. New Hampshire has a large public land base — White Mountain National Forest, state forests and reservations, and WMA lands — and no separate public-land coyote season, permit or bag limit.

The night season is where public land gets awkward, and it is worth being blunt about it. Fis 1102.11 requires a written permit from “the landowner or occupant of the land where the hunting shall be done,” with the landowner specifying your hours.⁷ On public ground there is no landowner to sign a form in the ordinary sense. Before planning a night hunt on public land, ask the conservation officer for that town how the permit requirement is satisfied there — this is a question the published rules do not answer, and the officer receiving your permit is the right person to ask.

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

Yes, in a dated season set by wildlife management unit:

The open season for taking coyotes by traps shall be: (1) October 15 through March 31 in WMUs A, B, C, D, E and F; and (2) November 1 through March 31 in WMUs G, H, I, J, K, L and M.⁶

A resident Trapping License is $36.00, or $6.50 for a resident minor.⁵ Bait may be placed under a trapping license subject to the landowner permit rules in RSA 210:11.¹²

Look hard at those two date ranges, because they are not arbitrary. The units that open two weeks earlier — A, B, C, D, E and F — are the northern and White Mountains units, and they are very nearly the same units that make up the Lynx Protection Zone. The longer season and the stricter trap rules cover the same ground. See what changes inside the lynx zone.

The statewide trapping rules, which the digest prints in full:¹⁴

• Check every set trap once each calendar day. Beaver through the ice is the only exception, at once every 72 hours.
• No foothold trap with auxiliary teeth, anywhere.
• No foothold with an inside jaw spread over 6½ inches set on land.
• Body-gripping traps of 6½ inches or more may only be set five feet or more above the ground or snow — excepting a snowstorm in the previous 24 hours — or in water for beaver or otter.
• No trap within 50 feet of exposed bait. Covered bait carries no setback, and the digest defines both terms at length: bait is “exposed” if it is visible from above, and cover has to “withstand wind and normal environmental conditions.”
• Deadfalls are prohibited.
• No setting before the first day of the open season, and no trap in or under a bridge, ditch or drainage inside a public highway right-of-way without the executive director’s permission.
• File the Annual Trapper’s Report by 30 April, whether or not you trapped.

And one rule that will catch a coyote hunter who traps, because it reaches into the night. Lights may be used to check traps, but not from a vehicle — and while checking traps at night:

no person shall have in possession a rifle, revolver, or pistol larger than a .22 caliber long rifle, air rifle larger than .25 caliber, or a shotgun with shells larger than number 4 birdshot.¹⁴

That is the opposite of what you carry to hunt coyotes at night here. Running a trapline and a night hunt on the same outing is not a thing New Hampshire lets you do with one rifle in the truck.

Trapping state-managed land needs a permit, and the window is rare. They are issued by lottery every two years, in even years only, and are valid for two years. The next lottery is September 2026.¹⁴

What changes inside the Lynx Protection Zone?

Fish and Game drew this zone for exactly the sets you are making, and says so:

Canada lynx are a federally listed Threatened Species. There is no open season for the trapping or hunting of lynx in New Hampshire. Fish and Game biologists have confirmed the presence of reproducing lynx in northern New Hampshire. To protect the lynx, and to help N.H. trappers avoid accidentally taking lynx, Fish and Game worked with the N.H. Trappers Association to delineate a lynx protection zone in the northern and White Mountains area where special regulations are in effect.¹⁵

It covers WMUs A, B, C1, C2, D1, D2-east, E and F. Inside it, three extra rules apply on top of everything above:¹⁵

• Every foothold trap set on land needs two swivels — “one swivel in the chain/cable and one swivel connection to the trap.”
• Body-gripping traps between 4 and 5 inches, set on the ground, may only be set in water at all times, under overhanging stream banks, and as a blind set with no bait or attractant. That last clause removes the ordinary coyote set entirely.
• Body-gripping traps of 4 inches or more set off the ground must be five feet or more up, on a leaning pole or tree no more than 4 inches in diameter, free of branches, angled at 45 degrees or more — with a four-foot clearance around the trap from other trees, poles, banks, bluffs and rocks.

Traps over 5 and under 6½ inches set on the ground need either a wire-meshed nuisance den entry or a lynx exclusion device, and the device is specified down to the joint: no opening larger than 6 × 8 inches, the opening on the top or side rather than in front, the trap at least 18 inches back from the nearest edge of the opening, two attachment points per jointed side, 16-gauge or heavier mesh at 1½-inch openings or less, and the trap anchored outside the device.¹⁵

If you catch one, report it immediately — 603-271-3361 on business days, or the nearest Conservation Officer outside those hours.¹⁶ The same duty covers American marten.

Is it legal to poison coyotes in New Hampshire?

No. Poison is not among the lawful methods of taking in RSA 207:3, which permits only firearms, muzzleloaders, air rifles, bows and crossbows,³ and RSA 207:10 prohibits set guns and similar devices.⁸ Nothing authorizes a toxicant for coyote control by a private individual.

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

Yes, four kinds:

• Towns with special rules, which restrict weapon types and, at night, remove the centerfire rifle. The full list is above.⁶
• The 300-foot bait setback from dwellings, public roadways, pathways and trails.¹²
• Posted land, which requires landowner permission to enter.¹¹
• Municipal ordinances on discharging firearms, which sit outside the digest.

After the shot: pelts, bounties & contests in New Hampshire

Are there regulations for possessing or transporting dead coyotes or pelts across state lines?

Yes, and there is a reporting requirement that is easy to miss because it is recent.

New for 2025, hunters are required to register all furbearing animals taken by hunting by completing an online registration report… Once the registration process is complete, hunters will receive a confirmation number that must be written or kept within their hunting license.⁴

That covers coyote, and there are two details on it that the digest wording does not make obvious.

It is hunting only. NH Fish and Game is explicit that trapped animals go through the existing trapping reporting instead: “Furbearers taken by trapping or killed by landowners in the protection of property should not be registered using this link. There are existing reporting mechanisms for those methods of take.”¹⁷

And you have 24 hours. The agency states the deadline plainly — “hunters are required within 24 hours to register all furbearer species taken by hunting” — which the digest paragraph above does not say.¹⁷ The confirmation number then has to travel with your license.

Coyote is not among the species requiring physical sealing — that regime is for fisher, bobcat and marten.⁴

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

Selling your own lawfully taken pelts is permitted. Buying them commercially is not, without a Fur Buyer License, which is $50.00 for a resident.⁵ Fur dealer records are regulated under Fis 303.09.⁶

New Hampshire coyotes carry good northern fur, and a January to March pelt — which is exactly the night season — is the best of the year.

Is there a coyote bounty program in New Hampshire?

No. New Hampshire has no coyote bounty. The coyote is managed as a fur-bearing animal with no closed season and no bag limit, which is the state’s answer instead of a payment scheme.

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

New Hampshire has not prohibited predator hunting contests. RSA 207:3, RSA 207:10, RSA 208:1-e and the Fis 300 rules contain no reference to contests, competitions or tournaments.³⁸²⁶

Two constraints make organizing one here genuinely difficult, though. A night round requires every participant to hold a filed landowner permit for the specific ground they hunt, with hours set by that landowner — which is not something a contest organizer can arrange centrally. And in the southeastern special-rules towns the centerfire rifle is off the table after dark.

A daylight round in the north country is the straightforward option.

Coyotes in New Hampshire

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

Yes, statewide. The eastern coyote reached New Hampshire in the mid-twentieth century and now occupies every part of the state, from the Connecticut River valley and the north country to the suburbs of Nashua and Portsmouth.

The season table’s “no closed season, no limit” in every unit reflects an established, secure population rather than a managed one.⁴

These are large animals. New Hampshire’s coyotes are eastern coyotes carrying wolf ancestry picked up during the species’ expansion around the Great Lakes and through Canada, and they run substantially heavier than western coyotes — commonly 30 to 45 pounds, occasionally more.

New Hampshire takes the identification question seriously enough to publish on it. There is no established wolf population in the state and no open season on wolf, but Fish and Game’s own guidance tells hunters to “know the difference between lynx and bobcat AND wolf and coyote,” and points to an identification brochure.¹⁶ Given the size of the eastern coyote here, that is not an idle caution.

There is also no open season on Canada lynx, which is listed as endangered in New Hampshire, and any lynx trapped must be reported immediately.¹⁶⁶

Are New Hampshire coyotes dangerous to people or pets?

To people, very rarely. To pets and small livestock the risk is real, and it is concentrated where the state’s population is — the Merrimack Valley and the Seacoast, which are also the towns where your weapon options are most restricted.

The eastern coyote’s size means an unattended small dog is genuinely at risk, more so than in states with smaller western animals.

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

Breeding runs late January into February, with pups born in April.

That lands the breeding season squarely inside the 1 January – 31 March night season, which is not an accident of drafting so much as a happy one: the three months New Hampshire opens to night hunting are the three months when coyotes are most vocal, most territorial and most responsive to a call — and when the fur is prime.

When are coyotes most active in New Hampshire?

First and last light year-round, with heavy nocturnal movement. In January the sun sets before 16:30, so the legal night season opens onto very long nights — assuming your landowner permit allows the hours.

Snow makes New Hampshire a good state for reading sign before committing to a stand, which matters more here than in states where you can simply cover ground.

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

These answers get re-checked before they go stale. The verification date at the top of the page is the record of when that last happened, not decoration.

Anything else worth noting about coyote hunting in New Hampshire

New Hampshire is a good coyote state with a small amount of paperwork standing between you and the best three months of it. The paperwork is the part people skip.

Six things to get right:

The landowner sets your hours. Item (6) on the night permit form. There is no statewide closing time behind it, so the form is the law for that property.

Mail the original, carry the copy. In duplicate, to the conservation officer for that town. One permit per property.

Buy the Regular license, not the small game license. A small game license does not allow furbearer hunting, and the coyote is a furbearer.

No full metal jacket, six rounds in a semi-auto. Both written against “wildlife,” so both reach the coyote. Rimfire under .22 is exempt from each.

Check whether you are in a special-rules town. If you are, the centerfire rifle is out at night and you are down to rimfire, shotgun, muzzleloader or a bow.

Register the animal. Online, within the furbearer reporting system, confirmation number kept with your license.

One caution on this page’s sources. New Hampshire’s digest edition runs September 2025 to August 2026 and expires at the end of this month; the 2026–27 edition had not been published when this page was checked. The statutes and the Fis rules cited here are the durable authority and none of them were amended for 2026, but re-check the digest-sourced items — fees especially — once the new edition appears.

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

No. New Hampshire regulates the possession of wildlife in captivity through Fish and Game permits, and the coyote is not an animal a private individual may keep as a pet. Permits exist for rehabilitation, exhibition and scientific purposes rather than for pets.

If you have found an orphaned pup, contact NH Fish and Game at 603-271-3421 or a licensed wildlife rehabilitator rather than keeping it.

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