Archery season on the Island and across the state began Monday and ends Nov. 28. Hunting hours begin 30 minutes before sunrise, and end 30 minutes after sunset.
This is typically the start of the hunting season for Islanders; however, this year, there was an early deer season for Dukes County and Nantucket County that ran from Sept. 21 through Oct. 1. The early deer season (for primitive firearms and archery) was announced last December to help manage the overabundant deer herds seen on both islands.
Though Massachusetts Division of Fisheries and Wildlife (MassWildlife) looks at deer management and their impacts to ecology as the top priority, for many on both islands, the desire to reduce the deer herd stems from concerns around ticks that primarily use deer as their hosts.
And the early deer season was pretty successful, according to Martin Feehan, deer and moose biologist for MassWildlife. Through hunters on Martha’s Vineyard, Chappaquiddick, and the Elizabeth Islands, 119 deer were harvested in just over a week, one that also included a nor’easter. On Nantucket and Tucknuck, 73 deer were harvested.
The state also expanded the season last January, from Jan. 1 to Feb. 14, for just Dukes County and Nantucket. In that extra winter season, 172 deer were harvested on the Island, for a total of 291 deer in seasons new to Martha’s Vineyard in 2026. That is almost 40 percent of the total number of deer harvested in all of 2025 (763) on the Island.
“These new primitive and archery seasons have so far been very successful at boosting the deer harvest to help address overabundant deer on the islands,” Feehan said in an email to The Times.
Patrick Roden-Reynolds, tick biologist on the Island who runs the deer cooler at the Agricultural Society, said that he checked in about 55 deer for the early season. Thirty-five of those deer were donated to the society’s Venison Donation Program, which is part of MassWildlife’s Share the Harvest Program, and distributes venison to the Island’s food equity network through Island Grown Initiative. The deer cooler is still to be used this year by hunters, but is about to be joined by mobile harvest units, which arrived this past weekend, that can actually process deer as part of a multi-step plan by Tick Free MV and the society to encourage an increase in harvest and provide a facility to store and butcher deer and, eventually, livestock. Tick Free MV expects them to be ready to process in November.
Tick Free MV also provides an incentive payment ($100 for a buck, $150 for a doe) to hunters who donate deer.
MassWildlife’s “Hunter Safety and Education” course on Martha’s Vineyard starts in November at the Martha’s Vineyard Rod and Gun Club. Those interested must attend all three sessions on Nov. 8, Nov. 14, and Nov. 15. Outside of the typical seasons, the expanded winter season dates for next year are Jan. 1 through Feb. 13 for Dukes County and Nantucket.
