WY / Small Game
Wyoming
Small Game.
A practical guide to Wyoming cottontail rabbit and tree squirrels, plus verify-first jackrabbit, prairie-dog, and other predatory or nongame opportunity.
Official small game page ↗01 / Overview
Start with the shape of the hunt.
Wyoming regulates cottontail rabbit and red, gray, and fox squirrels as small game under current seasons and limits.
Jackrabbits, prairie dogs, ground squirrels, porcupines, and other animals can fall under predatory, nongame, agricultural, land-manager, or local rules rather than the small-game table.
Choose the exact species first, confirm current classification and legal take, then solve land, safe shooting, recovery, disease, lawful use, and access.
02 / Opportunity
Is this a good state for this hunt?
Rabbit and squirrel can be less equipment-intensive than big game, but broad labels are not legal authority.
Prairie-dog shooting raises landowner permission, colony health, plague, heat, long-range backstop, livestock, and other-user concerns.
A beginner should choose one animal and one short legal place, then learn the complete process.
04 / Planning strategy
Use one exact species to learn the complete process.
Choose one species and confirm classification, license, method, season, limit, land status, permission, and safe backstops.
Study sign, food, water, cover, weather, disease, homes, roads, livestock, pressure, and current land-manager rules.
Treat identification, shot selection, recovery, protective handling, cooling or disposal, lawful use, and notes as one sequence.
05 / Seasons
Learn the categories. Check the dates.
Wyoming publishes small game opportunity through the exact license, region or hunt area, license type, full or reduced price, legal animal, method, season, eligibility, and land status. Those details can change between cycles.
Use the current final regulation and corrections, issued license and carcass coupon, Hunt Planner, live mortality status, Access Yes property page, field signs, and controlling land manager for authoritative dates, boundaries, methods, access, and reporting duties.
Open the current official digest ↗06 / Habitat
Where they live.
Sagebrush and brush edge
Rabbits use escape cover near feeding areas, but roads, homes, livestock, snow, and heat matter.
Mountain forest
Tree squirrels use conifer, nuts, logs, water, and canopy where visibility and backstops matter.
Prairie colony
Ownership, permission, plague, fleas, roads, livestock, wind, and long backstops control safe shooting.
07 / Methods
Match the method to the exact hunt.
Still-hunting
Move quietly, identify the entire animal, and wait for a safe backstop.
Shotgun where legal
Confirm ammunition and method rules, pattern the load, and avoid low unsafe shots.
Rimfire or other legal firearm
Use only where legal with a proven backstop and precise conservative range.
Current legal methods, ammunition rules, and hunt-specific restrictions come from CDFW and the applicable land manager.
08 / Beginner strategy
If I wanted to start, what would I actually do?
- 01
Read the current Wyoming rules
Begin with the current official regulation and planning source for small game. Write down the license, area, region, type, price class, dates, legal animal, method, limit, closure, and reporting duties.
Official resource ↗ - 02
Confirm how the license works
Determine whether the hunt uses a resident general license, nonresident region-general draw, limited-quota draw, full or reduced price, preference or random draw, leftover sale, mortality limit, special permit, or another exact structure.
- 03
Prove the land and access program
Confirm public and private parcels, state or federal terms, tribal authority, HMA permission slip and ranch rules, Walk-In species and dates, roads, vehicles, fire, camping, winter closures, and a backup route.
- 04
Scout the actual constraints
Record exact species and classification, sign, food, water, cover, ownership, permission, HMA or Walk-In terms, roads, homes, livestock, disease, traps, backstops, and recovery.
- 05
Practice the complete sequence
Practice identification, muzzle control, close field positions, backstop judgment, follow-up, protective handling, cooling or disposal, transport, and lawful use.
- 06
Recheck, tag, register, and report
Immediately before hunting, recheck the regulation, live mortality status, access, weather, roads, and documents. Afterward, complete every carcass-coupon validation, evidence, CWD transport, tooth or sample, registration, pelt tag, possession, and report duty on time.
09 / Current information
Official resources.
Official current upland, small-game, pheasant-permit, maps, seasons, limits, evidence, and sage-grouse permit resources.
Official source ↗Wyoming hunting regulationsOfficial current big-game, trophy-game, bison, bird, small-game, wolf, and furbearer regulations, brochures, maps, and updates.
Official source ↗Wyoming public accessOfficial Access Yes, Hunter Management Area, Walk-In Hunting Area, commission land, WHMA, and landowner-assistance starting point.
Keep learning
Useful before a small game hunt.
Existing Sportsman’s Illustrated lessons are connected by slug, so this section can grow without duplicating article content.
Rifle HuntingHow to Read a Rifle Scope
What the numbers mean, which other specifications matter, and how to make sense of your first hunting optic.
Hunter EducationWhat an Ammunition Box Tells You
A beginner’s guide to cartridge names, bullet weight, shotshell markings, and the information worth checking on factory ammunition.
FieldcraftA Beginner’s Scouting Notebook
Five observations worth recording every time you walk a piece of hunting country.