Bayou Sauvage Urban National Wildlife Refuge hunting

Bayou Sauvage Urban NWR: refuge hunting conditions

Hunting on Bayou Sauvage Urban NWR is allowed only as 50 CFR 32.37(c) describes it, plus the refuge brochure.

Migratory game bird hunting

We allow hunting of duck, merganser, teal, light and dark goose, coot, gallinule, rail, snipe, and dove on designated areas of the refuge subject to the following conditions:

• Hunters and anglers must possess and carry a valid, signed refuge hunting and fishing brochure.
• We only allow youth to hunt migratory game birds.
• All youth hunters age 15 and younger must be supervised by an adult during hunts. The youth must be capable of and must actively participate in the hunt by possessing or firing a legal weapon during the hunt for the express purpose of harvesting game.
• One adult may supervise up to two youths during upland game hunts and migratory bird hunts, but may supervise only one youth during big game hunts. The supervising adult must maintain visual and voice contact with the youth at all times.
• Adults accompanying youth on any refuge hunts may participate by hunting (except during the State youth-only seasons), but are not allowed to harvest more than their own daily bag limit (see § 20.24 of this chapter). Youth must harvest their own bag limits.
• We allow migratory bird hunting on Wednesdays, Thursdays, Saturdays, and Sundays from 1/2 hour before legal sunrise until 2 p.m.
• We open the refuge to goose youth hunting during any segment of goose season that extends beyond the regular duck season.

Upland game hunting

We allow hunting of rabbit, and the incidental take of nutria, coyote, raccoon, armadillo, and opossum, on designated areas of the refuge subject to the following conditions:

• We only allow youth hunting of upland game.
• When hunting, you must possess only shot size 4 or smaller or .22 caliber rimfire rifles or smaller. We allow the use of air rifles.
• When hunting rabbit, we allow the use of dogs only after the close of the State archery deer season.

Big game hunting

We only allow youth hunting of white-tailed deer, and the incidental take of feral hog, on designated areas of the refuge subject to the following conditions:

• We are open to youth hunting only during the State deer archery season.
• We prohibit deer drives. We define a deer drive as an organized or planned effort to pursue, drive, chase, or otherwise frighten or cause deer to move in the direction of any person who is part of the organized or planned hunt and known to be waiting for the deer.
• We allow placement of temporary deer stands no earlier than 48 hours prior to the start of deer archery season. Hunters must remove all deer stands within 48 hours after the archery deer season closes (see § 27.93 of this chapter).
• We allow only one deer stand per hunter on the refuge. Deer stands must have the owner's State license/sportsmen's identification number clearly printed on the stand.
• We prohibit the use of deer decoys.

From eCFR 50 CFR 32.37 and the refuge hunting page; text truncated where the record stops; checked November 4, 2026.

Bayou Sauvage Urban NWR photo row