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Ruffed grouse
Bonasa umbellus
Ruffed grouse (Bonasa umbellus) is present in all 5 states this app covers, and every one of them sets a season for it. It is strongest in Michigan, where it is a stronghold. Of the states that set one run of dates statewide, the longest season is North Carolina's at 140 days, October 12, 2026 to February 28, 2027.
Last updated 2026-09-24 · seasons from each state's own agency
The bird
The upland bird of the northern hardwoods — a chicken-sized woodland grouse that holds tight and flushes loud. It lives in young aspen and mixed brush between about five and twenty years old, which is why grouse country is cut-over country rather than big timber. Look for the black neck ruff it is named for and the broad dark band across the end of the fanned tail.
Written for this app. Not an agency description and not a regulation — everything below this point that is a rule or a date carries the agency it was read from.
State by state
The comparison this page exists for. The band is an editorial summary of the bird's status on the same five-step scale in every state — not a population estimate — and the season is that state's own, against that state's own licence or season year, which do not line up with each other.
| State | Status | Season | Days | Bag | Year |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Michigan | a stronghold | September 15, 2025 – January 1, 2026 | 93 | 5 per day, 10 in possession | 2025–26 |
| Wisconsin | a stronghold | September 12, 2026 – January 3, 2027 zoned | — | not published | 2026 |
| Virginia | thin and local | October 24, 2026 – February 13, 2027 zoned | — | 3 per day | 2026–27 |
| North Carolina | thin and local | October 12, 2026 – February 28, 2027 | 140 | not published | 2026–27 |
| Minnesota | a stronghold | September 19, 2026 – January 3, 2027 | 107 | not published | 2026 |
A bag this app cannot state as one number is left empty here rather than guessed. Some of these states publish none for a species; others publish one that changes by zone, or partway through the season, and no single figure would be true of the whole of it. A wrong limit is worse than a missing one, because it looks researched.
Ruffed grouse in Michigan
Michigan's premier game bird and the one the state is known for. The northern Lower and the Upper Peninsula carry it in numbers, on the aspen cut that decades of forestry have kept coming.
- Ruffed grouse hunting in Michigan — the whole picture
- How to hunt it — Michigan
- When the season opens — Michigan
- Where to hunt it — Michigan
- Regulations — Michigan
- Hunting report — Michigan
- Michigan hunting regulations
Ruffed grouse in Wisconsin
A stronghold. The northern and central forest is Zone A and holds the bird through a long season; the south-east is Zone B and thin.
- Ruffed grouse hunting in Wisconsin — the whole picture
- How to hunt it — Wisconsin
- When the season opens — Wisconsin
- Where to hunt it — Wisconsin
- Regulations — Wisconsin
- Hunting report — Wisconsin
- Wisconsin hunting regulations
Ruffed grouse in Virginia
Blue Ridge and Allegheny mountains only, and declining hard — the young forest the bird needs has aged out across most of its Virginia range. The season is closed outright east of I-95.
- Ruffed grouse hunting in Virginia — the whole picture
- How to hunt it — Virginia
- When the season opens — Virginia
- Where to hunt it — Virginia
- Regulations — Virginia
- Hunting report — Virginia
- Virginia hunting regulations
Ruffed grouse in North Carolina
The western mountain counties and effectively nowhere else — the Blue Ridge escarpment, and the Nantahala and Pisgah national forests. The season is written statewide; the bird is not.
- Ruffed grouse hunting in North Carolina — the whole picture
- How to hunt it — North Carolina
- When the season opens — North Carolina
- Where to hunt it — North Carolina
- Regulations — North Carolina
- Hunting report — North Carolina
- North Carolina hunting regulations
Ruffed grouse in Minnesota
The other Great Lakes stronghold, and the state that reports the biggest harvest in the country most years. Aspen cut across the northern forest and the Arrowhead carries it; MN DNR called the population into the declining phase of its cycle in July 2026, which is where in the ten-year swing it sits rather than a reason not to go.
- Ruffed grouse hunting in Minnesota — the whole picture
- How to hunt it — Minnesota
- When the season opens — Minnesota
- Where to hunt it — Minnesota
- Regulations — Minnesota
- Hunting report — Minnesota
- Minnesota hunting regulations
Cover and tactics
Aspen and mixed brush between about five and twenty years old — cut-over ground rather than big timber, thick enough that you cannot see far into it. The best of it is an edge: young cut against older hardwood, or the alder seam where the cut runs down to wet ground.
Walk the edges slowly and stop often; a stopped hunter is what makes a tight bird lose its nerve. Birds hold in the thick and flush loud, and most shots are inside twenty-five yards through cover, which is why open chokes and light loads are the tradition.
A close-working flushing or pointing dog is the difference between finding birds and walking past them. Wide-ranging dogs lose birds in cover this thick.
Written for this app, and general to the bird rather than to a state. Where a place changes it, the regional pages below say so.
By region
- Ruffed grouse hunting in Northern Lower Michigan
- Ruffed grouse hunting in the Michigan UP
- Ruffed grouse hunting in the Wisconsin Northwoods
- Ruffed grouse hunting in the Wisconsin Driftless
- Ruffed grouse hunting in the Virginia Alleghenies
- Ruffed grouse hunting in Nantahala and Pisgah, North Carolina