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When does Michigan's 2025–26 ruffed grouse season open?

Last updated 2026-09-24 · from MDNR data · 2025–26 licence year

Michigan's 2025–26 ruffed grouse season runs September 15, 2025 to January 1, 2026 — 93 days afield. The best of it is October — The two weeks either side of the leaf drop, when the birds are still in the young cover and you can finally see through it. Legal hours are one half-hour before sunrise until sunset. No statewide Sunday closure for small game. A few counties restrict firearm hunting on private land under PA 319 of 1994 — not mapped here.

The dates

MDNR's own dates for the 2025–26 licence year, read from MDNR. Michigan lists this season as Ruffed grouse.

SegmentOpensClosesDays
Segment 1 September 15, 2025November 14, 202561
Segment 2 December 1, 2025January 1, 202632

The best weeks

The two weeks either side of the leaf drop, when the birds are still in the young cover and you can finally see through it.

Peak: October. From this app's Michigan methods file.

Shooting hours

Legal hours
One half-hour before sunrise until sunset.
Michigan's small-game rule, and the one this app's hunt planner draws every day against. It is not “until half an hour after sunset” — that is the waterfowl rule in some states and it is not this one. Waterfowl and turkey run on their own hours. MDNR
Sundays
No statewide Sunday closure for small game. A few counties restrict firearm hunting on private land under PA 319 of 1994 — not mapped here.

The other questions

By region

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