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When does Minnesota's 2026 ruffed grouse season open?
Last updated 2026-09-24 · from MN DNR data · 2026 season year
Minnesota's 2026 ruffed grouse season runs September 19, 2026 to January 3, 2027 — 107 days afield.
The dates
MN DNR's own dates for the 2026 season year, read from MN DNR. Minnesota lists this season as Ruffed grouse.
| Segment | Opens | Closes | Days |
|---|---|---|---|
| Statewide | September 19, 2026 | January 3, 2027 | 107 |
The best weeks
This app carries no agency-sourced peak for ruffed grouse in Minnesota, so none is claimed here. Within the dates above, the two weeks either side of the leaf drop are the traditional answer in the northern states and the first hard frost is the southern one — both are hunters' rules of thumb rather than anything an agency published.
Shooting hours
- Legal hours
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not carried MN DNR publishes Minnesota's small game shooting hours in the hunting regulations booklet rather than as a sentence on a page this build reads, and this app holds no copy of it. We do not retype it from memory: the states on this site do not agree with each other about when the day ends — Michigan closes at sunset, Virginia a half-hour after it — so a rule carried across a state line is exactly how a hunter gets a citation. Read the booklet before opening day. MN DNR
The other questions
- How to hunt ruffed grouse in Minnesota
- Where to hunt ruffed grouse in Minnesota
- Minnesota ruffed grouse regulations, 2026
- Minnesota ruffed grouse hunting report
- Ruffed grouse hunting in Minnesota — the whole picture
- Ruffed grouse — biology, range and how it is hunted