Where can you hunt ruffed grouse in Minnesota?

Where to hunt ruffed grouse in Minnesota

Last updated 2026-09-24 · from MN DNR data · 2026 season year

In Minnesota, ruffed grouse is a stronghold. 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. Minnesota's huntable public estate is 7,643,293 acres across 1082 units, not filtered by species because MN DNR does not publish a per-parcel list. The best-supported of them is Superior National Forest: 2,411,740 of its 2,440,608 acres lie in cells where the bird is recorded. Units here are ordered by how much of each one lies in subbasins where ruffed grouse is recorded at regular strength or better, not by how big the unit is.

Where the bird is

a stronghold An editorial summary of the bird's status in this state — not a population estimate and not a survey.

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.

Open this map in the app

Stronghold Regular Present Occasional No records The 10 units in the table below

45 of 72 subbasins draining Minnesota carry a ruffed grouse record. Observed occurrences, not a range map and not a habitat model. Scored as a share of all bird records in the same cell, so a well-watched county does not read as better bird country than an unwatched one. The mesh is the subbasin — the unit this app scores in — and not the state line, so its edge is a drainage divide rather than a border. The green is the 10 public units in the table below, drawn as PAD-US records their boundaries: context, not permission.

The public units with the most recorded ground

Minnesota's huntable public units. MN DNR does not publish a per-parcel species list, so this is not filtered to ruffed grouse.

Ordered by recorded acres — how much of each unit lies inside subbasins where ruffed grouse is recorded at regular strength or better — rather than by how big the unit is. The biggest block in a state is often not in the half of it the bird is in. PAD-US splits a forest into many parcels, so acreage is summed over the unit's name, and the share is measured against the unit's drawn boundary rather than a centroid: a national forest can be two polygons across half a peninsula.

MN DNR names no geographic restriction on this season, so no unit is excluded for being outside one.
Season geography here is read off a dates table rather than the rule itself, and a dates table carries no boundary.

Unit	Class	Recorded acres	Acres	Where the records are
Superior National Forest	National forest	2,411,740	2,440,608	92% stronghold, 7% regular, 1% present
Chippewa National Forest	National forest	500,084	708,168	71% regular, 29% present
Pine Island	State forest	488,342	632,087	17% stronghold, 61% regular, 23% present
Koochiching	State forest	318,363	318,363	60% stronghold, 40% regular
Red Lake WMA	Wildlife management area	278,827	297,131	52% stronghold, 41% regular, 6% present
Beltrami Island	State forest	190,094	288,157	13% stronghold, 53% regular, 34% present
Kabetogama	State forest	162,302	162,302	61% stronghold, 39% regular
Savanna	State forest	128,805	128,805	29% stronghold, 71% regular
Miscellaneous	State forest	122,243	143,744	50% stronghold, 36% regular, 13% present, 2% occasional
Lake of the Woods	State forest	99,347	138,600	55% stronghold, 17% regular, 28% present

The whole public estate, by land class

Every huntable unit in Minnesota, not the ranked ten above and not narrowed to where ruffed grouse is recorded or where the season is open. It is here as the denominator the table above was drawn from.

Class	Units	Acres
State forest	119	3,342,013
National forest	4	3,233,935
Wildlife management area	959	1,067,345

PAD-US says who manages a parcel, not where its boundary runs on the ground and not whether a unit carries a local closure. Context, not permission — check the unit with MN DNR before you park.

Within a drive of a town

The same ground read from where a reader starts rather than from the state line: the public units within forty miles of one town, ordered the same way. A town is on this list only where at least three units reach that far and hold ten thousand recorded acres between them.

The other questions

Open the hunting map →Public land and bird cover, drawn for the bird you are after.