Where can you hunt ruffed grouse in Virginia?

Where to hunt ruffed grouse in Virginia

Last updated 2026-09-24 · from VDWR data · 2026–27 licence year

In Virginia, ruffed grouse is thin and local. 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. 103 of Virginia's 130 huntable public units name ruffed grouse among their species — 1,865,975 acres in all. The best-supported of them is George Washington National Forest: 687,668 of its 960,981 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. VDWR zones this season and this app does not carry the zone boundary, so the units below are not narrowed to it — check the boundary before you go.

Where the bird is

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

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.

Open this map in the app

Stronghold Regular Present Occasional No records The 10 units in the table below 3 units too small to draw

24 of 53 subbasins draining Virginia 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

Public units that name ruffed grouse among their species.

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.

Season boundary not carried VDWR zones this season and this app does not hold the boundary, so these units are not narrowed to it. Nothing here says the season is open on any of them — read the boundary with VDWR before you go.
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
George Washington National Forest	National forest	687,668	960,981	2% stronghold, 70% regular, 20% present, 8% occasional
Jefferson National Forest	National forest	228,969	712,459	32% regular, 52% present, 16% occasional
Goshen and Little North Mountain Wildlife Management Area	State wildlife management area	30,027	33,315	90% regular, 10% present
Highland Wildlife Management Area	State wildlife management area	13,719	13,719	100% regular
Gathright Wildlife Management Area	State wildlife management area	13,204	13,204	2% stronghold, 98% regular
Short Hills Wildlife Management Area	State wildlife management area	4,233	4,233	100% regular
Lake Moomaw Public Fishing Lake	State wildlife management area	2,132	2,132	100% regular
Lake Robinson State Wildlife Management Area	State wildlife management area	528	528	100% regular
George Washington and Jefferson National Forest	National forest	510	866	59% regular, 18% present, 23% occasional
Highland	State wildlife management area	192	192	100% regular

The whole public estate, by land class

Every huntable unit in Virginia, 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
National forest	19	1,674,677
State wildlife management area	84	191,298

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 VDWR 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

By region

Ruffed grouse hunting in the Virginia Alleghenies

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