BirdTrout
Open the map
Where to hunt ring-necked pheasant in Michigan
Last updated 2026-09-24 · from MDNR data · 2025–26 licence year
In Michigan, ring-necked pheasant is well established. The southern third, on the grass-and-grain edge, and zoned into three for the season. Ten Upper Peninsula counties are shut to it entirely. Michigan's huntable public estate is 5,515,411 acres across 344 units, not filtered by species because MDNR does not publish a per-parcel list. The best-supported of them is Crystal Falls State Forest Area: 81,209 of its 300,717 acres lie in cells where the bird is recorded. Units here are ordered by how much of each one lies in subbasins where ring-necked pheasant is recorded at regular strength or better, not by how big the unit is. The list is also clipped to the ground MDNR opens a season on, which leaves 84 of the state's units eligible.
Where the bird is
well established An editorial summary of the bird's status in this state — not a population estimate and not a survey.
The southern third, on the grass-and-grain edge, and zoned into three for the season. Ten Upper Peninsula counties are shut to it entirely.
The public units with the most recorded ground
Michigan's huntable public units. MDNR does not publish a per-parcel species list, so this is not filtered to ring-necked pheasant.
Ordered by recorded acres — how much of each unit lies inside subbasins where ring-necked pheasant 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 drawn
Narrowed to ground MDNR opens a season on (Zone 1 pheasant unit, Zone 1 unit — partly open, Zone 2 — northern Lower Peninsula, Zone 3 — southern Lower Peninsula),
which leaves 84 eligible
units.
That boundary is wider than the rule: the order bounds this unit
with roads and section corners inside those counties, and the counties are the
smallest ground this app can say it is somewhere inside. Being on this list is not
the same as being in the unit.
Boundary: county lines (Census TIGER)
Season geography read against the published rule on
2026-08-23.
| Unit | Class | Recorded acres | Acres | Where the records are |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Crystal Falls State Forest Area | State forest | 81,209 | 300,717 | 27% stronghold, 9% present, 45% occasional, 18% no records |
| Gratiot-Saginaw State Game Area | State game area | 16,698 | 16,698 | 14% stronghold, 86% regular |
| Barry State Game Area | State game area | 14,605 | 16,580 | 88% regular, 12% present |
| Allegan State Game Area | State game area | 12,259 | 50,591 | 24% regular, 76% present |
| Deford State Game Area | State game area | 10,395 | 10,395 | 100% regular |
| Shiawassee River State Game Area | State game area | 9,873 | 9,873 | 100% regular |
| Maple River State Game Area | State game area | 9,259 | 9,259 | 100% stronghold |
| Tuscola State Game Area | State game area | 9,100 | 9,100 | 100% regular |
| Lapeer State Game Area | State game area | 8,555 | 8,555 | 100% regular |
| Minden City State Game Area | State game area | 7,852 | 7,852 | 100% regular |
The whole public estate, by land class
Every huntable unit in Michigan, not the ranked ten above and not narrowed to where ring-necked pheasant 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 | 21 | 2,879,026 |
| State forest | 64 | 1,817,144 |
| State game area | 211 | 525,385 |
| Wild & scenic river corridor | 48 | 293,856 |
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 MDNR 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.
- Ring-necked pheasant hunting near Grand Rapids
- Ring-necked pheasant hunting near Sterling Heights
- Ring-necked pheasant hunting near Ann Arbor
- Ring-necked pheasant hunting near Lansing
- Ring-necked pheasant hunting near Flint
- Ring-necked pheasant hunting near Kalamazoo
- Ring-necked pheasant hunting near Saginaw
- Ring-necked pheasant hunting near Holland
- Ring-necked pheasant hunting near Jackson
- Ring-necked pheasant hunting near Mount Pleasant
- Ring-necked pheasant hunting near Adrian
- Ring-necked pheasant hunting near Escanaba
- Ring-necked pheasant hunting near Ionia
- Ring-necked pheasant hunting near Howell
- Ring-necked pheasant hunting near Benton Harbor
- Ring-necked pheasant hunting near Big Rapids
- Ring-necked pheasant hunting near Iron Mountain
- Ring-necked pheasant hunting near Hastings
- Ring-necked pheasant hunting near Marshall
- Ring-necked pheasant hunting near Caro
- Ring-necked pheasant hunting near Imlay City
- Ring-necked pheasant hunting near Gladwin
- Ring-necked pheasant hunting near Bad Axe
- Ring-necked pheasant hunting near Sandusky
The other questions
- How to hunt ring-necked pheasant in Michigan
- When does Michigan's 2025–26 ring-necked pheasant season open?
- Michigan ring-necked pheasant regulations, 2025–26
- Michigan ring-necked pheasant hunting report
- Ring-necked pheasant hunting in Michigan — the whole picture
- Ring-necked pheasant — biology, range and how it is hunted