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Where to hunt ring-necked pheasant in Minnesota
Last updated 2026-09-24 · from MN DNR data · 2026 season year
In Minnesota, ring-necked pheasant is well established. The south-west and south-central farmland, and nothing north of it. The season is statewide and the birds are not — the range follows the grassland and CRP acres of the prairie counties. 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 Lac qui Parle WMA: 33,602 of its 33,602 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.
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 south-west and south-central farmland, and nothing north of it. The season is statewide and the birds are not — the range follows the grassland and CRP acres of the prairie counties.
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 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.
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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Lac qui Parle WMA | Wildlife management area | 33,602 | 33,602 | 100% regular |
| Carlos Avery WMA | Wildlife management area | 19,681 | 24,628 | 80% stronghold, 20% occasional |
| R J D Memorial Hardwood | State forest | 12,863 | 48,872 | 9% stronghold, 17% regular, 71% present, 2% occasional |
| Gores Pool #3 WMA | Wildlife management area | 7,090 | 7,110 | 100% stronghold |
| Talcot Lake WMA | Wildlife management area | 5,323 | 5,323 | 100% stronghold |
| Reno Forest Recreation Area | State forest | 3,437 | 3,437 | 100% regular |
| Vermillion Highlands Research Recreation and WMA | Wildlife management area | 2,841 | 2,841 | 100% stronghold |
| Manston Marsh WMA | Wildlife management area | 2,731 | 2,731 | 100% stronghold |
| Rothsay WMA | Wildlife management area | 2,694 | 3,427 | 79% stronghold, 21% occasional |
| Keystone Woods WMA | Wildlife management area | 1,721 | 1,840 | 94% stronghold, 6% occasional |
The whole public estate, by land class
Every huntable unit in Minnesota, 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 |
|---|---|---|
| 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.
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The other questions
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- Minnesota ring-necked pheasant regulations, 2026
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