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When does Michigan's 2025–26 sharp-tailed grouse season open?

Last updated 2026-09-24 · from MDNR data · 2025–26 licence year

Michigan's 2025–26 sharp-tailed grouse season runs October 10, 2025 to October 31, 2025, on dates that depend on the zone. Michigan zones this season: 1 of 2 zones open, and the dates differ between them. Legal hours are one half-hour before sunrise until sunset. No statewide Sunday closure for small game. A few counties restrict firearm hunting on private land under PA 319 of 1994 — not mapped here.

The dates

MDNR's own dates for the 2025–26 licence year, read from MDNR. Michigan lists this season as Sharp-tailed grouse.

ZoneOpensClosesDays
Zone 1 sharp-tailed grouse unit — partly open boundary not mapped October 10, 2025October 31, 202522
Closed to sharp-tailed grouseClosed season — Michigan shuts this zone

The best weeks

This app carries no agency-sourced peak for sharp-tailed grouse in Michigan, 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
One half-hour before sunrise until sunset.
Michigan's small-game rule, and the one this app's hunt planner draws every day against. It is not “until half an hour after sunset” — that is the waterfowl rule in some states and it is not this one. Waterfowl and turkey run on their own hours. MDNR
Sundays
No statewide Sunday closure for small game. A few counties restrict firearm hunting on private land under PA 319 of 1994 — not mapped here.

The other questions

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