Where can you hunt sharp-tailed grouse in Minnesota?

Where to hunt sharp-tailed grouse in Minnesota

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

In Minnesota, sharp-tailed grouse is well established. The strongest sharptail range east of the Dakotas, on the brushland of the northwest and the pine-barren openings of the east-central counties. MN DNR runs it as two zones: the northwest is open, and the east-central zone has been closed since 2021 on low population. The boundary between them is not mapped in this app. 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 Pine Island: 632,087 of its 632,087 acres lie in cells where the bird is recorded. Units here are ordered by how much of each one lies in subbasins where sharp-tailed grouse is recorded at regular strength or better, not by how big the unit is. MN DNR 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

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

The strongest sharptail range east of the Dakotas, on the brushland of the northwest and the pine-barren openings of the east-central counties. MN DNR runs it as two zones: the northwest is open, and the east-central zone has been closed since 2021 on low population. The boundary between them is not mapped in this app.

Open this map in the app

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

38 of 72 subbasins draining Minnesota carry a sharp-tailed 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 sharp-tailed grouse.

Ordered by recorded acres — how much of each unit lies inside subbasins where sharp-tailed 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 MN DNR 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 MN DNR 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
Pine Island	State forest	632,087	632,087	23% stronghold, 77% regular
Red Lake WMA	Wildlife management area	297,131	297,131	6% stronghold, 94% regular
Beltrami Island	State forest	288,157	288,157	30% stronghold, 70% regular
Chippewa National Forest	National forest	203,414	708,168	29% regular, 9% present, 62% no records
Koochiching	State forest	190,109	318,363	60% regular, 40% present
Lake of the Woods	State forest	138,600	138,600	28% stronghold, 72% regular
Roseau River WMA	Wildlife management area	75,169	75,169	89% stronghold, 11% regular
Red Lake	State forest	72,545	72,545	100% regular
Lost River	State forest	52,231	52,231	100% stronghold
Big Fork	State forest	45,213	45,213	100% regular

The whole public estate, by land class

Every huntable unit in Minnesota, not the ranked ten above and not narrowed to where sharp-tailed 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.