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When does Michigan's 2025–26 american woodcock season open?

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

Michigan's 2025–26 american woodcock season runs September 15, 2025 to October 29, 2025 — 45 days afield. The best of it is October — Local birds through September, then the flight birds down on the first hard cold front — usually the middle of October. 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 American woodcock.

SegmentOpensClosesDays
Statewide September 15, 2025October 29, 202545

The best weeks

Local birds through September, then the flight birds down on the first hard cold front — usually the middle of October.

Peak: October. From this app's Michigan methods file.

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

By region

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