Last updated 2026-09-24 · seasons from MN DNR · 2026 season year
There are 3 public units within 40 miles of Caledonia, Minnesota that hold ground where ring-necked pheasant is recorded — 11,937 acres of it. The most of it is in R J D Memorial Hardwood, 2.6 miles out, with 8,326 recorded acres. The season runs October 10, 2026 to January 3, 2027 — 86 days afield, read against the 2026 season year from MN DNR. Public-land boundaries here are PAD-US, which records who manages a parcel rather than where the line runs or whether a unit carries a local closure — check with MN DNR before you park.
Distance is measured to the nearest edge of a unit rather than to its middle, in a straight line — this app carries no road network and will not print a drive time it cannot compute. A unit whose ground reaches inside the circle is listed for the acreage that is inside it, never for its statewide total.
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 | Miles | Recorded acres | Acres in range | Where the records are |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| R J D Memorial Hardwood part of the unit | State forest | 2.6 | 8,326 | 27,529 | 30% regular, 66% present, 4% occasional |
| Reno Forest Recreation Area | State forest | 8 | 3,437 | 3,437 | 100% regular |
| Winnebago Creek WMA | Wildlife management area | 11.7 | 174 | 174 | 100% regular |
A unit marked part of the unit has ground outside the circle as well, and the acreage here is only what is inside it. PAD-US records who manages a parcel, not where its line runs on the ground and not whether it carries a local closure: context, not permission. Check the unit with MN DNR before you park.
MN DNR's dates for the 2026 season year, read from MN DNR. Minnesota lists this season as Ring-necked pheasant.
| Segment | Opens | Closes | Days |
|---|---|---|---|
| Statewide | October 10, 2026 | January 3, 2027 | 86 |
The seam between grass nesting cover and grain: switchgrass and CRP-style fields, cattail sloughs, weedy fencelines and picked corn. A pheasant runs before it flies, so the cover that matters is the cover it can run through.
Work fields toward a hard edge — a road, a ditch, a corner — so running birds run out of ground rather than out the far end. Blocking a corner is worth more than another pass through the middle.
Written for this app rather than read off an agency page — the cover a bird uses does not change at a state line. Everything above that is a date, a limit or an acreage names the source it came from.