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Where to hunt ring-necked pheasant near Minneapolis, Minnesota
Last updated 2026-09-24 · seasons from MN DNR · 2026 season year
There are 20 public units within 40 miles of Minneapolis, Minnesota that hold ground where ring-necked pheasant is recorded — 38,988 acres of it. The most of it is in Carlos Avery WMA, 18.6 miles out, with 19,681 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.
Public land within 40 miles of Minneapolis
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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Carlos Avery WMA | Wildlife management area | 18.6 | 19,681 | 24,628 | 80% stronghold, 20% occasional |
| Gores Pool #3 WMA part of the unit | Wildlife management area | 26.4 | 6,893 | 6,906 | 100% stronghold |
| Vermillion Highlands Research Recreation and WMA | Wildlife management area | 20 | 2,841 | 2,841 | 100% stronghold |
| Keystone Woods WMA | Wildlife management area | 22.8 | 1,721 | 1,840 | 94% stronghold, 6% occasional |
| Vermillion River WMA | Wildlife management area | 21 | 1,495 | 1,495 | 100% stronghold |
| R J D Memorial Hardwood part of the unit | State forest | 31.8 | 1,295 | 2,565 | 50% stronghold, 50% present |
| Pelican Lake WMA | Wildlife management area | 27.2 | 1,017 | 1,017 | 100% regular |
| Gordie Mikkelson WMA | Wildlife management area | 28.2 | 860 | 860 | 100% stronghold |
20 units clear the circle in all and the 8 holding the most recorded ground are named. The rest are ground a reader would drive past something better to reach.
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.
Season and limits
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 |
- Open today
- Shut — next opening October 10, 2026
- Bag limit
- not shown No single bag limit is shown for this species here — read the notes below and check the current MN DNR regulations before you go.
- Hunter orange
- required
- Shooting hours
- not carried
- Minnesota requires blaze orange or blaze pink while a firearms deer season is in progress, and it applies to small game hunters too. Treat orange as required for the whole season: missing it during gun deer season is the dangerous error. We have not been able to confirm the exact wording against MN DNR — read the regulations before relying on the detail.
- MN DNR publishes no bag limit we could confirm for this season, so none is shown.
- Roosters only. The birds are in the south-west and south-central farmland; the season is statewide but the pheasants are not.
What to walk when you get there
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.
Read next
- Where to hunt ring-necked pheasant in Minnesota — every unit, ranked
- Ring-necked pheasant hunting in Minnesota — season, limits and range
- How to hunt ring-necked pheasant in Minnesota
- Ring-necked pheasant — biology, range and how it is hunted
- Minnesota hunting regulations