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Where to hunt american woodcock near Brainerd, Minnesota
Last updated 2026-09-24 · seasons from MN DNR · 2026 season year
There are 24 public units within 40 miles of Brainerd, Minnesota that hold ground where american woodcock is recorded — 61,602 acres of it. The most of it is in Mille Lacs WMA, 35 miles out, with 16,315 recorded acres. The closest is Miscellaneous at 4 miles. The season runs September 19, 2026 to November 2, 2026 — 45 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 Brainerd
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 american woodcock 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Mille Lacs WMA part of the unit | Wildlife management area | 35 | 16,315 | 20,858 | 78% regular, 22% present |
| Pillsbury | State forest | 9.8 | 9,449 | 9,449 | 100% regular |
| Foot Hills part of the unit | State forest | 28.3 | 7,728 | 15,973 | 48% regular, 52% present |
| Lyons | State forest | 30.6 | 6,353 | 6,353 | 100% regular |
| Meadow Brook WMA | Wildlife management area | 17.2 | 5,752 | 5,752 | 100% regular |
| Land O'Lakes part of the unit | State forest | 31.1 | 2,438 | 10,035 | 24% stronghold, 76% present |
| Hill River part of the unit | State forest | 35.3 | 2,393 | 6,609 | 36% stronghold, 64% present |
| Miscellaneous part of the unit | State forest | 4 | 2,380 | 12,409 | 1% stronghold, 18% regular, 78% present, 3% occasional |
24 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 American woodcock.
| Segment | Opens | Closes | Days |
|---|---|---|---|
| Statewide | September 19, 2026 | November 2, 2026 | 45 |
- Open today
- Open
- 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.
- Migratory bird: a federal HIP registration is required in addition to the small game licence.
What to walk when you get there
Wet alder runs, damp aspen bottoms and shrub swamp — soft ground the bird can probe for worms. Woodcock cover is often two hundred yards of a creek bottom rather than a whole block of forest.
Hunt the low wet ground inside grouse country, and hunt it again after a cold front: this is a migratory bird and a covert that was empty on Tuesday can hold a flight on Friday. Birds sit tight and flush straight up through the alders.
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 american woodcock in Minnesota — every unit, ranked
- American woodcock hunting in Minnesota — season, limits and range
- How to hunt american woodcock in Minnesota
- American woodcock — biology, range and how it is hunted
- Minnesota hunting regulations