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Where to hunt ruffed grouse near Rhinelander, Wisconsin

Last updated 2026-09-24 · seasons from WDNR · 2026 season year

There are 27 public units within 40 miles of Rhinelander, Wisconsin that hold ground where ruffed grouse is recorded — 931,375 acres of it. The most of it is in Nicolet National Forest, 0.9 miles out, with 280,018 recorded acres. The season runs September 12, 2026 to January 3, 2027 — on dates that depend on the zone, read against the 2026 season year from WDNR. 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 WDNR before you park.

• The ground within 40 miles
• Season and limits
• What to walk

Public land within 40 miles of Rhinelander

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 ruffed 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 drawn Narrowed to ground WDNR opens a season on (Zone A, Zone B), which leaves 27 eligible units.
Boundary: WI DNR Bureau of Wildlife Management, WM_RUFFED_GROUSE_MGMT_ZONES (the agency's own polygons; NR 10.33 is a map, not a description)
Season geography read against the published rule on 2026-08-23.

27 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 WDNR before you park.

Season and limits

WDNR's dates for the 2026 season year, read from WDNR. Wisconsin lists this season as Ruffed grouse. It is zoned, and a circle drawn round a town is not a zone — check which zone a unit falls in before you go.

What to walk when you get there

Aspen and mixed brush between about five and twenty years old — cut-over ground rather than big timber, thick enough that you cannot see far into it. The best of it is an edge: young cut against older hardwood, or the alder seam where the cut runs down to wet ground.

Walk the edges slowly and stop often; a stopped hunter is what makes a tight bird lose its nerve. Birds hold in the thick and flush loud, and most shots are inside twenty-five yards through cover, which is why open chokes and light loads are the tradition.

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 ruffed grouse in Wisconsin — every unit, ranked
• Ruffed grouse hunting in Wisconsin — season, limits and range
• How to hunt ruffed grouse in Wisconsin
• Ruffed grouse — biology, range and how it is hunted
• Wisconsin hunting regulations

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