Last updated 2026-09-24 · seasons from WDNR · 2026 season year
There are 8 public units within 40 miles of Dodgeville, Wisconsin that hold ground where ring-necked pheasant is recorded — 11,176 acres of it. The most of it is in Yellowstone Wildlife Area, 13 miles out, with 4,360 recorded acres. The season runs October 17, 2026 to January 3, 2027 — 79 days afield, 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.
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.
WDNR 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Yellowstone Wildlife Area | State wildlife area | 13 | 4,360 | 4,360 | 100% stronghold |
| Brooklyn Wildlife Area | State wildlife area | 32.2 | 2,622 | 2,622 | 100% regular |
| Albany Wildlife Area | State wildlife area | 31.9 | 1,948 | 1,948 | 100% regular |
| Kickapoo Wildlife Area part of the unit | State wildlife area | 37.7 | 1,532 | 1,532 | 100% regular |
| Liberty Creek Wildlife Area | State wildlife area | 38.5 | 565 | 565 | 100% regular |
| Extensive Wl Habitat - Sd part of the unit | State wildlife area | 32 | 72 | 72 | 100% regular |
| Statewide Wildlife Habitat - Sd part of the unit | State wildlife area | 35 | 60 | 60 | 100% regular |
| Scattered Wildlife - Sd part of the unit | State wildlife area | 25.1 | 17 | 232 | 7% regular, 58% present, 35% occasional |
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.
WDNR's dates for the 2026 season year, read from WDNR. Wisconsin lists this season as Ring-necked pheasant.
| Segment | Opens | Closes | Days |
|---|---|---|---|
| Statewide | October 17, 2026 | January 3, 2027 | 79 |
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.