Start of Minnesota 2025-2026 season countdown

Beans have been coming off in a hurry over the past couple of days. Looks like a full week of upper-80 highs ahead, with nary a sprinkle forecasted until next weekend. Wouldn't surprise me if the vast majority of the beans get harvested over the next few days. Good amount of green in the corn yet though. Time to get the yard equipment winterized and finish the last of the seasonal house chores. Then a week up north before coming back home for opener. Snuck up to Red Lake for an appetizer earlier this week...Grouse.jpg
 
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Next weekend! Looks like very warm temperatures in the forecast, and every time I check, it looks like the wind keeps picking up too.
 
Minnesota needs to change opening weekend to the end of October. Weather is going to be warm for the dogs. Just hunting the morning and maybe the last hour of Saturday.
 
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mla1967 said:
Minnesota needs to change opening weekend to the end of October. Weather is going to be warm for the dogs. Just hunting the morning and maybe the last hour of Saturday.
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It might be in the works. I received a survey from the DNR this past summer about moving the opener back. They would then keep it open further into January. More like Iowa's season. I'm fully in favor of it.

Other specific questions were related to each day's start time. They asked if 9am (current), 8am, or sunrise were preferred starting times. I put down 9am as I really have no preference on that one.
 
Just because it is opener doesn't mean you have to go ... plenty of pheasants survive opening day to be chased the balance of the season.

Like ruffed grouse hunting ... some years pheasant opener is too hot, others not so much, other years just right ... Other years it can be high winds or pouring rain ... Grouse season does not wait for the temps to fall or the leaves to fall either. The brief MN prairie chicken season has had brutal heat the past two years ... not great when the season is just 9 days long.

Similarly, December and January can be great pheasant hunting or be cursed with too much deep snow or too cold.

The season dates and lengths are just about right. I often skip opening weekend ... but I really like idea that the mad rush/chaos of opener is over when I do start to chase pheasants around the state. I would not mind MN pushing out the closure one more weekend in January (10th or so), but then it is time to let the birds be ... I believe Iowa closes on the 10th of January no matter what that day falls on.
 
Looking at the season start date (Oct 11) and the MEA weekend (Oct 16-19) ...

I believe that MN DNR will want the pheasant season to be open on the extended MEA weekend. Hunter recruitment and retention is a big goal of most state wildlife agencies.
 
BRITTMAN said:
I believe that MN DNR will want the pheasant season to be open on the extended MEA weekend. Hunter recruitment and retention is a big goal of most state wildlife agencies.
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That's when the early youth and antler less firearms season is. They know exactly when to have that 4 day season open and I can assure you that deer hunting recruitment is a much bigger draw than pheasant hunting is.
 
My family is dogless this year after an abrupt unexpected loss of our beloved pooch in December. We are waiting for the leaves to fall off the tress so we can do some grouse hunting and hope to see where the bird falls instead of using the dog's nose.

I miss pheasant hunting greatly. We have too many kid sports activities to make the trips I used to make. Hopefully one day I can get back into it, and even better if one of the kids joins me!
 
A spokesperson for the DNR said that the hunter survey report noted that the January 1 (nearest Sunday) was the least polarizing option in the survey and the January 31st closure date was the most polarizing option. They said staying with the January 1 closure date was the "safest" decision ... but the DNR will continue to explore extending the season out to around January 10th over the next few years.

Effective response rate was 27% of the 4,500 surveys sent out.

Report Excerpt:
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gim said:
That's when the early youth and antler less firearms season is. They know exactly when to have that 4 day season open and I can assure you that deer hunting recruitment is a much bigger draw than pheasant hunting is.
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Agree that the DNR knows when MEA is. I doubt the early deer season and pheasant season open during MEA are considered counter or competitive to each other by the DNR ... they are like viewed as additive opportunities ...
 
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BRITTMAN said:
A spokesperson for the DNR said that the hunter survey report noted that the January 1 (nearest Sunday) was the least polarizing option in the survey and the January 31st closure date was the most polarizing option. They said staying with the January 1 closure date was the "safest" decision ... but the DNR will continue to explore extending the season out to around January 10th over the next few years.

Effective response rate was 27% of the 4,500 surveys sent out.

Report Excerpt:
View attachment 11652
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What I don't like about this is using feelings to determine how we can use our resources. It should be science-based only. If SD does it and concludes it doesn't effect the population, why shouldn't we do it. If it did, then reduce the bag back to 2 all season. If you don't want to hunt later, don't do it. No one is forced to go and if its a tough winter, the hunters won't be out anyway. Additionally, its not like people won't hunt at all if the season goes longer. It would only increase participation which should be the goal along with maintaining our resources. I would love to see the survey. It should have been "rank your preferred closing date 1-4 (least to greatest)."
 
Golddog said:
What I don't like about this is using feelings to determine how we can use our resources. It should be science-based only. If SD does it and concludes it doesn't effect the population, why shouldn't we do it. If it did, then reduce the bag back to 2 all season. If you don't want to hunt later, don't do it. No one is forced to go and if its a tough winter, the hunters won't be out anyway. Additionally, its not like people won't hunt at all if the season goes longer. It would only increase participation which should be the goal along with maintaining our resources. I would love to see the survey. It should have been "rank your preferred closing date 1-4 (least to greatest)."
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This!
 
A copy of the questions are out there if you look.

What makes you think SD is truly only science based or is it economically driven science based ?

SD climate is not quite the same as MN. SD is generally warmer (not much) than most of MN across the pheasant range. Especially true the further west in SD you go. SD gets less snow in January and February (on average) than most of MN across the pheasant range. SD generally does not get the long prolonged deep winters that MN gets.

If pheasant hunting roosters is truly compensatory and not additive, then why does SD limit the number of roosters per day to just 3 ? Is there actual data that shows a limit of 3 spreads out the harvest across the season better than a higher limit ... or is the limit 3 primarily because of public opinion ?

To that end ... why do some states run hunting sunrise to sunset, others have a morning or mid-day start and run to sunset, others still have a sunrise start but close the day at 4;30 PM (Iowa). Doubt any of this is science based. Most of it is dictated by public opinion and tradition.
 
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