Michigan · Bear · 2026 Edition
Michigan Bear Season 2026: Dates, Zones & Bag Limits
01 — Seasons
| Season | Zone | Dates |
|---|---|---|
| Period 1 — bait & still-hunting only Sept 9–13; bait and dogs both permitted from Sept 14 on | Upper Peninsula: Amasa, Baraga, Bergland, Carney, Drummond Island, Gwinn, Newberry BMUs | Sep 9 – Oct 21 |
| Period 2 — bait and dogs permitted throughout | Upper Peninsula: Amasa, Baraga, Bergland, Carney, Gwinn, Newberry BMUs | Sep 14 – Oct 26 |
| Period 3 — bait and dogs permitted throughout | Upper Peninsula: Amasa, Baraga, Bergland, Carney, Gwinn, Newberry BMUs | Sep 25 – Oct 26 |
| Bait & other methods, dogs prohibited | Lower Peninsula: Baldwin, Gladwin, Red Oak BMUs | Sep 12 – Sep 13 |
| Bait and dogs both permitted | Lower Peninsula: Baldwin, Gladwin, Red Oak BMUs | Sep 14 – Sep 18 |
| Dogs required (bait also allowed) | Lower Peninsula: Baldwin, Gladwin, Red Oak BMUs | Sep 19 – Sep 22 |
| Archery only — firearms and dogs prohibited | Lower Peninsula: Baldwin, Gladwin, Red Oak BMUs | Oct 2 – Oct 8 |
02 — Bag limits & check-in
| Statewide | One bear per bear license. Taking a cub bear (under 42 inches nose-to-tail-base) or a female bear accompanied by cub(s) is prohibited |
|---|---|
| BMU permit lottery | Bear hunting is permit-only: a hunter must apply and be drawn for a specific Bear Management Unit and hunt period before hunting bear there at all. Each BMU/period carries its own license quota (roughly 8 to 830 licenses for 2026) that caps how many hunters can hunt that unit — this is not an over-the-counter, statewide-unlimited season |
| Registration | Within 72 hours of harvest, bring the unfrozen, undivided head and hide (or the whole animal) to a DNR registration station; staff attach an official seal, extract a premolar tooth for age analysis, and may collect a hair sample |
03 — Shooting hours
Legal light on opening day (September 9, 2026) 06:44 — 20:32
Rule: One-half hour before sunrise to one-half hour after sunset, per the DNR's official bear regulations summary — exact clock times vary by date and hunting zone (the digest publishes zone-specific tables); no bear-specific exception to the general rule was found. Sunrise/sunset shift daily — the times above are computed for opening day; use your local Michigan sun times for any other date.
04 — License
Bear hunters in Michigan need a Michigan hunting license — a drawn Bear Management Unit (BMU) license for a specific BMU and hunt period — apply May 1–June 1, 2026 ($5 application fee), drawing results June 22, 2026; unsuccessful applicants earn a preference point (must apply at least once every 5 years to keep it). A bear license costs $25 ($15 no-kill-tag option) plus the base license fee, in addition to being drawn Check-in or reporting a harvest is typically mandatory; see the row above for Michigan's specific rule.
Michigan hunting license cost →
Where to hunt public land in Michigan — WMAs by county & access rules →
05 — Scouting gear
Patterning bear activity before Michigan's opener usually means glassing feeding areas and running a trail camera through summer — check the state's own rules on baiting before you set one over bait.
- Hunting binoculars on Amazon →
- Trail cameras on Amazon →
- Trail camera SD cards — class, capacity & format explained →
As an Amazon Associate we earn from qualifying purchases. These are category links, not a single named pick — we run no product tests of our own.
06 — FAQ
When does bear season open in Michigan?
The earliest 2026 opener is September 9, 2026. See the table above for each method and zone.
When does bear season end in Michigan?
The latest 2026 closing date is October 26, 2026. Individual segments and zones can close earlier — see the table above.
Do I need a separate bear license or tag in Michigan?
a drawn Bear Management Unit (BMU) license for a specific BMU and hunt period — apply May 1–June 1, 2026 ($5 application fee), drawing results June 22, 2026; unsuccessful applicants earn a preference point (must apply at least once every 5 years to keep it). A bear license costs $25 ($15 no-kill-tag option) plus the base license fee, in addition to being drawn
How many bears can you shoot in Michigan?
2026 bag limits: Statewide — One bear per bear license. Taking a cub bear (under 42 inches nose-to-tail-base) or a female bear accompanied by cub(s) is prohibited. BMU permit lottery — Bear hunting is permit-only: a hunter must apply and be drawn for a specific Bear Management Unit and hunt period before hunting bear there at all. Each BMU/period carries its own license quota (roughly 8 to 830 licenses for 2026) that caps how many hunters can hunt that unit — this is not an over-the-counter, statewide-unlimited season. Registration — Within 72 hours of harvest, bring the unfrozen, undivided head and hide (or the whole animal) to a DNR registration station; staff attach an official seal, extract a premolar tooth for age analysis, and may collect a hair sample. Limits are set per zone and per permit — check the agency's own regulations before you hunt.
What time can you start shooting bear in Michigan?
On opening day (September 9, 2026) legal light runs 06:44 to 20:32. The rule is: One-half hour before sunrise to one-half hour after sunset, per the DNR's official bear regulations summary — exact clock times vary by date and hunting zone (the digest publishes zone-specific tables); no bear-specific exception to the general rule was found. Sunrise and sunset shift daily, so work the offset against your local Michigan sun times for any other date.
Can I hunt bear on my own land in Michigan without a license?
A Michigan resident, their spouse, and their children may hunt small game without a license on farmland they're actually domiciled on. Deer and turkey aren't covered, and owning land you don't live on doesn't qualify.
Verified · Michigan Department of Natural Resources · Last verified 2026-08-14
Publisher's note. Michigan.gov returns 403 to automated fetchers, so both the regulations page and the official '2026 Bear Hunting Regulations Summary' PDF (michigan.gov/dnr/.../digests/2026_bear_regs_summary.pdf) were read via the r.jina.ai text-extraction proxy. The PDF's full Bear Management Unit (BMU) table lists per-BMU, per-hunt-period open/close dates and license quotas; this file consolidates the Upper Peninsula's three shared hunt-period date patterns (Period 1: Sept 9–Oct 21; Period 2: Sept 14–Oct 26; Period 3: Sept 25–Oct 26, applying across the Amasa, Baraga, Bergland, Carney, Gwinn and Newberry BMUs, with Drummond Island offering Period 1 only) and the Lower Peninsula's single-period, four-method-segment structure shared by the Baldwin, Gladwin and Red Oak BMUs. 2026 license quotas by BMU/period ranged from 8 (Drummond Island) to 830 (Baraga Period 3) per the same PDF table — not reproduced row-by-row here since bagLimits covers the lottery mechanism rather than exact per-unit counts, which change annually. Michigan runs bear hunting entirely through this BMU drawing: a hunter needs an approved application and a drawn license for a specific BMU and hunt period before hunting bear there at all — this is a genuine permit-gated hunt, described here in bagLimits/licenseNote rather than via the site's formal 'access' warning-box component, per build instructions reserving that component for a different, smaller set of states. Cub definition, registration deadline/process, and shooting-hours rule are stated directly in the PDF. Not independently confirmed this round: the exact nonresident license surcharge (secondary sources cite roughly $151, not found verbatim in this read of the official PDF) — confirm directly with the DNR before relying on it.