Minnesota · Squirrel · 2026–27 Edition
Minnesota Squirrel Season 2026–27: Dates & Bag Limits
01 — Seasons
| Season | Zone | Dates |
|---|---|---|
| Squirrel season (gray & fox) | Statewide | Sep 19 – Feb 28 |
02 — Bag limits
| Daily | 7 gray and fox squirrels, combined |
|---|---|
| Possession | 14, combined |
03 — Shooting hours
Legal light on opening day (September 19, 2026) 06:31 — 19:19
Rule: Half an hour before sunrise to SUNSET — printed in the Small Game Hunting Seasons table for gray and fox squirrel. Minnesota gives small game no after-sunset margin, unlike its big game (deer, bear, elk), which runs to half an hour after sunset. Pheasant is a further exception in the same table, opening at 9 a.m. Sunrise/sunset shift daily — the times above are computed for opening day; use your local Minnesota sun times for any other date.
04 — License
Squirrel hunters in Minnesota need a Minnesota hunting license — This entry covers only gray and fox squirrel, the two species named in Minnesota's squirrel-hunting rule. Whether red squirrel or flying squirrel are open, closed, or simply unaddressed by any rule is an unresolved question — see source.note — and is deliberately left out of this file's data rather than guessed.
Minnesota hunting license cost →
Where to hunt public land in Minnesota — WMAs by county & access rules →
05 — FAQ
When does squirrel season start in Minnesota?
The 2026–27 opener is September 19, 2026. See the table above for the full window.
When does squirrel season end in Minnesota?
The 2026–27 closing date is February 28, 2027.
Is there a difference between fox and gray squirrel rules in Minnesota?
See the bag limit table above — most states run one combined limit across both species, but this is worth confirming against Minnesota Department of Natural Resources before you hunt.
How many squirrels can you shoot in Minnesota per day?
2026–27 bag limits: Daily — 7 gray and fox squirrels, combined. Possession — 14, combined. Limits are set per zone and per permit — check the agency's own regulations before you hunt.
What time can you start shooting squirrel in Minnesota?
On opening day (September 19, 2026) legal light runs 06:31 to 19:19. The rule is: Half an hour before sunrise to SUNSET — printed in the Small Game Hunting Seasons table for gray and fox squirrel. Minnesota gives small game no after-sunset margin, unlike its big game (deer, bear, elk), which runs to half an hour after sunset. Pheasant is a further exception in the same table, opening at 9 a.m. Sunrise and sunset shift daily, so work the offset against your local Minnesota sun times for any other date.
Can I hunt squirrels on my own land in Minnesota without a license?
Minnesota's exemption is narrow: it covers small game only, and only on land that is your actual principal residence — owning land you don't live on doesn't qualify. Deer, bear, and turkey always need a license and tags, even at home.
Verified · Minnesota Department of Natural Resources · Last verified 2026-08-14
Publisher's note. Minnesota Rules 6234.0700 (Taking Gray Squirrels and Fox Squirrels), the state's own codified hunting rule read via the Office of the Revisor of Statutes (revisor.mn.gov — Minnesota's official rules/statute publisher): 'Gray squirrels and fox squirrels may be taken by legal firearm, bow and arrow, and traps from the Saturday nearest September 16 to the last day in February,' with a daily limit of 7 and possession limit of 14 combined. The Saturday nearest Sept. 16, 2026 (a Wednesday) is Sept. 19, 2026, which matches the DNR's own small-game hunting page (dnr.state.mn.us/hunting/smallgame) giving 'September 19, 2026 through February 28, 2027' directly. RED/FLYING SQUIRREL — OPEN QUESTION, EXPLICITLY FLAGGED: rule 6234.0700 covers only gray and fox squirrel; red squirrel and flying (northern/southern) squirrel are not named anywhere in it. The general small-game definition (Minn. Stat. 97A.015 subd. 45) also names only gray and fox squirrel as regulated 'small game.' Minnesota's own statutory list of 'unprotected wild animals' (97A.015 subd. 53) — the category that can be taken without season or limit — names specific species (coyote, plains pocket gopher, porcupine, striped skunk, unprotected birds) and does NOT include red or flying squirrel by name either. So red/flying squirrel fall into neither the regulated-game list nor the explicit unprotected-animal list; their legal status is genuinely ambiguous from the statute text alone. DNR's own red-squirrel and flying-squirrel species pages (dnr.state.mn.us/mammals/redsquirrel.html, .../flyingsquirrel.html) describe them informally as hunted/harvested (red squirrel) or simply not commercially pursued (flying squirrel, 'no meat or fur value... not hunted or trapped') but neither page makes a formal legal-status statement. NO DEFINITIVE DNR STATEMENT confirming or denying a closure on red or flying squirrel was found in this research pass — this remains an open question, consistent with a prior pass on this project. This file's data fields (season/bag/limits) cover ONLY the confirmed gray/fox squirrel rule; no red or flying squirrel entry is included, and no closure is asserted as fact. SHOOTING HOURS: rules 6234.0100 (General Restrictions for Taking Small Game) and 6234.0700 itself were read in full and contain NO shooting-hours provision at all for squirrel — only 6234.0800 (falconry) and 6234.0400 (pheasant, 9 a.m.–sunset) have explicit hours language in this chapter. Because no squirrel-specific (or general small-game) hours rule could be found in the codified text, shootingHours is omitted here rather than guessed, despite some secondary aggregator pages asserting a generic '½ hour before sunrise to sunset' figure that could not be traced to a primary source.