Iron County Lodging Association

Iron County Hunting

Hunt Whitetail Deer, Black Bear, Wild Game

bird-hunting-family

Sportsmen are drawn to Iron County for its superb hunting found in prime forestland and on the many waterways dotting the county.

Hunters have opportunities to harvest a trophy white-tailed deer and daily bag limits of grouse, woodcock and waterfowl. With more than 425,000 acres of public land open to hunters, and vast miles of roads and hunting trails offering easy access to prime locations.

Whitetail Deer Hunting

Whitetail Deer begin their season with a reddish brown color in the spring and summer.  Eventually they turn grey-brown throughout the fall of & winter. Whitetail Deer males weigh from 130 to 220 pounds, but some have been known to be over 300 pounds.

  • Liberty hunt: Sept. 14 – 15, 2024
  • Early antlerless firearm: Sept. 21 – 22, 2024
  • Independence hunt: Oct. 17 – 20, 2024   
  • Archery: Oct. 1 – Nov. 14 and Dec. 1, 2024 – Jan. 1, 2025
      • Extended archery season is extended through Jan. 31, 2025 (for select counties)
  • Regular firearm: Nov. 15 – 30, 2024
  • Muzzleloading (Zones 1, 2 and 3): Dec. 6 – 15, 2024 
  • Late antlerless firearm: Dec. 16, 2024 – Jan. 1, 2025 
  • A new extended late antlerless firearm season:  Jan. 2-12, 2025 (for select counties)

 

See DNR for more hunting details

Bird & Fowl Hunting

Woodcock, ruffed grouse, partridge, and a variety of duck species  can all be found throughout the Iron County Area.  With over 42,000 acres of lakes, area ducks and geese thrive.  Dubbed one of the best ruffed grouse hunting areas by the Ruffed Grouse Society, the opportunities are endless within all of our forests.  One of the major contributors to the area’s success is the fact that half of our forests are full of aspen – the perfect habitat for grouse and woodcock. 

Click here to find all bird hunting season dates.

Michigan’s great outdoors are home to many outstanding hunting opportunities. The state’s ruffed grouse get scores of resident and nonresident hunters afield each fall, and with good reason.

Hunting Upper Michigan grouse can be one of the best ways to spend a fall day. You don’t need a ton of gear—yourself, a trusty shotgun, a pocketful of shells, some hunter’s orange, and perhaps a good dog will do. A grouse hunt is never a waste of time, even when you don’t bag any of the tasty birds.

Grouse can elusive, but if you simply open your ears, it’s often quite easy to find them

Turkey Hunting

A wild turkey is an exciting bird to hunt.  For a long time, turkey experts said that wild turkeys could never survive a winter in the north.  In spite of the experts, in 1994 Wildlife Unlimited launched a project to introduce the wild turkey into Iron County. The project was so successful with an estimated population of 3,000 birds for spring & fall hunt seasons!

Don’t miss the chance to hunt wild turkey. Turkey hunting returned to Michigan in 1965 with a fall season occurring in the Allegan area.

Wild Turkey Licenses & Hunting Dates

Get the Michigan DNR hunting calendar for Spring & Fall hunting dates, information on licenses and more.

Bear Hunting

The black bear population in Iron County is healthy and especially near Amasa, Michigan.  Approximately 15,000 – 19,000 black bears (including cubs) roam the hardwood and conifer forests of northern Michigan. About 90 percent of the bear live in the Upper Peninsula MI, while the remaining ten percent are mainly found in the northern Lower Peninsula.

Bear Hunting License

See season dates in the Michigan Bear Hunting Digest

Woodcock

Iron County is one of the top destinations for hunters seeking ruffed grouse and woodcocks. The DNR attributes the high population to the large amount of aspen found in Iron County, and aspen is a favorite habitat for grouse and woodcock. The season goes from mid-September through mid-November. According to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Services Harvest Information Program survey you take when purchasing a small-game license, Michigan was the top state in the nation for woodcock harvest, with 28,000 hunters killing 107,000 woodcock in 2011.  

Iron County MI Hunting leaves endless possibility sport year-round. With hundreds of thousands of acres of public hunting land and over forty thousand acres of lakes, Iron County Michigan makes a good home for animals small and large.

For current dates see the Michigan DNR hunting season calendar

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Brule Sporting Clays

What is Sporting Clays?  Think of it as ‘golf with a shotgun’.  Sporting clays is a shotgun shooting game in which clay pigeons are presented to the gunner in ways that mirror the flight patterns of game birds or occasionally rabbits, in their natural habitats.  A course consists of several stations which creates entirely new shooting presentations at each station.  With variations in trap position, trap speed, shooting position, and flight paths of different types of target size, targets can come from trees, straight down, over your head, quartering … truly any path a real bird may choose.  It’s a great way to prepare for bird season.  Brule Sporting Clays is located at Ski Brule resort www.skibrule.com.

Shooting is available Friday/ Saturday / Sunday beginning Memorial Day weekend through June and again September / October.  Shooting midweek is available by advanced reservation.   Sporting Clays shooting is available daily in July & August.   Hours are 9-4:00 with last squad out at 3pm.  Cost:  $20 – 50 Targets and $30 – 100 targets.  Gun rental and ammo available at the Clubhouse.

Rewarding Places to Stay in Michigan

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AmericInn
by Wyndham

906-214-2308
906-265-9100
40 E Adams St
Iron River, MI 49935

Chicaugon-Lake-Inn-front-entry-1024x679-square-landscape-19887756cc5b4810e55a6baff1261e73-ou8yfm5cjhep
Chicaugon
Lake Inn

906-265-9244
1700 County Road 424
Gaastra, MI 49917

Lakeshore Motel - Ice Lake
Lakeshore Motel
Ice Lake

906-265-3611
1257 W Ice Lake Rd
Iron River, MI 49935

Pg-19_Inset_fireworks-landscape-76b9c76c809f50200abf168229bdde8c-nwgu45p89z7j
Pioneer
Lodge

800-362-7853
373 Brule Mountain Rd
Iron River, MI 49935

lodge
Ski Brule
Village

800-DO-BRULE
906-265-4957
397 Brule Mountain Rd
Iron River, MI 49935

tallpines
Tall
Pines

906-822-7713
1968 US 141 Highway
Amasa, MI 49903

Iron County Michigan 2025 Visitor Guide

Iron County Michigan Visitors Guide

Iron County is one of the Upper Peninsula’s best kept secrets. From camping to fishing, hunting to canoeing, mountain biking to forest bathing – no matter your interests, the great outdoors and clear crisp air await you here.

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Iron County Lodging Association