2500 28th Street - PO Box 57 - Slayton, MN 56172

hunting

The Walk-In Access (WIA) program is a three-year pilot program funded by the U.S. Department of Agriculture. It aims to provide new hunting opportunities on private land that already is enrolled in existing conservation programs. Click HERE for more information.

Finding places to hunt in Murray County is fairly easy with approximately 65 State Wildlife Management Areas (WMA’s) and Federal Waterfowl Production Areas (WPA’s) totaling about 9,000 acres. These areas are open to the public for hunting, trapping and wildlife observation. Most areas are grassland containing wetlands of varying sizes and some contain food plots and woody cover areas consisting of shrubs and conifers. A few areas contain woodlands.

Talcot WMA is located seven miles east of Fulda on the Murray – Cottonwood county line and is over 3,000 acres in size. It offers a controlled goose, hunt and hunting opportuni¬ties for ducks, deer, pheasants and other small game.

Murray County has about 12,000 acres of land enrolled in the Conservation Reserve Program (CRP). This federal farm program pays landowners to take cropland out of production and establish wildlife habitat. Permission must be obtained before hunting on any private land. A plat book of the county can be purchased at the court house for a nominal fee.

The most popular game species ‘pursued in the county are white-tailed deer, pheasant; ducks and geese. Less popular game animals are Hungarian partridge, crow, squirrels, rabbits, raccoon, fox and coyote. Archery, muzzle loader and shotgun with slug hunts are available in Murray County.
Pheasant populations vary from year to year depending on the weather the previous year and spring nesting season. Good numbers of pheasants can be found in good habitat areas following mild winters and dry springs.

The local Canada goose population is ample enough to provide liberal hunting seasons during September and December. However, Canada goose hunting during October and November is more conservative than the rest of the state to protect non-local goose populations that migrate through the area.

Duck hunting is good at times which is dependent mainly on the timing of the ducks migrating through the area and on the condition of of habitat and water levels in the area marshes.