This state's classification carries no date range for the species.
No general open season for 2026-27.Limited to controlled hunts on four designated areas: Appalachian Hills Wildlife Area, Shawnee State Forest, Vinton Furnace State Forest, and Zaleski State Forest (with adjacent Waterloo Wildlife Area). Access is via lottery-style permit application; the 2026-27 application window closed July 31, 2026, with successful applicants notified the following week and given permit/rules/map. Specific in-season hunt dates for permit holders were not found in any source reachable this pass. Ohio's ruffed grouse population is very low-density statewide (ODNR's 2020-21 hunter survey estimated only ~3,016 hunters and ~520 birds harvested statewide that season, historical context only).
ODNR runs a real, active statewide citizen-science Wild Turkey and Ruffed Grouse Brood Survey (public sightings via the Wildlife Reporting System / HuntFish OH app, grouse added 1999); the 2026 cycle is confirmed open per a July 26, 2026 call-for-participation article, but no discrete dated 2026 results report was found -- genuinely active monitoring with no dated report, per this plan's own convention for that shape of gap. A 2023-2024 acoustic recording unit (ARU) pilot for grouse drumming exists alongside it but isn't confirmed as an ongoing annual product. Separately (a classification, not outlook, fact): the general statewide 2026-27 season is gone, replaced by a lottery-permit-only controlled hunt on four public land units.