Grouse hunters Journal

[castmaster]

Tyler,

Want to talk about OUCH!! Try paying $100 for NR license to hunt Pheasants thats only good for two 7 day periods, and then getting pinched another $100 (to hunt in either zone 1 or 2 for 7 days and then zone 3 for 7 days) or $125 (to hunt statewide for 2 7 day periods or 14 days straight) to hunt waterfowl on top of that. So if you want to do a 1 week combo trip it will set you back anywhere from $200-$225 in licenses, and isnt even good for a full season like MN NR license is good for!

And then a NR cant even hunt public land for the first week (or is it 2 weeks?) of the season!

I'd say for the outdoor opportunities MN presents our NR licenses are priced VERY fairly!

[Chef]

We need to have 1-1 reciprocity on license fees and date restrictions. If a State, like Iowa, charges 400 for a LOTTERY Deer Tag, then MN should do the same for NR Iowans who want to hunt in MN. That just might get this whole gouging issue put to rest.

[KOTTKE]

Just retruned from the range last weekend with the kids and what a blast, finally some birds, kids and wife were able to spread some shot but no birds, went out with my uncle and finshed w/4 birds on Sunday. Lots of hunters!!!

Sledneck,

which area you from. All my realtion are from Virgina and Mt. Iron.

[duckbuster]

you any relation to Steve Kottke?

[SledNeck]

I know who steve is

[duckbuster]

Is he still at the city working?

[KOTTKE]

Thats my uncle, we were just up at his place hunting last weekend. How do you know him? I see your also from Waconia.

[duckbuster]

I grew up 2 blocks from him in South Grove and I worked with him in the summer at the city.

[maros91]

Hunted Mille Lacs Co. with a buddy and flushed about a dozen birds from 1 till dark with 2 in the bag. They were in the thick stuff. No woodcock flushes. I love grouse hunting...I need to get out more.

[Fishpondc]

Hunted Beltrami State forest with a buddy, in two days we flushed 12 and got 4 ruffs and 1 spruce. Any ideas on how to get rid of "pine needle" taste of spruce grouse, I was told they taste terrible, but im going to give it a try with some cream of mushroom soup along with some pheasant.

[duckbuster]

We have marinated them in Italian dressing for a day then put them in a slow cooker for an ALL day soak/cook.

We have also tried soaking them in a pre-made Onion soup for a day then slow cooked them in a freshly made Onion soup.

[NoWiser]

I was told they tasted terrible as well. Last year I shot two and just breaded them in flour ans sauteed them with the ruffies I also shot. I thought they were as good, or better than the ruffs, so did my roommate.

[uplander]

10 25

Mille lacs county

weather was misting all day

The hunting was exceptional today. Hunted from 11 - 4 had had at least a dozen grouse pointed and probably 20 wood cock. The woodcock were giant migrators some of the biggest doodles i've ever seen and actually saw several of them running out from under the points only to flush way ahead...crazy stuff. The grouse cooperated nicely for the setter and we ended up with 6 in the bag. All poited. It was one of those days you want to log in the memory bank forever. The wettnes may have helped hold the birds tighter than normal. I actually put two grouse up in a young clear cut where i thought my dog was for sure on a woodcock. When the grouse came up over the wide open air it was to good to be true..I can already taste them. I can't wait to get back out!! All birds were taken off edges. Edge of a cut or a swamp but always an edge. It was one time that no matter how wet and cold I was it was worth it! And I was soaked!!! Only two weeks til the orange army invades! Get out while you can! Good luck all!

[TylerS]

Oct. 23, South West of Park Rapids.

Grandpa called me up from Fergus Falls and said he really wanted to go grouse hunting, so I obliged. Went to some spots off Hwy 34 east of DL he had hunted years ago in state forest only to find posted signs and houses. Pretty dicouraging (especially since it's state forest...guess Minn. decided to sell a bunch of it?!) Eventually walked a couple trails. Saw one bird on the road. It flushed into a person's yard. Walked another trail all the way to the end only to flush two birds deep in the woods right near our truck. Oh well, weather was beautiful and I got to spend a day hunting with my granpda, so I can't complain!

Tyler,

Want to talk about OUCH!! Try paying $100 for NR license to hunt Pheasants thats only good for two 7 day periods, and then getting pinched another $100 (to hunt in either zone 1 or 2 for 7 days and then zone 3 for 7 days) or $125 (to hunt statewide for 2 7 day periods or 14 days straight) to hunt waterfowl on top of that. So if you want to do a 1 week combo trip it will set you back anywhere from $200-$225 in licenses, and isnt even good for a full season like MN NR license is good for!

And then a NR cant even hunt public land for the first week (or is it 2 weeks?) of the season!

I'd say for the outdoor opportunities MN presents our NR licenses are priced VERY fairly!

I didn't post here to start a pi$$ing match, but apparently I struck a nerve.

I never said it wasn't fair, just that it was expensive. I hunt grouse in Minnesota because I have family there and I know where to go. Not many ruffs in N.D. And you're right, North Dakota NR licenses are expenive. I know because I was a NR for a period of time until they passed the resiprocity law for students. Now THAT was sweet, especially for a former poor college student such as myself.

As far as the waterfowl license, you're comparing apples and grapefruits. You don't see many NRs heading to Minnesota to hunt ducks whereas they come to N.D. in droves. We have the waterfowl numbers, the habitat and lots of land (plus, if it's not posted you can hunt it without permission...which doesn't fly in Minnesota).

Let me ask you this: if you had more than the two allotted weeks to hunt pheasants or waterfowl, how often would you come here? Every couple weeks? Every weekend? A whole month? I doubt it, unless you work at a very flexible job and have gobs of money to spend on gas and lodging (and a revenous appetite for whatever you're hunting as your posession limit only is twice the daily limit and if you're here for 14 days, that's a heckuva lot of ducks or pheasants to eat if you hunt every day...)

I'd say for the outdoor opportunites ND presents our NR licenses are priced VERY fairly, too!

I apologize for muddying this thread with non-journal entries. If anyone wants to discuss this further you can start another topic.

[Matt Breuer]

I could care less, there are basically no ruffies in ND...

I hunted the Bemidji area on Thurs. for 2 hours, again on Sat. for 3 hours, and 1 hour on Sunday. Put up 21 birds total, bagged 6. Weather varied from mist to sunshine at times. The best hunting was Thursday morning when the sun peeked out for the first time in 4 days....

[Chef]

10/23 and 24--Location--Between Federal Dam and Bena. I started at about 7:30 am, cloudy, light breeze, in an area I've walked for years and always had great opportunities. This was my second time there this year too and the first was two weeks prior in the snow--2 flushes that morning was it.

No Dog this year--our GSP was hit in June in front of the house and died.

This time I had more flushes, 6 in 2 hrs. slow walking the trails and entering the woods where I could swing a gun. I downed 1 all day.

Saturday am, started at 9:30 sun was finally out for two hours and I flushed 8 in about 1.5 hrs. bagged 2.

[R. Miller]

Hunted Saturday around Blackduck. We put up 14 grouse and 2 woodcock on Saturday. Funny thing was I really only saw 5 of the 14 birds, they were really jumpy, and although the leaves are really coming down, they were flushing wild and in the thick stuff. Really wouldn't hold even a little for the setter. Ended up harvesting one nice grouse that day, shot at two. Had two really nice woodcock points and harvested one.

Sunday was more of well, rain. I only hunted 2 hrs(didn't want to chance getting sick again) and flushed to young birds on the edge of a spruce woods. Harvested 1 of 2 and really choked on the 2nd. Both of the grouse were full of clover.

Drove home in the rain on Sunday and I'm really kicking myself now after reading Uplanders woodcock reports! I drove right by you, man! I should've given a ring.

[2thepointsetters]

I got out this afternoon and had 8 awesome points from my oldest setter Buddy. We put up all 8 grouse in less than 50 minutes, it was the best action I have seen in years. I was not able to connect with any because of the way they were flushing. It still was probably best time I have ever had hunting. Just me, the dog and plenty of birds.

I used a bell instead of the beeper collar and it seems that the grouse hold better. I used think the beeper didn't scare birds, but I am starting to think it does.

[R. Miller]

2thepoint,

thats interesting i've often thought about getting a beeper collar(especially this year when I couldnt find my setter in the thick stuff on woodcock points), b/c some have said beepers freezes the birds. Glad to hear your opinion too...don't know what too do...definitely love the traditional bell though.

[2thepointsetters]

I started with the bell a few years ago and then got caught up with the whole the e-collar beeper system. The bell worked great tonight with just one dog. BUT... When I run more than one dog or hunt with other people the beeper is needed because I often lose track of the dogs when I just see white flashes going across the trail and before you know it the beeper goes off somewhere you had no idea the dog was. The locate feature is also great when you dont know where the dog is locked up at. I had to use it once tonight to find the dog on point, I knew he was on point but wasn't sure how far out he was.

I would never run my dogs without the collar on, but up until now I always used the beep on point feature. Once you have the locater you wonder how you made this long without it.

I dont think the beeper helps hold the birds at all. I dont think it bothers most though, I even use it on late season educated pheasants without issue.

It takes some conditioning with the dog so they are used the loud beeping when they are whoa'd or on point.

[R. Miller]

Yeah, good info. I can see how the locate feature would be nice. Over the last several years, in the grouse woods at least, its usually only me and the dog or me and a hunting partner and the dog, so I don't have much problem. I acutally bought the sportdog 1850 0r whichever one has both the e collar and beeper, and I returned it(thought it was maybe too bulky) and got the 1800 instead. Like I said, my setter is 2 yrs old now and after losing him on a few woodcock points with year I'm definitely thinking abotu upgrading...okay, I know this is a thread about grouse outings, sorry.

[rmkod]

Hunted Aitkin county today. Put up 7 grouse and 4 or so woodcock. Only managed to connect on 1 woodcock.

[CRAZYEYES]

Hunted tuesday just west of walker. We only saw 4 birds all day around that area but I nailed 2 of them and the weather was decent for a change so not too bad. Today we hunted just east of grand rapids near warba. The bird numbers were pretty good in that area. I bet we saw 25 plus and ended up with 6. We also almost got a deer on the way home. It was either an 8 or nine pointer and I could have reached my hand out the window and grabbed it going 60 mph! The deer definately are on the move so watch out, we saw a lot of road killed on the roads the last couple days.

[panthrcat]

we went north of Kenora, ONtario twice (last sat and the sat before) and limited out on birds (ruffed grouse)

rumour had it that the bird count was really low this year due to a not good spring, but that's not what we are seeing,. we aren't having any trouble seeing 25-30 birds on an outing!!

Sue

[Matt Breuer]

You seeing many spruce hens up there, Sue?

[grousewoods]

Aitkin co. on the 28th put up 23 grouse and one woodcock the grouse are getting smarter!lots of wild flushes. Came home with 2 birds and happy had some good dog work and a great day to be in the woods.

[panthrcat]

You seeing many spruce hens up there, Sue?

not as many as years past,, we didn't see any the first day out, but the second we nailed 2

[Matt Breuer]

Since this thread has been so quiet, I thought I'd add a report...

I road hunted on Friday for a bit on my way home from work. Saw 6 birds, harvested 2. It was raining pretty heavy, so the birds were running like crazy.

Sat. and Sun. I was up in NW MN and I took a couple of walks with the GSP's looking for sharptail and huns. We managed to get up close and personal w/ roughly 30 of the 75 or so sharptail we saw. I managed to down 2, and flat out missed a third. Lots of deer hunters pushing CRP, so I only took the couple of short walks.

Anyone out there chasing birds yet?

[Neighbor_guy]

Since this thread has been so quiet, I thought I'd add a report...

1. I road hunted on Friday for a bit on my way home from work. Saw 6 birds, harvested 2.... 2. ....Anyone out there chasing birds yet?...

Two things.....

1. Lucky (just kidding, a little jellosy comming out)

2. Soon...... Very soon.........

[lindy rig]

I have a trip planned when rifle season ends.