Where to find Grouse

[chasineyes]

Newbie here to the grousing world, so where do you find/hunt for grouse? My parents have a cabin up in Walker so we were up there this past weekend and went out walking in the PaulBunyan forest. Is there something you should look for in regards to cover, water food etc..? I doubt your suppose to just walk the trails and hope for the best???

Thanks

Great weekend for walking though with the leaves in good color!!!

[TylerS]

It's a dry year, so your best bet is to concentrate on trails very near creek/river bottoms or boggy areas.

I'd also look for "grousy" cover, consisting of young popular groves and pinewood transition areas. Don't pass on any berry patches. Grouse love highbush cranberries. Clover and birch buds also are grouse go-tos.

Then hunt the first few hours of the morning and the last few hours of the evening. That's your best bet for finding birds near trails. If you don't mind busting brush, you could hunt all day, too, but I enjoy stopping for lunch and a nap halfway through the day, anyway.

[laportian]

I was down around Walker yesterday. I put a few miles on and flushed a few was all. Young, dog hair thick popple is my favorite hunt. Stuff that is 10 to twenty years old. Transition areas too are nice. I used to cruise timber for a living and would often find them deep in ash swales too. I like in the mornings the best. Catch alot of them trying to warm up in the sun after a chilly night.

[jparrucci]

What was previously said is spot oin. I too was near Walker duck hunting wood ducks. Not a single grouse seen while putting on well over 100 miles on logging roads. This morning I took a ten minute walk with the dog while my friend worked on his deer stand and I flushed two. Both were in young poplar stands. Only got off one shot and didn't connect. The dog did point the bird but if flushed to thick cover. I do not think you have to bust brush to bag birds. Walk the small logging roads. A good dog helps. Mine will walk about twenty yards in front of me and then head into cover when he picks up a scent. It is about the only way I can keep him from roaming too far ahead like he is supposed to while pheasant hunting.

[Matt Breuer]

There are zero boggy areas, almost zero berries, and typical cover isn't working for me. This is the best start I've ever had to a season (14 years of logs) and my number one area is a spot I've only ever seen 2 grouse on in the past.

Otherwise, good advice above. 10-20 year old aspen clusters, edges of pine to aspen transitions, and mostly near spots where any green is visible. Trail edges, runoff cuts, etc... Of the 31 birds I've seen fall in our group this year, 28 of them had clover only, one had some catkins with clover, one had a bunch of red mash that smelled pungent, and I've never seen it in a crop before, and another had 2 dogwood berries with clover.