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Grouse anyone


sparetime

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Got up about a dozen birds yesterday in about 4 hours. All were 30 plus yards off the trails. I was hunting my young pup all day so there is still a learning curve. He had multiple solid points but I only managed two iffy shots. Birds kept getting up as I was making my way back into the thick stuff where the dog was locked up.

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I spent the weekend up by Nashuak by Hibbing and got 3 for the 4 of us. Not many birds but the rain did not help either

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Looking at chasing after some grouse this weekend. Never really done it before. We will be hunting in the cass lake area. Have two labs that are experienced pheasant hunters. Any advice for a newbie?

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Went out yesterday and flushed six and got two. It seems the leaves coming off the trees is helping but numbers are down

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have any of you guys ever try those hunter walking trails. havent been out yet this year but i tried a couple last year and saw nothing. very new to grouse hunting. do you stay on trails or walk into the woods? any info would help.

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Choco, You can zigzag back and forth on/off the trails. Most of them get pounded pretty hard. Do yourself a favor and pick up a land plat map for the county that shows tax forfiet land. You can hunt that usually alone. Hang in there, It took me a couple years to actually connect with the birds. I hunt dogless and slow, 5 steps then stop and listen. Once you find the preferred cover and food for your area it gets a little easier. Also when you get one check the crop to see what they have been feeding on It's a real eye opener. I look for wrist sized aspen thickets, big stands of dogwood bushes, choke cherries, alder, acorns, wild strawberry, raspberry, and clover on or near trails. I still learn stuff after all these 20+ years.

Good Luck,

Ferny.

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WinnieWalleye -

Lots of great trails in the area for grouse in the Cass lake area, I will be up there chasing grouse around along with some other extended family for 4 days. Hoping to get my oldest son on a grouse or two this trip. Report back how you do.

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Got out for a few hours on Sunday. Beautiful day to be in the woods of northern Lake County. Had to work for it, but came home with one in the box. full-22284-37945-img_0879.jpg

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Winniewalleye - I can give you a tip pertaining to your excellent choice of dog breed. Labs tend to hunt close, and they don't like to be left behind. There's also a tendency for a lot of dogs to stay on the trail, which is not where you want them. So when they go out into the bush and work an area, regardless of how far or for how long, make a point of stopping until they step back onto the trail. Let them see that you're going to give them all the time they want to sniff around. Once they have confidence that you're not going to proceed without them, they'll be more incented to spend time in the thick stuff.

One caveat - if they go out there and stay out, moving in the direction you're walking, stay with them. Don't let them get too far ahead of you. But don't worry about it if they go a long ways out perpindicular to the trail. They may flush birds that you won't see, but that's a bird you wouldn't have flushed anyway. No harm. And sometimes those birds fly your way.

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My advice for newbies, as I was one once myself:

Easiest way to learn grouse hunting is to start walking trails. Yes they get a lot of traffic but you will still come across some birds. Like it was said above, if hunting without a dog go slow and stop every 10-15 steps. This makes the birds nervous when you stop because they think you are stalking them. If you walk continuously without stopping, they will feel safe and often let you pass by.

When you do flush a bird, take note on what type of cover where they were flushed. Pretty soon you will be able to identify cover that looks "grousy" and you will not have to hunt trails anymore if you don't want to.

When you do flush a grouse, follow it (if you missed). They never fly very far. Also, some times there is more than one grouse in the area.

You can stick to the trails and just identify the grousy areas and then go off trail into the woods. I did that this weekend and managed to flush 5 woodcock in 20 or 30 minutes. Woodcock are a bonus when grouse hunting. Also, lots of people are lazy and will hunt the trails only. So if you get off trail there should be birds.

Once you learn what cover is grousy, you will learn that the worst cover to hunt is the best cover for grouse and woodcock. Its usually thick cover. You will learn the infamous frustration of hearing a grouse flush when you are in the worst position, such as bent over trying to walk under or through branches....LOL.

Another piece of advice, don't bypass conifers. Especially if they border typical grouse cover. Birds will often roost and seek shelter in them.

My last piece of advice (from personal experience) grin, before heading off trail into the woods take note of what direction you are heading. Use a compass, GPS, or note what direction the sun is in. It is really easy to go chasing birds and all of a sudden you try to figure out what direction the trail is and you have no idea. Sure you may not be lost forever but it will save you that feeling of panic thinking you are lost and it will save you time and effort trying to get back out because the cover you are trekking through is not easy and it will wear you out.

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Just wondering if anyone has been in the Hackensack/Longville area hunting grouse? Just wondering what the outlook is. Coming up Friday with the family and young pup GWP. Hopefully we can find a bird or two to see what she can do. Any info would be great. Thanks

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If I had a young dog I would focus on the young Aspen to target woodcock. They hold well for pointers and hopefully you would see a little more action. The migration should be going on.

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Great day in the woods today. New GSP and my son's first hunt carrying a gun. We put up 14 grouse and 2 woodcock in 4 hours. Got the woodcock and 3 grouse. The dog was key, pushed several groups up that were a ways off the trail. Also found a wounded bird that I never would have found on my own. My son shot a woodcock and a grouse, you can't take the grin off his face (mine either). Feeling blessed.

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Good luck this weekend. It's the best time of year to be a grouse hunter. Cool temps, hard frosts should kill the ticks, the canopy has opened up. I live for this time of year.

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thanks for the advice guys. i am planning a trip with my bro soon and will employ the advice you guys gave. i'll keep you guys posted on how it goes. thanks a bunch. smile

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Spent all day Friday in he woods looking for grouse didn't come across one bird in 8 hours of walking through the woods. Tried just about everything I could think of. Didn't even hear a shot from any other hunters in the area(Chippewa Nat. Forest) off the Woodtick trail. Anyone else been in this area.

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My son and I went to check on/move some deer stands on friday. We toted the shotguns along because we knew if we didn't, we would actually see some grouse! On the way back from setting stands, we saw 4 grouse that jumped perfectly in front of us for a straightaway shot. After another inexplicable display of inferior shooting, we managed to put two down, both nice adult ruffies. It will be nice to not have to share one grouse for a meal! Getting the crock pot fired up this afternoon. In the limited time that we have grouse hunted this year, we actually have done O.K.. It was nice to actually see what was flying this time too. The leaves up north are DOWN!

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Spent Thursday afternoon till yesterday evening hunting around Orr. We kicked up about 15 birds. I got 4, one of those 4 I got was a sharp-tail that really surprised me and wished I would of gotten a picture of. By the time we left out of the 5 hunters we got 7 total. Should of had more but it was still a fun weekend. full-39018-38131-grouse2.jpg

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Got out for a few hours last Friday near Bemidji. Flushed 3 ruffies and 1 woodcock with only one opportunity to shoot I was able to bag one of the ruffies on the wing. It was nice to get out finally.

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Hunted Fri evening, Saturday and Sunday morning. My hunting buddy got a short hunt in Fri night other wise we hunted together all but 3-4 hours Saturday and two Sunday. We split up most of the time but did hunt together a little Saturday. We brought home 7 WC and 3 Grouse. We hunted for around 3 hours in the rain Sat morning and 2 hours in light to moderate to heavy snow Sunday morning. We figured we moved around 50 gr and 40 WC. Missed a few birds but we are still seeing good numbers and could be doing better if they'd let us get a little closer before they flush. An area that provided good WC 12-15 er hour yielded only one on Sunday. I'm not sure if they are migrating but they got out that area over night.

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Got out for a few hours a couple days ago. Only saw one bird, but got it. Morning started nice and sunny, but the clouds quickly rolled in and sporadic snow showers moistened things up a bit. Packed it up around 3:00.

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My buddy his GSP and my son hit the woods hard for grouse on Saturday. We put on a lot of miles re-flushing a grouse and nearly got lost doing it. The GPS kept losing it's marbles and it was overcast. I think it was due to low batteries? My trusty iphone compass worked just fine luckily after I realized we were heading deeper into the woods. (note to self pack my real compass!)

Onward to spot # two I hadn't hunted it all year. It turns out they logged half it off in the last year. No problem since all the young aspen and pines were still standing. Turns out we got one grouse and saw a couple more. All in all way down from last year. But the timberdoodles saved the day. We ended up flushing 3 in 2 minutes out of some alders and all of us tagged one. I was pretty proud of my 16 year old for starting it all off. I was also thankful he was along to find the downed birds with his young eyes. The dog was tracking them just fine but after we knocked them down he was having a heck of a time finding them. There was so much scent he kept locking up while looking. Then I saw him drop two of them on his way back from a retrieve. He just didn't like the taste of them at all, poor guy. He got some extra training fetching and healing with the birds. There was a lot of knuckle bumps and you couldn't wipe the smile off his face, it was priceless!

We ran into a couple of younger guy's (20's) who just found this one spot. He said he told his buddy about then it ended up on Facebook. Hopefully I got my point across to him when you put in all that hard work to find a good spot you don't go blabbing it to your buddies. You might take him with you but you don't just hand it over, ugh!

Anyway it was an awesome day to be out in the woods with my son and behind an great dog with my buddy. He was truly fascinating to watch get birdy. We also saw a ton of bear sign and some wolf scat also. Looks like that area is evolving I never seen either in the last 20 years in that area.

JackWoodies_zps56f02b0a.jpg

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Went out on Sunday and got one more. Found a "new to me" out-of-the-way spot that looked very birdy. Didn't see one other person the whole time. Nice day in the woods.

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  • 2 weeks later...

Moved 15 grouse in 3 hours today. smile

FOur woodcock too.

All but one were under point. One point was on a covey of five !!!

Wait is this a year ending in 8, 9, or "0".

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Had a similar result a couple days ago. Very nice day to be out. I saw 12 birds, got shots on 4 and downed 2. Just me and the trails, no dog. Saw a few guys tearing down the road looking for birds, but didn't see anyone out walking the trails.

Didn't see any woodcock, but did scout out and hunt a couple "new to me" spots that didn't disappoint.

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  • 2 weeks later...

Looking at taking out a new dog this weekend, but all the areas I'm thinking of trying are in the third weekend zone for gun (deer) season. Think I'll be okay walking trails in Mille Lacs WMA or in Rum River State Forest, or still too many guys that wouldn't appreciate me walking through?

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