Grouse anyone

[birdguy]

Two of us hunted the Superior NF Sunday - Tuesday. We flushed 60 - 70 birds and came home with our possession limits. Didn't have high hopes going in, but came back early and pleasantly surprised. I hunted with my Griffon and my buddy walked other trails without a dog. Most birds encountered were in family groups of 3 - 6 birds and I'd say 75% were young-of-the-year. The dog was flushing them anywhere from 20 - 100 feet off the trails.

[birdguy]

[monstermoose78]

Nice work birdguy

[birdguy]

Hey - thanks monstermoose78! Fresh Woodduck for dinner tonight. I Love Fall.....

[Pherris]

Nice job and beautiful dog!

[vman11]

Finally stumbled upon one on the way to the bow stand. And of course he sat in the middle of the atv trail and stared at me! Put on a few more miles on foot earlier today and didn't flush any.

[FishinFools]

Covered a lot of ground and lots of cover variations. Flushed a total of 5 grouse, zero wc. Managed to go two for two on the only birds I saw. One beautiful male and one bird of the year. Most were in classic aspen grouse cover, mid to high ground. Worked alder bottoms in the afternoon...zero birds. West of Duluth. (sorry for the neck exercises. how do you rotate posted photos?)

[sparetime]

Sounds like most are finding few birds. Birdguy being the exception to that. Hopefully the leaves drying up will improve conditions for next weekend.

[yakfisher]

I spent 2 days near Ely, saw 5 shot at 3 took home 2. All in all I saw more wolves than birds.

[tybo]

My hunting partner and I flushed around 20 wc this weekend and probably close to 40 grouse. it's hard to day how many grouse exactly because we flushed some broods and couldn't see the birds on the majority of the flushes we got so we were guessing a bit. We missed a few but brought home only 2 grouse and 3 wc. We just couldn't see the birds.

[TRZ II]

Got 2 cock out of about 10 flushes. Didn't see a grouse AGAIN. Near Moose Lake. I won't be out again till the leaves are gone. Man are those yearling birds small, hardly seem worth shooting.

[tolle141]

Covered a lot of ground and lots of cover variations. Flushed a total of 5 grouse, zero wc. Managed to go two for two on the only birds I saw. One beautiful male and one bird of the year. Most were in classic aspen grouse cover, mid to high ground. Worked alder bottoms in the afternoon...zero birds. West of Duluth. (sorry for the neck exercises. how do you rotate posted photos?)

Nice work! What are you shooting there? That stock is gorgeous!

[charliepete]

It looks like a nice Beretta 687 EL to me. I would have a hard time scraping that one up on popple and alder.

[caseymcq]

The leaves are still pretty thick between Silver Bay and Isabella but they are starting to fall so it won't be long before it's opened up.

Saw four this morning, shot one.

[FishinFools]

Yeah EELL. A ten year anniversary "present from my wife" a long time ago. (boy, was she surprised!) If you don't take it into the woods, ain't gonna get no birds. That gun is part of me now. Just love it. One small scratch in, let me see...13 years. And I'm a firm believer in going through, not around. Keeps me moving slowly so I don't rush past the tight holders.

[old timer]

Hunted 6 hours total opener weekend at Mille Lacs wma. 1 flush. Hunted 4 hours at Chenwatana state forest near Pine City. 1 flush. The grey dogwood berry crop is plentiful this year. No grouse to enjoy them. Ducks have been good, so it looks like a fall of hanging out in the marshes and not the woods.

[ScottW]

Hunted 1-2 hrs. 4 evenings up in St. Louis County, only saw one grouse but woodcock all over the place. Just can't hit the dang things! Went out to check for some ducks this morning and found a handful of woodcock and one grouse (I should say the dog did). Never saw so many woodcock, then again I think that has something to do with having a good dog now! I can only imagine how many of these a guy walks 10 ft. from with no dog!

[CrowRiverRat83]

Anyone been hunting the Mille Lacs WMA? It's been very slow for me.

[caseymcq]

... Just can't hit the dang things! ...

They are elusive little b@stards.

[WallyGator12000]

Hunted four mornings in Cook County this past weekend while on a family vacation. Saw three grouse, shot at two of them, and got one. It's really slow out there right now. Also saw 5 snowshoe hares, so by my observations it seems the biologists are right, when the hares are up, the grouse are down. This guy also made an appearance:

Pretty neat to see, especially with how grim their outlook is right now.

[Jaybird]

Hunted the opening weekend and last weekend near Aitkin. Bagged 2 on about 8 flushes in about 5 total hours of hunting on the opener. Hunted 3 hours this past Saturday, getting four flushes on two ruffs with no shots. On Sunday, bagged 5 on 15+ flushes. Not sure what was different on Sunday, but I can say that of the approximately 30 flushes I've gotten thus far, I can count on one hand the number that I'd have gotten without the lab. My theory is that the birds are buried in the thick stuff right now, but as the vegetation thins we'll see them move out to the trail edges.

Like a lot of the previous posters, I'm seeing a lot of woodcock and hares.

[tybo]

Hunted in that crappy weather yesterday. Hunted for about 4 hours and was drenched for 3.5 of them. I managed to move 12 or grouse and probably 15 WC. I had multiple WC points and multiple misses. I should have had my limit on WC. My younger setter handled a nice ruffie like a pro,. I held uop my end of the deal so I came home with 1 Grouse and 1 WC. Not the greatest day but I'll take it considering the conditions.I did take a change of clothes so I was dry for the ride home.

[jparrucci]

Anyone know what time of day grouse leave the roost and come to the roost? Am I wasting my time hunting early morning or before dusk?

[jjz]

i have found grouse to hang around trails best very early and very late, once the sun comes up they usually head to thicker cover off trails a ways. i dont think you can legally hunt them too early or late before snow fall. Once snow is on the ground they seem stay roosted later and head to roost a little earlier.

[laker1]

Nobody out hunting?

Been up in the Longville area twice,and seen zero grouse. In the early 1990's it was nothing to see 20 birds.

The deer ticks came out in force this last week.

[luckydog25]

Thanks for the reminder laker, just about forgot to put this months frontline on my dog. Headed out for an evening hunt. Pretty windy, I will post if we have any luck.

[brittman]

Today was a good day despite windy and warm conditions. Hunted two locations separated by about 70 miles.

Moved 4 birds in the morning - shot one. Moved 8 birds in the afternoon getting 3 more.

Birds held under point really well.

[brittman]

The grouse I see from my deer stand tend to wake up in the tree about dawn and fly down just before sunrise. I have watched then fan out on tree limbs in the early morning - not unlike a gobbler.

In the evening most fly up at or before sunset.

Agree on really cold days (say 5 F or colder) they may stay roosted all morning especially if they are in balsams and can catch the suns rays. They feed aggressively from about 1-4 (dark is before 5)

[luckydog25]

Saw 4 birds and got none, they were in the thick stuff and I had no shots. Still a fun walk, man I love the smell of fall. I plan to get back out once for sure if not twice this weekend.

[laker1]

Leaves coming off,any success yet?