grouse in the snow

[Guest]

any of u guys hunt much after the snow for grouse and what does the snow do in terms of effecting your dog and way he hunts?

[ewirz]

I've hunted in the snow many times (though I wait until after rifle season is over). Also long as the snow isn't too deep - just a few inches on the ground, it doesn't really effect much. If the snow gets much deeper than that, it gets hard for a dog to work and it makes walking difficult.

I got my deer the 1st weekend so I'm iching to get back on the trails. Might have to pound some brush this weekend....

ERW

[MikeYager - Suzuki]

I like it since you can see tracks and at least know if they are around.

[charliepete2]

I probably do more grouse hunting in the snow than anything else. I run bigger dogs so snow doesn't seem to effect how they cover ground. My buddies smaller Brittany really had some problems though.

Late season does change a few things for me though. In the early season I concentrate my efforts on rivers and streams. Mostly because these types of terrain are covered with grey dogwood and in my opinion that is the number one ample food source early in the season for grouse. As the dogwood crop starts disappearing I start focusing my attention on wild strawberries. Their leaves stay green longer than just about anything else in the forest and are a big draw for grouse mid season. When snow starts covering the ground grouse start focusing in on aspen buds. Because aspen is so readily available and hard to focus on because of it's popularity, I go with secondary indicators that put me on a lot of birds. In other words, I start looking for aspens near south facing slopes where the birds can warm up during the afernoon. Aspens near conifer stands are also pretty good. All three things together are almost always a jackpot.

Conifers are really important if there isn't adequate snow cover for snow roosting and it's cold. Grouse tend to use the trees for warmth and protection from predators in these situations. It just might be my imagination, but I think grouse actually prefer short needled conifers. I've hunted some paper company land where one side of the road was chock full of birds and short needled conifers, and the other side was barren of birds and the only difference was the type of trees. Alder swamps can also be hot areas late in the year. I even found grouse eating the catkins.

When it starts getting to the single digits and below I find that my dogs don't point as many birds. I don't know if it is due to the fact that the cover is so wide open at that point and the birds have usually seen pressure, or if it is just truly harder for the dog to scent in that weather. Good luck!