returning to grouse hunting

[rabbit lake dude]

When do you return to grouse hunting. Do you wait for muzzleloading to end. Or do you go back after rifle season is over. I would like to go this weekend. Just not sure if it's safe to be out their while muzzleloading is going on?

[TRITC]

rabbit,

I actually went last weekend. Not nearly as many hunters in the woods on the last weekend (zone 1A) and I went to an area that I know well and know all the people that hunt the area and I stayed clear of them. Plenty of blaze orange on me and the dogs and also bells on the dogs. If a person couldn't hear us coming through the woods then I'd have to check their pulse! I also did not hunt during prime times early and late in the day. It was convenient because we had one buck tag left and my dad hadn't bagged a deer yet, so I worked some of the thick stuff in hopes of pushing a buck his way. The only other hunter I saw was my dad.

TRITC

[Jiffy]

According to the DNR as of 1998 there was around 10,000 people hunting the muzzloader season in Minnsota. Not sure what the number is in 2005, but I am sure it is no where near the 500,000 that hunt the regular firearms season. I have grouse hunted after the deer season and have yet to see a muzzleloader hunter.

[Lake Alice]

When the cycle rebounds and a I get a new pup.