I know its still a month away but couple buddies and I are taking a trip up to Red Lake Falls area the second weekend in October it’ll be a first time thing for us. What should we expect any tips?
Ducky
Wear safety/shooting glasses. Those branches when busting brush like to go for the eyes…. 
DT
Generally, my favorite time of the season for grouse is right around Columbus Day. If you can even say “Coloumbus Day” anymore because it’s so politically incorrect.
Not only are there grouse then, but the Canadian migrant woodcock start to show up and it can be really, really good. I’ve shot myself out of shells more than once because the woodcock showed up and I wasn’t ready.
What makes or breaks the October hunt to me is when the leaves start to come off. I like the leaves to be about 3/4 off the trees so the visibility is there. Sometimes that happens by CD, sometimes not.
Grouse
Sounds like the ruffed grouse cycle is starting the upswing so we’re probably closer to the trough than the peak. Never hunted that area of the state so I’m not sure what the grouse number are like in general there. Aspen forest holds the most birds. If you can find small crab apples or Hawthorne berries they always tend to be good magnets. They also eat clovers so the edges of forest openings and logging roads are good. Younger aspen and alder edges are commonly good cover. No need to hunt tall hay/canary or wet ground. Birds will likely be on the higher edges. Where I am in NE MN, we also find birds in balsam ridges adjacent to aspen/alder cover.
If you’re in thick cover try to always be in a position to shoot. The birds are pretty good about flushing when you’re ducking or using a hand to deflect brush.
Okay thanks for the tips! Coming from SWMN I know plenty ab0ot shooting in thick stuff done a lot of Pheasant hunting just used to thick slough crp and groves of trees not forest!
Ducky
Okay thanks for the tips! Coming from SWMN I know plenty ab0ot shooting in thick stuff done a lot of Pheasant hunting just used to thick slough crp and groves of trees not forest!
Ducky
I’m not a great pheasant mind but I’m wondering if the pheasants use thick cattail/CRP as overhead cover (and possibly thermal cover). Grouse tend to use young, thick aspen or alder as overhead cover. I’ve never had luck flushing birds in brush that has thick grasses that pheasants might use.
The best grouse plot would have multiple stands of different age aspen. Mature aspen provides winter food. Young aspen provides overhead and brooding cover. From a management perspective they like a 40 acre plot with 4 different age classes of aspen about 10 years apart. This mix provides most of what grouse need throughout the year. If you toss some thicker evergreens in the mix you get some winter thermal cover if snow is lacking. Throw in a couple forest roads or openings with some soft mast trees and you have nice mosaic of habitat. Repeat this again in the greater area and you should have birds. If the forest gets too mature you lose the grouse and get things like pileated woodpeckers.
Edges, edges, edges! Pay attention to where you flush birds and try to find similar habitat. Young aspen stands with edges of dogwoods are my favorite. Followed by young aspen stands and alder edges, especially if it’s dry. But don’t get to deep in the alders, they are wet boot suckers. Creeks, streams, ditches, rivers with a mix of habitat and again aspens with good stem density can be good. Especially if it’s dry and that’s where most of your woodcock will typically be. Woodcock are a highly underrated bird. Large blocks of pines or old growth might have a few birds, but if you really want to get into good bird numbers, avoid getting sucked to deep into big blocks of old growth or just a big pine plantation. Edges, edges, edges! It is truly amazing how small areas will hold the vast amount of birds in an area, with miles and miles of basically void and birdless ground. The walk back out can be a great scouting tool if you can walk a different route than you walked in on. If you find a good couple areas it works very well to put a milk run together. Then run through the good cover quickly, and move on to the next good area. It eliminates wasting time on dead areas. There’s times good looking areas just don’t hold a lot of birds. Who knows why, but keep working through areas till you find what they are keying in on for food and cover.
Dogs or no dogs?
We have a Red Pointing Lab and a Young GSP but unsure if we are bringing them up as they have no experience with big woods and grouse
Ducky
We have a Red Pointing Lab and a Young GSP but unsure if we are bringing them up as they have no experience with big woods and grouse
Ducky
Without bringing them, they will remain that way. There’s only one way to get them used to it, and that’s exposure, as it takes birds to make a bird dog.
Woodcock hold tight and are a blast to hunt. Wrap them in bacon and their very palatable.
Bring the dogs. Way easier for a pheasant dog to transition to grouse/woodcock vs the other way around.
Trust your dogs! And pay attention in front of them. If a dog locks up solid, a lot of times it is a woodcock. If you’re getting false or slipping points, grouse do run. If you’re getting wild flushes, have the guy running the dogs be the middle man. Then have guys flank just in front of the dogs. We try to have at least one guy a touch farther ahead. Whistles are great for communication in thick cover and for getting grouse to hold tighter, it confuses the birds a touch making them either bust out or hole up. And you usually don’t have to worry about making noise in the grouse woods and I have shot a lot of birds in Mille lacs wma.
If the logging roads are heavily hunted, shift into the first edge off the trails. It doesn’t have to be far either, especially with dogs.
A good compass, plenty of water, power bars and good boots are a must. Phone GPS’s aren’t reliable and it is easy to get lost. I’ve spent the night in the woods getting spun around chasing birds. Go as light as you can for multiple reasons. It’s easier to navigate good cover and you can walk farther. If it’s warm, mornings are good, but for me the last hour is better for finding new areas. Woodcock are very active at dusk and easy to spot buzzing around, even on roads after the evening hunt driving out of the woods. Found many great areas by stumbling into pods of birds buzzing around before they roost up for the night. Grouse are more likely to be on or near roads in the am but will still use roads in the evenings.
Woodcock hold tight and are a blast to hunt. Wrap them in bacon and their very palatable.
Bring the dogs. Way easier for a pheasant dog to transition to grouse/woodcock vs the other way around.
Woodcock can have a love/hate relationship with respect to table fare. I simply season them and put them on the grill. I try to not let them get past medium and they turn out great.
Woodcock can have a love/hate relationship with respect to table fare. I simply season them and put them on the grill. I try to not let them get past medium and they turn out great.
X2!
Bacon helps for me, but is no cure all for over cooking them.
Bacon wrapped grouse breasts on the grill, that’s a little taste of heaven.
Another thing on woodcock; my dog will not retrieve them. It’s the only bird she refuses to carry.
I have heard of other hunters experiencing the same thing. What are your experiences with dogs and woodcock?
Another thing on woodcock; my dog will not retrieve them.
Haven’t shot one myself but according to others in my dog training group that is very common. Supposedly they smell or taste bad? They are big proponents of force fetch so that was the common remedy there but one person said he combined pheasant or grouse feathers with woodcock feathers on a dummy and slowly transitioned to all woodcock feather on the dummy.
I went out on Sunday and without dogs we would have not seen half of the birds that we did. Several times the dog would get 10-15 yards off the trail and go on point. As soon as we would walk in after the dog we would flush a bird which I doubt we would have even known was there and there was several times that we flushed birds not even 5 minutes after walking by someone without dogs. Still pretty thick but a very good experience for your dog. Good luck when you get out.
grouse-1.jpg
right where you park the truck.. see that little stand of brush and small saplings… there is one sitting in there… usually… and you won’t be ready !! 
Have fun !!! 
Either there, when you get over a piece of deadfall or break your gun open on sight of the end of the trail.
Good advice, but the woodcock aren’t roosting but migrating at night.
Good advice, but the woodcock aren’t roosting but migrating at night.
I know what you’re saying, but they have area’s they use and stop over in, and a guy can find those very easy at dusk. We term them roosts, and when you learn where they are that last hour of the day can be magic.
Witnessed a woodcock migration from a bow stand on our land one morning. It was unreal. Was hunting with a friend and his in law from Alaska. The pure numbers were unbelievable. We estimated minimum of 3,000 in a couple hours. I counted 500 in fifteen minutes on one of the bigger pushes. We were all on the same field edge and it was a wicked cool experience we will never forget.
<div class=”d4p-bbt-quote-title”>minrod wrote:</div>
Good advice, but the woodcock aren’t roosting but migrating at night.I know what you’re saying, but they have area’s they use and stop over in, and a guy can find those very easy at dusk. We term them roosts, and when you learn where they are that last hour of the day can be magic.
Witnessed a woodcock migration from a bow stand on our land one morning. It was unreal. Was hunting with a friend and his in law from Alaska. The pure numbers were unbelievable. We estimated minimum of 3,000 in a couple hours. I counted 500 in fifteen minutes on one of the bigger pushes. We were all on the same field edge and it was a wicked cool experience we will never forget.
I’ve been reading up on some of this because we are trying to do some habitat management on our family property.
Woodcock are considered a shore bird so they commonly roost on open ground instead of using trees. At dusk they will fly from cover areas where they’ve been feeding to overnight roost sites. Apparently they may fly some distance to do this. These could be roads, clearings, fields, abandoned gravel pits, etc. One management technique is to mow strips in a hay field. The mowed strips provide roosting sites. Adjacent overhead cover can provide escape routes. We commonly kick them up on field roads during pre-dawn going out to bow stands.
We worked with the dnr and nrcs and they did some shearing at our hunting camp. I keep the edges mowed and then we have food plots. The woodcock are so thick it’s awesome to just watch. We often see them up close when doing food plots. We were done right at dusk one night working on plots and one flew right into my 22 year son’s chest, pretty funny to see. All a guy would need is a net and you could catch a lot of them. They roost on the ground in multiple areas. There’s certain patches of aspens that are major migration stop roosts we’ve found over the years. Amazing once you find a couple how fun it is come migration time. They seem to roost in slightly different areas at different times.
Woodcock are imo the most underrated game bird to hunt. Certain dogs are wicked on them. An old lab my folk’s had was a phenomenal grouse/woodcock dog. Shot a banded one over her on her last hunt. That was pretty special. Had a setter that was an absolute meat dog, woodcock were almost to easy for him. My shooting, not so good. Have a German wire haired griffon that is pretty darn good on them. Am working her with a young lab that has the best nose of any lab we’ve had. The fw says he’s got the best sniffer of any lab we’ve had. She’s the boss, so I’ll take her word.
What kind of shot are you using to shoot grouse/woodcock?
Bring the over under or stick with the Semi-auto?
Ducky
I usually shoot 6’s early in this season. I’ll drop down to 7.5’s once 50% on the leaves have dropped.
I’d bring both. Not often you’ll get more than 2 shots on a single bird BUT you never know when you’ll run into a covey and even then 3 shots is a stretch. This is when hunting alone which I usually do.
I shoot 8 and 9’s early through a 20ga franchi 48AL with an improved cyl. As birds get spookier I start going to 7’s or 6’s if the birds start giving me longer shots.
If it’s all grouse, 7’s. If it’s mainly woodcock, I’ll go all 9’s.
That 3rd shell does come in handy. But I would go with the lighter of the two.
I used a 12ga, skeet tube, and 7.5 shot. Seems to work fine, grouse aren’t tough at all.
I used a 12ga, skeet tube, and 7.5 shot. Seems to work fine, grouse aren’t tough at all.
Agreed. A pellet or 2 of just about any load will bring them down.
Todays the day! Heading up tonight got the truck loaded down as we got permission on a nice honker feed I guess! Hows grousing been for everybody?
Ducky
Wear safety/shooting glasses. Those branches when busting brush like to go for the eyes….
DT
. Guys don’t ignore this advice when going thru that heavy stuff where the grouse like to live. I lost an eye to a grouse thicket when a branch slapped back and pierced it.
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