Grouse 2022

I went for 1.5 hours Saturday morning and both of my honey hole spots had grouse feathers in the entrance and no birds which is super rare there. I’ve never seen anyone go to either spot before so that sucks. A third spot I flushed a couple but couldn’t see them through the trees. Wasn’t great and I guess I need to find some new spots.

On my own property, where I don’t hunt grouse, I almost ran one over driving home and had one fly across my hood when I left the next morning. Had two sitting on a trail visible from the cabin when I let the dogs out in the morning and flushed a couple more checking trail cams. They better hope public land starts panning out or they’re going to lose their sanctuary status

CaptainMusky wrote:

Yeah, like you guys have said pheasants its harder to do, but I have been successful most times. Sure makes light work of it for sure.

Pretty much always works for me with pheasants but I think you have to go slow and steady to give things time to pull apart.

tegg wrote:

Only did a short outing on Sun. One grouse flush. Deer ticks were definitely out.

I hit a spot Friday that was loaded with them (small wood ticks) yet others were not. Definitely spotty.

You guys that are putting your finger in the breastbone and pulling the neck before you do that put the bird breast down and take your knife and turn it sideways and cut just under the shoulder blades all the way to the neck. Flip the bird over and put your finger in the breastbone opening hold the neck down with your left hand and pull the breast up. Easy peasy and you will be holding a super clean breast in your right hand. Takes hardly any force at all with the shoulder blades cut. Works on any upland game bird.

steelslinger71 wrote:

You guys that are putting your finger in the breastbone and pulling the neck before you do that put the bird breast down and take your knife and turn it sideways and cut just under the shoulder blades all the way to the neck. Flip the bird over and put your finger in the breastbone opening hold the neck down with your left hand and pull the breast up. Easy peasy and you will be holding a super clean breast in your right hand. Takes hardly any force at all with the shoulder blades cut. Works on any upland game bird.

Do the wings stay attached to the breast?

Got out this weekend with my son for a short hunt. He shot a shotgun for the first time so that was exciting. That was just shooting at a can he’s still carrying his BB gun in the woods.

As for the hunt, flushed 6 birds in about an hour, only saw 3 of them briefly, no shots fired. Still really thick foliage where I hunt. Dog was loaded with deer ticks. Should be good in a week or two with some leaves coming down.

Yep the wings will still be attached to the breast.

Definitely jealous of you folks who live in the Range with all those grouse. The table fare and wing shooting is tough to beat.

Got my MN prairie chicken this weekend, saw 7, killed 1. Good dog work, lots of miles. 3rd time chasing them, been successful the last couple times.

Annual Vermilion grouse trip coming up soon along with a Sharptail trip in NW MN. Hope some leaves fall soon!

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Photo dump from a couple outings so far. Not too bad for an old swamp collie

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Jesus, you’re slaying them. Im guessing that Golden is 12?

She actually just turned 9, believe it or not. Shes got a very gray face for how old she is.

Gitchi Gummi wrote:

She actually just turned 9, believe it or not. Shes got a very gray face for how old she is.

That’s great. My last Golden hunted until around 10 then made 15.

That’s awesome – that’s a great run with a golden. Do you have another one now?

Gitchi Gummi wrote:

Not too bad for an old swamp collie

That’s more grouse than I’ve harvested in the past decade. I’m seriously impressed by hunters who consistently put those things in the bag. I got the pheasant thing down pretty well, but the grouse…not so much.

Gitchi Gummi wrote:

That’s awesome – that’s a great run with a golden. Do you have another one now?

Yes. My current one is 2. She has the tools but having a tough time settling her down. Not enough field time so it’s taking longer than it could. Still relying on my 11 Yo pointer.

Another good morning in the woods with my dog Finley. First sprucie of the year. Colder temps this weekend for sure. Found clover and berries in the crops of the birds I cleaned

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Sweet. I hunted a little Sat morning and got 2. Too many other things to do over the weekend. Colors sure were nice up north.

We didn’t shoot any. A few missed shots and a few that were gone before we could shoot. Buddy and I took the 2 11 year Olds out. Did 8 miles of thick stuff. Had a nice little fire and had hot dogs over it. All and all it was a beautiful day to be in the woods.
The bucks are marking up everything right now. Lots of scrapes and rubs

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Brought my boat to Vermilion last October, fishing sucked. No boat this year, apparently fishing was great. At least the grouse hunting was great too. Walked 18 miles, killed 13 grouse. 38 flushes. Dry conditions didn’t help scenting.

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Shot 2 spruce grouse. It has been years since our group has shot one. Definitely different meat and taste.

My two teenage boys, one of their friends, our British lab and I had a great day on the Sunday of the MN school MEA break. 3 man limit. We hiked a good mile from any accessible atv trail and found lots of birds. My youngest (16) limited out with his .410 side by side. Was a great day.

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Wow nice bundle of grouse there. Where about do you hunt?

If I remember correctly wasn’t Sunday of MEA that really hot and super windy day? It was like 80 degrees and winds gusting to 40 mph, wasn’t it?

Yeah it was warm, think we had low 60s. We hunt at our cabin on the north shore – cook county.

Holy crap! That is a pile of Grouse!

Yeah, best day we have ever had. We focused on the youth deer hunt Friday and Saturday, saw more moose and wolf sign than deer so we switched to birds, turned out to be the right call.

Northcoast wrote:

My two teenage boys, one of their friends, our British lab and I had a great day on the Sunday of the MN school MEA break. 3 man limit. We hiked a good mile from any accessible atv trail and found lots of birds. My youngest (16) limited out with his .410 side by side. Was a great day.

nice work getting those boys (and you) on those birds! I’m sure they will remember that day for a long, long time.

Nice work boys. Some good grouse numbers this year which is awesome to see.

Had a good day with my uncle last week. Flushed about 15, shot 6, plus a woodcock. Almost all the woodcock were gone with that early cold snap.

Then went out a few days later with a buddy and flushed 9 or 10 but never got any good looks. At one point I knocked one down, and he was flapping in the leaves thought for sure we were on the board, only to have him get up and fly away again. One of the craziest things I’ve seen grouse hunting before.

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Ive seen the “get up and fly again” routine more than once. If they start walking calmly after coming down and are within range they get a load of 7.5’s in the noggin. IF I’m hunting without a dog of course. Im jealous. Sure with I could have hunted northern MN this year instead of my marginal ground in Wisconsin.
At least I am shooting a lot of pheasants now but MAN I would like to hunt some thick Grouse!!

Scrolling thru the pics there are a number of different phases represented which is interesting to see.

The hunting I’ve done so far has been represented by many flushes but very few shots. I’d say these have been the best numbers I’ve seen since the 80s. With some warmer days in there the biggest downside has been ticks.

I know a lot of people on the forum aren’t big fans but I tried some woodcock on my new pellet grill and they’ve turned out great. Nothing fancy. Just a rub and time on the grill.