Grouse Reports

We walked a lot this weekend and only saw 1 around Isabella

We made it out last week early. We were able to put up birds during those two jaunts. We went this a.m. and in our walk today didn’t put up any birds at all… Its not supposed to be good, so last week pleased us, this a.m. may point us in to different directions…

Mark

Was up in lutsen this weekend. No birds Saturday. Sunday saw 1 shot one. Other hunters had similar experiences. Must’ve been a bad year for production.

I am physically weak from the depression of seeing no birds today in perfect cover in NW Wis. Turning to booze for releif.

Flushed 15 in 5 hours of hunting today. Nothing, and I mean nothing in your typical grouse/Aspen habitat. Birds were in young maple stands with swamp edges. Not reflushing the same birds and my brother and I have been grouse hunting for 30 plus years. We have never, ever seen birds relate to young to mid level maple stands like today. The great aspen stands were void of birds. Flushed maybe 6 woodcock, those numbers are flip flopped from normal with the grouse. Woodcock scat was nonexistent. Thought for sure there’d be a good push of the little migrators. If someone was reporting all this, I’d say they were nuts in the bellfree.

basseyes wrote:

Flushed 15 in 5 hours of hunting today. Nothing, and I mean nothing in your typical grouse/Aspen habitat. Birds were in young maple stands with swamp edges. Not reflushing the same birds and my brother and I have been grouse hunting for 30 plus years. We have never, ever seen birds relate to young to mid level maple stands like today. The great aspen stands were void of birds. Flushed maybe 6 woodcock, those numbers are flip flopped from normal with the grouse. Woodcock scat was nonexistent. Thought for sure there’d be a good push of the little migrators. If someone was reporting all this, I’d say they were nuts in the bellfree.

Cool. Will keep my eyes on that covery next weekend.

Woodcock are on the move. We enjoyed a good shoot last Thursday north of Grand Rapids. Also heard good reports south of Eveleth. After we got a limit of woodcock, two of us with a setter and britt spec=nt 5 hours on previously good coverts to see only one.

basseyes wrote:

Flushed 15 in 5 hours of hunting today. Nothing, and I mean nothing in your typical grouse/Aspen habitat. Birds were in young maple stands with swamp edges. Not reflushing the same birds and my brother and I have been grouse hunting for 30 plus years. We have never, ever seen birds relate to young to mid level maple stands like today. The great aspen stands were void of birds. Flushed maybe 6 woodcock, those numbers are flip flopped from normal with the grouse. Woodcock scat was nonexistent. Thought for sure there’d be a good push of the little migrators. If someone was reporting all this, I’d say they were nuts in the bellfree.

While I have been out bow hunting, I have noticed the grouse have been in similar habitat. near low lands and typically in the maples. I have been hearing lots of drumming this fall as well.

If we could ever get it to quit raining, I’d be out there again… After this rain clears, I’m going to take a trip. The weather has cooled enough and nights have been below freezing, so the ticks have started. My bro and his son, picked 23 off one of the two dags from a quick walk on Sat. night with one grouse flush and they were hoping to intercept some woodcock on the road ponds just before dark, but none were in…

On the good side of this rain… leaves will be dropping a bit faster than normal from here on out!!!

Mark

Aaron Kalberer wrote:

<div class=”d4p-bbt-quote-title”>basseyes wrote:</div>
Flushed 15 in 5 hours of hunting today. Nothing, and I mean nothing in your typical grouse/Aspen habitat. Birds were in young maple stands with swamp edges. Not reflushing the same birds and my brother and I have been grouse hunting for 30 plus years. We have never, ever seen birds relate to young to mid level maple stands like today. The great aspen stands were void of birds. Flushed maybe 6 woodcock, those numbers are flip flopped from normal with the grouse. Woodcock scat was nonexistent. Thought for sure there’d be a good push of the little migrators. If someone was reporting all this, I’d say they were nuts in the bellfree.

While I have been out bow hunting, I have noticed the grouse have been in similar habitat. near low lands and typically in the maples. I have been hearing lots of drumming this fall as well.

I haven’t hunted yet but had 2 or 3 birds working a traditional area the last weekend of Sept while sitting on bow stands. Have also heard some fall drumming. A few woodcock flushes in expected areas as well.

Will try to get four days this upcoming weekend for archery/upland birds. May focus on some woodcock coverts and see if there a few grouse in the mix as well. We had a bumper crop of crab apples this year. If there are some grouse numbers they should have honed in on this as they historically have.

What areas of the state have you been hunting? I’ll be up in the Moose Lake area later this week looking for some birds.

Great hunt tonight. Got out for less than two hours. At least 25 flushes. I had a couple good shooters but the shootee was crooked. Man these birds are tough to hit. Had 5 flushes rather quick then the rain started and got hard. The pup was not liking the rain so we set back to the truck. By the time I got back to the truck it stopped raining so I decided to take the shivering dog to the other side of the road. Didnt take long and grouse were flushing everywhere. I literally sat in a thicket and listened to 8 flushes with nothing to look at but thicket. A couple notes: the grouse are starting to come to clover on the walking trails. All the grouse are in the woods vs. recently clear cut areas. Definitely getting a few woodcock mixed in. Good luck to all and maybe I’ll actually hit a bird and make my dog proud!

First real outing I’ve had in the McGregor area. Two of us hunted for about 4 hrs this Sunday. Hit a mix of woodcock and grouse coverts. Had an equal amount of flushes between the two birds with 16 a piece. 32 total flushes without a dog. Getting quality shots was a different story. I did have a nice overhead left to right swinging shot to end the day.

Attachments:

1. 

   609A5AC2-77E0-460A-A475-C2AB19808EB2.jpeg
   

2. 

   159A39CC-CE39-4529-9ED5-6B0B081CCBFA.jpeg
   

3. 

   573A5C95-0DFA-4184-B2DD-EE2F2240D777.jpeg
   

tegg wrote:

First real outing I’ve had in the McGregor area. Two of us hunted for about 4 hrs this Sunday. Hit a mix of woodcock and grouse coverts. Had an equal amount of flushes between the two birds with 16 a piece. 32 total flushes without a dog. Getting quality shots was a different story. I did have a nice overhead left to right swinging shot to end the day.

I should have mentioned I finally scored on a pair of grouse with the 28 gauge.

Nice bag! Love that big fan.

Had the birds going the last two days. I think we got 14 up yesterday in an hour and half walk…

Today we worked it a bit harder in a different area and had grouse and woodcock goin up every where… My lab pointed two woodcock and my camera died on the second walk or I could’ve had a pic of the dog and two eyeballs and a bill pointed straight at me at 3 feet… Forever etched in my mind!!!

Out again tomorrow and hopefully for a bit on Tuesday.

Mark

tegg wrote:

First real outing I’ve had in the McGregor area. Two of us hunted for about 4 hrs this Sunday. Hit a mix of woodcock and grouse coverts. Had an equal amount of flushes between the two birds with 16 a piece. 32 total flushes without a dog. Getting quality shots was a different story. I did have a nice overhead left to right swinging shot to end the day.

Those are some really nice Woodcock Tegg. They look like giant Canadian Woodcock too.

The old man and I got out on saturday in the two harbors area of superior national forest. Flushed 20+ birds but only ended up with three in the bag . Was a great time to be out and enjoying the outdoors though

kwp wrote:

<div class=”d4p-bbt-quote-title”>tegg wrote:</div>
First real outing I’ve had in the McGregor area. Two of us hunted for about 4 hrs this Sunday. Hit a mix of woodcock and grouse coverts. Had an equal amount of flushes between the two birds with 16 a piece. 32 total flushes without a dog. Getting quality shots was a different story. I did have a nice overhead left to right swinging shot to end the day.

Those are some really nice Woodcock Tegg. They look like giant Canadian Woodcock too.

We are going to send in the woodcock wings for a study. Maybe they’ll provide some results. I know the females are a little bigger than the males. With adult females, males & juveniles I would think you could end up with a mixed bag of sizes.

Cash with his first grouse. We have been only seeing a few per outing the last few times out but those few have been shoot able birds. This was a big step for us as Cash continues to learn and grow as an upland bird dog. What fun!

Attachments:

1. 

   20181015_172123.jpg
   

3 more tonight for Cash. Hes locking in, pointing and finding the birds. What a joy!

Attachments:

1. 

   20181021_183426.jpg
   

bigpike wrote:

3 more tonight for Cash. Hes locking in, pointing and finding the birds. What a joy!

Beautiful dog! Black shorthair right?

CaptainMusky wrote:

<div class=”d4p-bbt-quote-title”>bigpike wrote:</div>
3 more tonight for Cash. Hes locking in, pointing and finding the birds. What a joy!

Beautiful dog! Black shorthair right?
[/quote

German Short hair pointer. Hes only 18 months, his spotting is limited but has been getting more defined. I guess it changes until 2 years. Thank you, he is a joy to own!

We hunted Warroad / Baudette area late October lots of birds, few hunters.