McGregor Grouse??

Anyone been in the woods around McGregor? Used to be one of my Grouse stomping grounds but haven’t hunted it in a few years. Just curious.

We are about 20 Miles North of town and the times I have been up there bow hunting and checking cameras I have been seeing and hearing grouse every time out!

My place is just south of McGregor and have been doing really well on grouse. My best walk was 16 birds flushed, only 3 made it into the pan. Should be getting better with the leaves almost down. Very good so far!

That’s great to hear guys. Likely wont make it there this season but its nice to know they are still around in huntable numbers.

I used to grouse hunt the Hay Lake area of the Savanna State Forest when I just got my start hunting. Had some great memories up there, and I’m looking forward to revisiting some of my old haunts soon.

Resurfacing this thread from the dead! I am headed up to my buddies cabin in MacGregor the weekend of 10/17 and we plan on trying to do some Grouse hunting. It sounds like they haven’t had much luck over the past couple years but I don’t think they take it too seriously. I personally have never hunted Grouse but am getting very excited. I’m hoping the leaves are dropping by that point – I’m sure they will be.

Mitch Bradshaw wrote:

Resurfacing this thread from the dead! I am headed up to my buddies cabin in MacGregor the weekend of 10/17 and we plan on trying to do some Grouse hunting. It sounds like they haven’t had much luck over the past couple years but I don’t think they take it too seriously. I personally have never hunted Grouse but am getting very excited. I’m hoping the leaves are dropping by that point – I’m sure they will be.

We had huntable numbers in the area last year. Had a little grouse activity sitting on how stands last weekend. Might need two more weeks to drop some leaves. The weekend of the 17th should be a good time.

Took a quick 3-4 mile walk a few days ago and didn’t hear a bird.

I have not spent much time in the woods up there so far this year but the numbers have been down the last few years. With a little work you can still find a few.

They are tough everywhere and have been for years. I haven’t seen a huge upswing in 20 years. The 10 year cycle thing is BS. Its mostly weather dependent in my opinion. That and habitat but even in areas with lots of perfect habitat they haven’t exploded in recent history.

The one thing I’ve noticed in the 30+ years of hunting our “local” area is the decline of active farming (translating to pasturing cattle). When my father and uncles hunted, everyone in the neighborhood had cattle. There were more instances of people growing grains such as flax. I have to think there were more food sources available, advantageous habitat, predator control, etc. They had banner years for both ruffed grouse and sharp tails. When I started deer hunting in the early 80s the numbers weren’t great but we always flushed some sharp tails in the swamp edges. Year-to-year there were definitely more ruffed grouse. Since the 80s the farming activity has been slowly disappearing. I have no doubt there are more predators today. Areas that were grazed to expose clovers have been filling with brush and tall grasses. We’ve always had a few grouse around but at a “tightened belt” level. Sharp tail are now a rarity. I would agree these changes have not been conducive to great grouse numbers.