Grouse hunters Journal

[uplander]

Let't keep a FM journal so we can all pick up a few pointers this season!!!

Monday Sept 28th: 54 degrees extreme wind 30 to 40 mph

Location: Aitkin county

Bird count: 4 grouse 5 wood cock

notes: Kind of dissapoinjting on the number of birds seen hope the wind had alot to do with it..The places I hunted held lots of birds last year and I just couldn't find them yesterday..The woods we're extremely dry..No water to be found..My thoughts we're they might be keying on water but could not really find any in the area...Bagged 2 wood cock ...Very tired legs!!!! and Dogs

[machohorn]

Great idea uplander! I will post when I get back in 2 weeks.

[Basseyes]

Friday Sept 25th.

Humid and warm.

Mille Lacs CO.

8 grouse 1 woodcock flushed.

Shot at 3 and harvested 2 grouse. Dang hope that percentage continues through the season. A guy can dream right? 1 was a young of the year bird that flew very well. The younger birds all seem to be flying well. The other was an adult.

Hunted for about 3 hours before the rain started. Didn't even hunt good cover and still saw birds. Was happy with the birds seen for how warm and humid it was. Birds had a lot of different food in them. Guessing there's ample food sources right now. Dog woods are every where thick and hanging heavy. Wasn't quite as dry as I thought it was going to be but still dry. Dog did well. Worked one younger bird that kept hopping 15-20 yards that I could never get a good bead on. She gift wrapped one big adult red phased bird for me and I whiffed. Still can't believe I missed that gift wrapped bird.

Few grouse hunters out but a lot of bow hunters. Ran in to 2 guys that had shot a collared doe that the DNR told them was over 8 years old. They hadn't been keeping track of those collars for a long while because the batteries were all dead.

Did some scouting in the rain and saw 2 different flocks of turkeys and a single. The one flock must of had 3 groups of hens and their broods. On the way home saw 2 fields full of geese and sand hill cranes.

Deer ticks seemed way down. Mosquitos were thick and mean.

[SledNeck]

Ive hunted yesterday and today and didnt see any birds. Very strange since I have been seeing quite a few this season. My dog has been making long loops in the woods and NOTHING.

I think the world is coming to an end.

Foliage seems 1 to 1.5 weeks behind usual.

[tybo]

Had 1 point and two wild flushes on woodcock last night. These birds were flighty, not sure if the dogs bumped them or not. We got one and missed the other two. The one we got was a nice big female. that's a little bittersweet. It was my buddies first bird of the year 9not counting doves). It's nice seeing 3 resident birds down here in the middle of Wright County. It's a nice little spot I just happened across last year. We got a bonus of getting up 6 or 7 pheasants with a couple of points on them.

[scoutWBL]

Hunted Tue and Wed in the Grand Rapids/Marcell area. Disapointed in the number of birds we say. Between the two days we flushed less than 10 birds in the woods although we saw a fair number while driving trail to trail. The woods are still thick and on Tuesday the ticks were pretty bad. Looking forward to getting out now that this cold weather has moved in.

I'll report back after Tuesday when I plan to get out again.

Good Luck!

[scoutWBL]

Hunted Tue and Wed in the Grand Rapids/Marcell area. Disapointed in the number of birds we say. Between the two days we flushed less than 10 birds in the woods although we saw a fair number while driving trail to trail. The woods are still thick and on Tuesday the ticks were pretty bad. Looking forward to getting out now that this cold weather has moved in.

I'll report back after Tuesday when I plan to get out again.

Good Luck!

[Jameson]

Monday: Two hours of evening hunting. Rainy and windy. Saw 16 birds, got 2.

Tuesday: Full day. Nice day. Saw 16 birds got 4.

Wednesday: Full day, but the dogs and I were tired. Gorgeous day. Saw 15 birds, got 5.

Thursday: Two hours of very early morning hunting. Saw 0, got 0.

[picklefarmer]

Hunted two different days in the DL area this week. Heard alot of birds flush but didn't see very many.I ended up gettin one for the new pup to see what he is chasing. To many leaves in the thick stuff. Need another week or so tell the leaves really start to drop. I am incouraged about the bird population this year.

[uplander]

Jameson...what area of the state were you in?? What type of cover was producing best??

[Jameson]

North part of the state.

Gullets were full of clover, aspen buds, and dogwood berries . A couple of sprucies with needles, also.

[uplander]

Thanks..Heading north of Grand Rappids Sunday and Monday..I'll report on Tues!!!

[R. Miller]

10/2- Hunted hard from 9:00am to 12:00pm and then again from 4:00 to 6:50pm.

Very windy and tough hunting early, off and on drizzle. Bagged one woodcock and flushed a grouse out of range in a thick aspen grove.

This evening saw 2 got 2 ruffies in lowlands swamp/alder thicket. Haven't seen as many birds as I thought I'd see with the drum count reports but the weather wasn't that great. Wind seemed to die down a little tonight finally. Can't wait til tomorrow morning, looks like it will be calmer.

[Matt Breuer]

Very cool pic up top!

[tybo]

Hunted today on the way back from Duck Opener. Just a small private area south of Brainerd. We moved 4 grouse, 2 pointed to bumped. Two dead birds, one pointed, one bumped. Both were nice, big, older birds - a gray phase with some copper on the tail and ruff and a brown phase.

[Neighbor_guy]

Date: Sat 10/3/09

Time: 2:00pm-5:00pm

Location: Someplace on the North Slope of the Iron Range

Conditions: Rain/Drizzle/Very wet. Light NE winds

Results: 7 flushes from a new cover (new to me anyways) 2 grouse to bag, one young and one old bird, both males. Woods were still thick. Leaves at or near peak color. Birds flushing more than 10 yards off the trail would result in no shot. The two I did get were both Red Phase birds.

Date: 10/4/09

Time: 8:00am-3:00pm

Location: Ely Area

Conditions: Rain/wet/overcast

Results: 5 birds flushed, 1 adult Gray Phase female in the bag. Leaves not as colored as those from the day before. The birds were not as plentifull as the day before either. Lot's of ground pounded, tired legs, sore feet, and a worn out pooch.

The worst dedicated grouse dog in MN had her first solo hunting weekend and I was... I wouldn't say "happy" with her work, but I can't complain about it. She has a bit of an unorthodox uproach to her job, and she always checks with me to see if it's ok to retreave a bird. And the way she locates and flushes is a little different too, but she is learning. All in all she did much better than I expected her to do. Our last trip to the game farm left a lot to be desired, so this was a good trip for her. I'm not ready to give up on her yet.

I will also admit that the bird I shot today was a "gift bird", but if it is good enough to be the first gift of the 12 day's of christmas, its good enough for me. (And a partridge in a birch tree ) But she flushed it and it jumped into the tree.

There were a LOT of hunters out today too. I got to my first two covers of the day without running into anyone, but on my way out of the second I ran into a couple other guys, and I recognized the truck as one I had seen when I was leaving my first spot. All but one of the other covers I checked already had trucks sitting on them. Busy, busy, busy, but everything is getting popular, so why not grouse hunting right.

Over all, not bad for the first weekend of my season. Between ducks and pheasants, the grouse woods should get quieter in the next few weeks.

[charliepete]

Neighbor Guy...I own the worst dedicated grouse dog in the state of Minnesota. I took him out on Saturday and he ran up 32 grouse without so much as one point. I did manage to shoot two birds over him, but it was only becauase I could see him taking scent and verbally whoa'd him up so I could walk in for the flush. What really hurts is that I also own one Grade 'A' cracker jack grouse dog, but he's getting a little too old to hit it hard for more than a few hours so I have to spend the majority of my time hunting behind his no account, run'em up kennel mate. If anyone can come up with a foolproof way to trick my wife into letting me get another dog please pony up.

[NoWiser]

Friday 10/2/09

Location: St. Louis County

One word - WINDY!!! Wow, a big tree got blown down and almost squashed the pooch in the woods. Saw about 8 birds in first 1/2 hour. 2 shot at and one in the bag. Hunted until noon with no other birds seen. Did have at least 3 timberwolves watch my dad, myself, and the dog from about 80 yards away. Would not run away, and two started actually coming towards us from opposite directions, while the middle one stayed put, sitting down and watching us. Kind of an eerie feeling, but two shots in the air got them on their way. Walked a logging trail in the afternoon (in the rain) and heard a few more with one more in the bag. Birds had aspen leaves and mushrooms in their crops. Found a nice patch of Lobster Mushrooms!

Sat 10/3/09

Location: St. Louis County

Rain, rain, rain. Went to a brand new area. Hunted a few hours in the morning and again in the evening. Heard quite a few birds but didn't see many. A twisted knee from the previous day had me moving slow. Birds would not hold a point for anything. Found most birds in a mixture of young aspens, pine, and maple. No birds in the bag.

Sunday 10/4/09

Location: St. Louis County

Got a nice woodcock to start out the morning. Only one seen all weekend. Spent the rest of the morning chasing more jumpy grouse. Dog had good points but they would flush before we could get into position every time. Missed one grouse. Grilled up some burgers and the timberdoodle for lunch and then packed up to head home. On drive out of the woods we saw a grouse bust out of the top of a pine tree so we decided to try to hunt some of that type of cover, which we never thought about previously. Walked a couple hundred yards of thick pines and put two nice, mature birds in the bag, both flushing from the tops of the pine trees. Heard a few more but couldn't get shots off. Headed home wet, tired, but happy. Best part is in 3 days we had NO competition for our spots at all besides a couple road hunters. Headed back up in two weekends. Hopefully the leaves will be down.

[Riverratpete]

Hunted Emily Outing area 10/3/4.

Murky would be the word of the day drizzle, rain, some wind, etc. woods damp, lots of ATVer's out on the trails, tried a couple diffrent areas wiht baseball bat aspen, kicked up a couple plus wood cock, unable to get shots, dog kicked up deer that almost ran over son walking on the trail, saw a wolf (big gray one) hoping as the season progresses and leafs continue to come down Grouse hunting will become better, just need the snow to hold off until x-mas.

[Matt Breuer]

Date: 10/3/09

Time: Various

Location: Bemidji area + Chippewa Nat'l Forest

Conditions: Rain/wet/overcast

Results: We had too many points and flushes to count over the weekend. Scenting conditions were great after we finished jumping ponds on Saturday, and the dogs were in heaven. Only managed to bag 2 grouse and a limit of timberdoodle. Both gray phased birds, one adult, one juvenile. Again the crops were full of snowberries and clover, some buds mixed in this time, and one solo chokecherry. I did have the easiest and worst scenario of my grousin' career on one of the last walks of the day. We got back to the truck and I was unloading my gun when I noticed that there were no bells chiming... boom... a bird flushed from 15 feet away and flew over my head and straight down the trail. Figures...

Will hit it hard again this weekend, then it's 3 days of chasing sharps and huns, then 3 more chasing sprucies. Bring on October!

[uplander]

Date: 10/4

Location: North of Winnie - Chippewa National Forest

Conditions: Wet and calm

Results: Great day! Plenty of birds and most held nice for the setter..too many points to remember but the birds were hard to catch sight of. Saw some of the birds running in front of the dog before they flushed..which made it hard to get in position for the shot..Ended up bagging 5 grouse and one woodcock 2 adults and 3 young ones. The cover was young growth. The birds seemed to be on the high ground more and not as much in the low swampy stuff

10/5 same location wet no wind: Could not get the grouse pointed this morning, for some reason they were very jumpy. Put up 5 in the first 45 min. and all flushed wild. So I decided to hit this little patch of doodle cover we found the night before and had a good old time there. Dog was hitting points about every 4 to 5 min. We bagged 5 doodles in a hurry . Had a great couple of days. Never hunted the area before so it was great to get out there and discover some new spots!

One bad thing is I lost my transmitter for my dogtra somewhere up in the Chippewa so I had to cut my hunt short today. That means the trip is going to cost me a few bucks!..Anyone got a used collar for sale???

[tybo]

Date: 10/5

Location: WPA in Wright County

Conditions: Calm

Results: There is a very small amount of cover that's good for woodcock. Resident birds. I only hunt it a few times a year. A couple for resident birds and a couple of times for migrators. I got one point and shot a woodcock over that point. the only contact I had.

I lost a Dogtra transmitter after the 3rd day of a bird hunt in MT (in the snow). I was lucky though. I had an idea where I lost it and we bought a rake, raked through the snow and found it.

[R. Miller]

Date 10/3 and 10/4

Location: Chip. Nat Forest

Wind finally died down but the rain never really stopped. Got up 12 birds and 1 woodcock. Cover is still quite thick. Managed to bag two of the grouse and one woodcock Saturday. Crops were full of clover on both birds.

Sunday looked like itd be the nice day but it started drizzling again right away. Could only hunt til 900am but found a nice, new woodcock cover. My setter had some really nice points and I managed one more woodcock Sunday morning(should've had 3). Two wild grouse flushes Sunday as well that just wouldn't hold.

[uplander]

Hey Mil! Wish I knew you were going to be up there ..We could have met up! Maybe some day!

[R. Miller]

Yeah I was right around where you must have been...sounded like you hunted Sunday Monday? I had to head home fairly early on Sunday.