2010 Ruff Grouse hunting reports-how did you do?

[jjz]

I was aware of that. Plus I dont kill timbledoodles while in season anyway, but I love watching the dogs put them in the sky.

[Bowfin]

Kyle,

I believe lots of Potlatch land that the public can still hunt because of a conservation easement east of Hwy 3 along Hwy 11 south of Cross Lake. Lots of pine and Pine River bottom land. I shot my first grouse in there 25 years ago and it always held grouse back when I hunted the area.

[Basseyes]

St. Louis County.

Went out Saturday with my brother to an area I've only hunted one other time a couple years ago. It's full of different aged aspens. Walking in past the no motorized vehicle sign not more than 50 yards in was a bear bait site from this year. Felt kind of bad walking through but it was right off the trail and didn't look very active. Kind of an odd way to start the day but it became one of those odd days. My 4 year Griffon was just starting to go into heat and my 10 month old male Lab dogged her all day. Right off the the bear site we were into birds. Got our first one not a couple hundred yards from the vehicle. Explored some new country and were into birds whenever we passed through good cover and even some in not such great cover. Shells became a precious commodity by the walk back out. Nice we both shoot twenties. Birds were in an area that gets very little bird hunting pressure I'm guessing except for road hunters. The deep woods birds were not use to seeing bird dogs or people. We hunt Mille Lacs WMA and are use to birds that receive high hunting pressure. Was a nice change of pace not to have other people around. Those bids we hunted on Saturday wouldn't last a weekend in Mille Lacs. My brother coined the term "pre perch shooting". One bird he shot was trying to land in a tree even after he missed it twice. It's feet never touched the branch but it sure was trying hard to land even after the 2nd shot. It was way up in a big old tall aspen. Was funny to be able to see it all from a ways back. Most birds even the young ones were big and good flyers. Didn't get to hunting till well after 10 and quit around 4. Flushed between 35-40 birds and not a lot of re flushes. Not a single wood cock. We weren't in the best wood cock cover but even still it seemed odd not to put up a couple birds. The fall colors were awesome with the aspens and maples really turning great colors. Looked for some future young stands of aspens latter in the day and found a stretch of county land so full of snow shoes it was hilarious. They were in about a half mile stretch of road. We logged that in the memory banks and might be back there this winter with the .22's. All in all was a good day to be in the field and the couple days I've been able to grouse hunt so far this year have seen good numbers of birds for the hours hunted.

Some pictures my brother took through out the day. Glad he brought his camera because I forgot an SD card for mine.

Really like the middle one's red ruff.

Break time.

[Redlantern]

My daughters first grouse. She's logged some miles walking with me so it was nice she got one. My dad was also along and got his first grouse in five years. We ended up with five for the weekend. Didn't hit it too hard but had a great time. Weather was great and but the company was even better.

[tybo]

Matt,

I will do my best. We had a change of plans over the weekend and hunted around lake Mile Lacs. I am pretty sure I took that trailer a few places it shouldn't have gone. I think you know one of them - Ripple River WMA, SW section. The problem with that road is there's no turning that thing around. We hunted quite a few places and moved a good number of birds over the weekend but there is just too much on the trees still. Did bang down a few woodcock and the pup stuck a nice woodcock point. Wes and I got 2 grouse and 3 woodcock. How was your weekend?

[Cheetah]

Slow hunting over in Polk County, WI. My brother went out for a lot of walks Saturday and Sunday and only flushed two birds. Missed both. His dog found a porcupine too, luckily only got a couple quills in his nose. I was deer hunting, only flushed one myself which my brother couldn't find the next day. My dad managed to also find one. I talked to some other guys who hunted there on the 16th and they hadn't seen any for three guys and two dogs.

[JJK]

I got out yesterday and moved 6 ruffs. They were very spooky and all of them flushed wildly at least 20 yds away from me. It was tough hunting for us. Got 2 shots off at one of them and missed. My pup pointed a woodcock that I lead him to, it was awesome those birds hold so well. When it flushed I didn't do my part and missed again.

I did more exploring and found a new trail with good cover. Also got a tip of some decent areas to check out so I drove further and it was worth it. Now I've got a small hand full of spots, which is kinda nice.

It's refreshing to see guys getting their daughters involved in hunting. Excellent job to the both of you.

[Kyle]

Where you guys finding these birds in the middle of the day? I have been out to a few different places with varying terrain over the last week and havent really flushed a bird...When I say where, I mean what kind of cover/terrain. I have tried oaks stands, aspens, pines, clear cut regrowth, swamp edges...I must be doing something wrong. I live in Brainerd now and hunted pillbury state forest all day yesterday and never saw a bird...

[CANOPY SAM]

Didn't hunt this weekend, but WOW, was the north shore, and Chippewa Nat'l Forest ever more beautiful!? I'll be hunting north of TRF thru the week, and weekend, and will post reports as time allows.

Wally, sorry I missed ya' this weekend. Couldn't find you among all the Porche's at BlueFin! There musta been $2 mill in cars there this weekend? Hope you did well! It sure was nice on Sat. afternoon and Sunday!

Matt, give me a call when you pull into town. I'm getting itchy for walleyes and grouse on the grill!

[Harmonica Bear]

Was out on Saturday, 11-4, north and east of Mille Lacs. What a beautiful day to be in the woods, maybe a touch too warm for the dogs, but it sure was nice out. We (two guys, two dogs) moved 20 + birds and bagged one. First time out this year, pooches were a little rusty, and so was shooting. Saw 6-7 woodcock as well. Far as I am concered it was an absolutely great day!

[WallyGator12000]

Hey Sam,

Yeah sorry we couldn't connect, but you're right there were a ton of porsches there! We didn't end up hunting that much, especially considering the weather earlier in the week and all of the leaves still up. We ended up 3 for 5 on birds. We did see a cow moose and her calf which was pretty cool, I haven't seen one up there for 5 years.

The leaves sure were beautiful too!

[mixxedbagg]

I took a day off work today and spent 5 hours walking trails in SW Itasca this morning. I put on a lot of distance, but never flushed even one bird. I don't get it. Miles through good habitat, some of the trails looked "virgin" too. I've never walked that far without a flush.

[tybo]

I would say we moved around 24 grouse and 10 woodock between Saturday morning, Saturday evening and Sunday morning. The grouse where in places we wouldn't have expected them. We fully expected to get up some grouse on Sat evening given the cover but not a one. We did move all of the woodcock in that cover though. We ended up with 2 grouse and three woodcock between the two of us. Also the ticks in that are were by far the worst I have ever seen. My setters were covered. I think there was a tick for about every dquare inch of dog and I have big setters. We probaly pulled hundreds off between my two setters and my buddies GSP.

We have moved lots of birds both wekeends. Around 60 grouse and 24 woodcock. CAn;'t wait for things to open up and a few hard frosts to kill the ticks.

[CANOPY SAM]

Tybo, the fam and I did walk all around the Temperance River hiking trails while on the North Shore. Absolutely awesome!!! Thanks for the tip. Had a great weekend.

The leaves are comin' down hard today with this Northwest wind. Gonna be prime hunting pretty quick now!

[TylerS]

Man...sporadic and drastically different reports! Very interesting. Some people are in bumper crops while others seem to be struggling. I'd venture that once the leaves come down, it will be a bit more consistent across the board.

As far as the ticks go: YUCK! If nothing else happens weather-wise in the next couple weeks, I pray there's at least a couple nights of good, hard frost to kill those nasty buggers. Just brought the pup in for his first round of Lyme's disease shots, so hopefully between that and Frontline he'll be covered.

Keep the reports coming! It keeps poor saps, such as myself, who are stuck hours away from good ruff hunting moderately satisfied until we can get out.

[tybo]

Canopy,

Glad you enjoyed it. That was my first time there as well and really liked it also. That was up until my Canon 40D DSLR fell out of my backpack onto some rocks and screwed up my lens. Luckily I had insurance on it that covered it. I'm glad you enjoyed it. I really liked the area and Blue Fin as well.

[Stringerless!]

Hunted a Wma near Duluth on Sunday with my son and 1 of his friends. Walked for 3 and a half hours and flushed 6 . Got one ! No dog.

[Matt Breuer]

Just updating my log tonight, as I haven't done so yet this year. Seems that the only bad day that I've been out so far was this past Saturday, which was also one of the most "ideal" days for ruffie hunting I can think of. Odd. In 6 hunts we've moved/seen around 50 birds this year, probably another 50+ woodcock. Cover has varied, with the pines surprising me this season. Lots of road-birds around, so the road-hunters are happy as clams. Seeing/shooting them non-stop on the way in to walking trails, and half the time again on the way out. Even took my 3 year old out for a quick road hunt and he loved seeing the birds. Easy lunch...

CANOPY, I will call you on Friday night when we get close. Saturday should be a good day! My dad saw 12 birds while checking baits the other day, and another 5 today I guess. I can't get to the cabin fast enough...

[CANOPY SAM]

Sounds good, Matt. I may be goose hunting Sat. and Sunday morning, but will be free for upland birds in the afternoon! Look forward to the weekend!!!

[Matt Breuer]

Matt, if you've got a spot open for a gun on Sunday morning, I'd be happy to lay down some sky carp with you...

[CANOPY SAM]

Sure Matt. We've got a spot for you. I've got another new friend coming up from the cities that plans on coming out as well. We should have 4 guns out there then.

I'm a little shocked that the infamous upland gunner, Matt Bruer, is up for shooting something with webbed feet! We're gonna have to move you over to the Waterfowl thread!

Give me a call when you get over here. I'm expecting Brad up from the cities this afternoon. Should be a great weekend!

I'm still troubled by how to dress for Sat. and Sun. morning. Walk out in warm weather-proof waterfowl gear, and walk out in Bermuda shorts and a tee???

[Ridgerunnr]

i hunted in Ashland cty with a buddy of mine and his pointers last weekend. Had a blast! 8 hours of hunting lots of singles but 30 grouse flushes and 19 woodcock flushes with 3 of us. I cant hit s*** with a shotgun but man did I have fun TRYING! lol We managed to knock down a few and had lots of good natured ribbing about the misses lol

[Here-Kitty-Kitty]

I was hunting west of Duluth on Wednesday with another buddy. We managed to flush up three, only got one shot off on the first bird. It was a swing and a miss on all three birds. later in the day we went to a new spot, as we were pulling down the trail a male came strutting out. I jumped out of the truck told the dog to stay, pulled out my 40 cal put my sights on it and squeezed out a round. To my delight he dd a flip flopped around for a few seconds the I set the dog on it. Oh did I mention it was over 60ft away, and that it almost took his head off. I got the bird in the neck I will try and post a pic.

[Here-Kitty-Kitty]

Oh and the reason I was using my pistol was it was on me and load as my shotgun was cased and unloaded. Didn't want the bird to get away haha.

[CANOPY SAM]

Matt B., my son and I did a little sharptail chasing on Sat. morning. Managed a couple birds, but we think they got out into the beans before we could find them in the CRP. Bean fields will be coming off fast this week with the warmer weather so that should help concentrate birds.

Saturday evening found us up north of Grygla, MN. Nice numbers of Ruffies up on the oak ridges. Absolutely gorgeous evening with virtually no wind, warm temps, and a good percentage of leaves down. I could've stayed out there till I keeled over dead! Managed a few ruffies for the pan, along with the two sharpies, and added five geese on Sunday morning! We'll be eating good this week.