Northern MN bird hunting...

[Matt Breuer]

In Bemidji I am indeed spoiled with a ton of lakes, some of them world-renowned, as well as some great bird, bear, and deer hunting. However, every time I come home from my cabin up north I realize how much I miss the far-north part of MN... I have been up 3 times so far this season, and have been blessed with some great hunting to go along with the great family time!

All 3 species of MN grouse in one day...

A limit of sharpies in a couple of short walks...

[brittman]

Very nice. Some day, some day I will head to the far north to get that sprucey. I have the MN sharptail, prairie chicken and ruff already.

How do you like Prairie Storm shells?

I believe unlike black cloud, prairie storm is lead shot - correct?

[grousehunter]

Nice Matt!! I've gotten two, but never completed the trifecta. One of these days I'll complete that goal.

[Matt Breuer]

I LOVE the new Prairie Storm. Yes, it's lead. I bought a bunch at the start of the year for me, my bro, and my dad. It has been working very well. We've only had one bird "puffed" that continued to sail, and zero runners. Usually those numbers are/were high shooting other 5 and 6 loads in the past. I'm hooked!

Last year I was blessed with a sharpie, ruffie, and a hungarian on the same day. Just can't get variety like that in many places in MN! If only we could shoot chickens without a tag... oh boy!

[Harmonica Bear]

SWEET!!!!!!!! We got the trifecta 2 years ago, pretty special.

[tybo]

matt, stop rubbing it in!!!!!!

[CANOPY SAM]

I sure love the way you put together those pics. Nice theme!

You connected on a sprucie! Was it up in the area I recommended?

Got a ruffie, woodcock, and would have liked to add a sharpie the other day, but there's little to no state land in the area I was hunting. That would have been a nice little triad!

Only complaint I have with NW MN is so much of the state owned, "open to public hunting" land is simply overgrown, cattail marsh that has very little true quality game habitat. I wish we had more high-ground hardwood forest for public hunting opportunities. What we do have gets pounded hard.

Obviously spoken by a man who doesn't have his own land to hunt!

[setterguy]

Awesome.

Matt did I see you on a commercial recently?

[Matt Breuer]

CANOPY, sharpies are indeed tough up there if you don't have private land access. I'm lucky there I guess. Sorry I didn't call this past weekend, we only walked one field in the a.m. on Sat. and then another on Sat. p.m.. Between sick kids, pulling and checking on stands, and visiting everyone we didn't have much time for anything!

setterguy, must've seen a Visit Bemidji commercial? I make a cameo on the 3 they've done.

[R. Miller]

Great pics.

[CANOPY SAM]

Hey Matt, no need to apologize. I was a little under the weather Sat. afternoon thru Monday. Saturday evening the tranny went out on my Suburban, so I wasn't able to go anywhere anyhow.

Borrowed a friend's pickup for this week while the trucks being repaired.

I was actually referring to public land for ruffed grouse hunting. So much of the public land inside a 20 mile radius of TRF is old, overgrown swamp. It's pretty useless stuff. I suppose the DNR owns it cause nobody else wants it!

Did you pick up that sprucie north of Bemidji, or was at on family land?

[Matt Breuer]

Sprucie was in Beltrami, CANOPY. Unfortunately it was a very young male...

[gspman]

Nice! Congrats!

[shooter_mcgavin]

I flushed a bird in BISF last weekend that was in a tall grass meadow where I've never seen a grouse before. Just realizing with this thread that it was probably a sharp tail? Almost looked like a small hen pheasant. Thanks for the post!

[Matt Breuer]

I would say definitely, shooter. Lots of sharpies in the area. My land is not far from the entrance to BISF, and we've got droves of them on the land surrounding us.

[Basseyes]

Great post and pics.

Matt you should think about starting a Minnesota grouse hunters tip and field report web page or something like that. By far one of the best informative, helpful and knowledgeable posters around on MN grouse hunting. The DNR or RGS should hire you to help encourage or promote the sport.

We have worked with the DNR and NRCS on a WHIP program to help benefit sharp tails on our little 40 acre chunk of earth and thought it would do little to help sharpies out. Boy was I wrong. We've seen sharpies more and more. They are an awesome bird. The DNR seems to be really trying to help them out. As far as the Thief Lake area I think they need more burns. So many people are against them and after having our property torched up this last year I have no idea why other than fear of the unknown. The area that was burnt looks great and every creature in the area uses it not just sharp tails.

[Matt Breuer]

Basseyes, thanks for the kind words! I work closely with the DNR to help the birdies... Glad you took advantage of some of the private lands specialists and took the initiative to help out the firebird (Called the firebird because they inhabit lands immediately after a burn). Controlled burns are an all-day event, and they take several volunteers away from the field. They are costly as well. Burning does happen however, but it's on a schedule and based on when there are resources available and when they have time! Agreed on people being against burns... NW MN is the toughest place for people to accept it. I have written several articles for local papers in NW MN to try to explain controlled burns and trying to encourage folks to accept them. Tough sell...

[Redlantern]

How controlled are these burns? I'm not being a smat@ss, just curious. I have a little land of my own but I have a cabin on it and I'd like to see that not get burned. My land is in need of a good burning, in my opinion. A lot of downed trees from the 99 blowdown storm and before that a lot of dead trees from Spruce Budworm. Adjacent parcels of land are maturing and not getting logged. I'd like to manage this land, 65 acres, for grouse primarily.

[Matt Breuer]

Erik, run this search in Google, click on the top link, and contact the middle gal...

"private lands program specialists dnr mn"