Grouse anyone

[chocolab]

thanks for the advice guys. i am planning a trip with my bro soon and will employ the advice you guys gave. i'll keep you guys posted on how it goes. thanks a bunch.

[hardwater55319]

Spent all day Friday in he woods looking for grouse didn't come across one bird in 8 hours of walking through the woods. Tried just about everything I could think of. Didn't even hear a shot from any other hunters in the area(Chippewa Nat. Forest) off the Woodtick trail. Anyone else been in this area.

[MahtowaDave]

My son and I went to check on/move some deer stands on friday. We toted the shotguns along because we knew if we didn't, we would actually see some grouse! On the way back from setting stands, we saw 4 grouse that jumped perfectly in front of us for a straightaway shot. After another inexplicable display of inferior shooting, we managed to put two down, both nice adult ruffies. It will be nice to not have to share one grouse for a meal! Getting the crock pot fired up this afternoon. In the limited time that we have grouse hunted this year, we actually have done O.K.. It was nice to actually see what was flying this time too. The leaves up north are DOWN!

[walleyewess]

Spent Thursday afternoon till yesterday evening hunting around Orr. We kicked up about 15 birds. I got 4, one of those 4 I got was a sharp-tail that really surprised me and wished I would of gotten a picture of. By the time we left out of the 5 hunters we got 7 total. Should of had more but it was still a fun weekend.

[qbpups11]

Got out for a few hours last Friday near Bemidji. Flushed 3 ruffies and 1 woodcock with only one opportunity to shoot I was able to bag one of the ruffies on the wing. It was nice to get out finally.

[tybo]

Hunted Fri evening, Saturday and Sunday morning. My hunting buddy got a short hunt in Fri night other wise we hunted together all but 3-4 hours Saturday and two Sunday. We split up most of the time but did hunt together a little Saturday. We brought home 7 WC and 3 Grouse. We hunted for around 3 hours in the rain Sat morning and 2 hours in light to moderate to heavy snow Sunday morning. We figured we moved around 50 gr and 40 WC. Missed a few birds but we are still seeing good numbers and could be doing better if they'd let us get a little closer before they flush. An area that provided good WC 12-15 er hour yielded only one on Sunday. I'm not sure if they are migrating but they got out that area over night.

[titelines]

Got out for a few hours a couple days ago. Only saw one bird, but got it. Morning started nice and sunny, but the clouds quickly rolled in and sporadic snow showers moistened things up a bit. Packed it up around 3:00.

[Ferny]

My buddy his GSP and my son hit the woods hard for grouse on Saturday. We put on a lot of miles re-flushing a grouse and nearly got lost doing it. The GPS kept losing it's marbles and it was overcast. I think it was due to low batteries? My trusty iphone compass worked just fine luckily after I realized we were heading deeper into the woods. (note to self pack my real compass!)

Onward to spot # two I hadn't hunted it all year. It turns out they logged half it off in the last year. No problem since all the young aspen and pines were still standing. Turns out we got one grouse and saw a couple more. All in all way down from last year. But the timberdoodles saved the day. We ended up flushing 3 in 2 minutes out of some alders and all of us tagged one. I was pretty proud of my 16 year old for starting it all off. I was also thankful he was along to find the downed birds with his young eyes. The dog was tracking them just fine but after we knocked them down he was having a heck of a time finding them. There was so much scent he kept locking up while looking. Then I saw him drop two of them on his way back from a retrieve. He just didn't like the taste of them at all, poor guy. He got some extra training fetching and healing with the birds. There was a lot of knuckle bumps and you couldn't wipe the smile off his face, it was priceless!

We ran into a couple of younger guy's (20's) who just found this one spot. He said he told his buddy about then it ended up on Facebook. Hopefully I got my point across to him when you put in all that hard work to find a good spot you don't go blabbing it to your buddies. You might take him with you but you don't just hand it over, ugh!

Anyway it was an awesome day to be out in the woods with my son and behind an great dog with my buddy. He was truly fascinating to watch get birdy. We also saw a ton of bear sign and some wolf scat also. Looks like that area is evolving I never seen either in the last 20 years in that area.

[titelines]

Went out on Sunday and got one more. Found a "new to me" out-of-the-way spot that looked very birdy. Didn't see one other person the whole time. Nice day in the woods.

[SledNeck]

[brittman]

Moved 15 grouse in 3 hours today.

FOur woodcock too.

All but one were under point. One point was on a covey of five !!!

Wait is this a year ending in 8, 9, or "0".

[titelines]

Had a similar result a couple days ago. Very nice day to be out. I saw 12 birds, got shots on 4 and downed 2. Just me and the trails, no dog. Saw a few guys tearing down the road looking for birds, but didn't see anyone out walking the trails.

Didn't see any woodcock, but did scout out and hunt a couple "new to me" spots that didn't disappoint.

[laker1]

Anybody going for another round of grouse after deer season.

[CANOPY SAM]

laker1, that's when I START!

[sightfisher]

Looking at taking out a new dog this weekend, but all the areas I'm thinking of trying are in the third weekend zone for gun (deer) season. Think I'll be okay walking trails in Mille Lacs WMA or in Rum River State Forest, or still too many guys that wouldn't appreciate me walking through?

[fishnowworknever]

Looking at taking out a new dog this weekend, but all the areas I'm thinking of trying are in the third weekend zone for gun (deer) season. Think I'll be okay walking trails in Mille Lacs WMA or in Rum River State Forest, or still too many guys that wouldn't appreciate me walking through?

I wouldn't worry what they think, what about yourself? It's public land do what you want.

[jparrucci]

Not always safe when the drunken orange army is out.

[smackem33]

I wouldn't bring my dog in the woods during rifle season ( drunken o orange army lol)

[smackem33]

Its also called respect why would you want to ruin somebodys hunt, if I got out to my stand a hour before light and some tard comes tromping througha half hour after first light I would not be happy... Rifle season is only three weekends out of the year let them hunt it IMO

[tybo]

The woods are open to all hunting not just for deer hunters. Respect is a two way street. If anyone has a problem with it your problem should be with the state that allows it and not the hunter that chooses to do what is legal. The archery deer season is just as long as the small game season so while the rifle season may be only a few weeks/weekends deer hunting isn't limited to just those weeks.

That being said I won't be in the grouse woods because I don't trust all deer hunters and it only takes one to do something bad. I used to deer hunt but prefer hunting birds with my dogs over hunting deer now. That's fine, its my choice but I don't trust some deer hunters. How many even know they can't legally shoot a dog even if it's running deer during the season? Probably not many because that would require reading the regs. I hear lots of people say they'd shoot one if they saw it. That doesn't sound very respectful if you ask me.

I think most hunters are fine but as I stated it only takes one to do something bad and I love my dogs too much to expose them to that. I either stay out of the wood or hunt pheasants in areas where I feel my dogs and I are safe.

[sightfisher]

Some strong opinions here. Thanks for the feedback. I was part of that 'army' two weeks ago; drunken is a pretty broad-brush statement, but all too true - not worth coming across a bad apple. I've decided to head west and look for a pheasant or two; grouse after Thanksgiving!

[tacklejunkie]

Its also called respect why would you want to ruin somebodys hunt, if I got out to my stand a hour before light and some tard comes tromping througha half hour after first light I would not be happy... Rifle season is only three weekends out of the year let them hunt it IMO

+1.

I deer hunted last year but not this year. Didn't take hold, I guess. My youngest got my venison,anyways. But yeah,he would be upset if I and the dog decided to go grouse hunting while he was out there. I thought I would poke my nose out in the uplands after the orange army was done but too cold so I'm hanging the shotgun up for the year and dreaming of getting my boat out this spring

[Pigmeat]

And don't forget muzzleloader season starts this weekend, runs 2 weeks . . .

[ggburke]

Is it legal to hunt forfeit land? If so, where do you get the plat maps of forfeit land?

The season is pretty much finished now, major snow around Duluth. Shame, for a down year it was pretty good. Kind of sad it's over, the dog had a good year. The kind of year where they break away and take it to the next level.

I traveled north on Friday and we flushed a couple. One of the best sights is when a grouse breaks out of the snow, it sounds like a car wreck, its so amazing that you almost forget to shoot, almost. Saturday was such a beautiful day we hunted till dark, but the areas where pretty worked over, no birds.

I'll try to head west and bag a few pheasants before I hang it up for the year, but my true love is grousing.

I hunt the Hunter Walking Trails and had good luck, but am always looking for the road less traveled. So any information on those maps would be great.

Thanks in advance,

[tybo]

Most of the tax forfeited land is legal to hunt. I bought a chip for my GPS that shows the tax forfeited land. I do most of my hunting on tax forfeited land. It should be listed in a plat book but it needs to be current as some land is added and some sold over time. Some counties have the information online but i have never looked to access the information that way since I have the chip for my GPS.