Mid Season Grouse and Woodcock Report

Hunted portions of 10/25 and 10/26. Beautiful couple days to be in the woods.

Fri: hunted from 3-6pm. Saw 4 grouse and bagged 1 and saw 2 woodcock and bagged 1. Ticks were still out, several tiny ones on the dog.

Sat: had chores to do in the morning and then scouted some new area in the afternoon. Holy cow lots of other people out in the woods. That turned difficult so I went back to my honey hole area knowing I could get off the beaten trail. Turned out nobody was there anyway and the woodcock were moving through. Put up 6 Timber Doodle in 2 hours and bagged 4 of them. Was a pretty special hunt with some good teamwork with me and the dog

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Tow of us were up in St. Louis County over the weekend. Mostly getting prepped for deer season, didn’t bring the dogs but carried the shotgun just in case. Put up 7 on Saturday while only walking trails to deer stands. Knocked down two. No woodcock seen but we didn’t get down to the edges of the tag alders where we usually run in to them.

I did a similar activity as Brad did. Mostly went to work/check on deer stands, but I toted along my 20 gauge in the event that a grouse showed itself. I raised 4 of them, took a shot at 3 of them, and never touched one of them. Those things are impossible. I mostly duck and pheasant hunt so grouse hunting is not something I do a whole lot of. For those of you able to regularly harvest grouse, I am impressed.

I also saw 4 deer and about 40 wild turkeys out on a field. No shortage of game in the area.

gimruis wrote:

I raised 4 of them, took a shot at 3 of them, and never touched one of them. Those things are impossible. I mostly duck and pheasant hunt so grouse hunting is not something I do a whole lot of. For those of you able to regularly harvest grouse, I am impressed.

Gimruis – they are tough to hit. You have to be ready within a fraction of a second and then get used to shooting through cover. Very rarely will you get an open shot. It does seem to get easier the more you do it…. learning how to put yourself in the available lanes and always thinking ahead for potential shots… but even then it’s not easy. I’ve had both grouse and woodcock do some matrix type stuff in the woods this year, LOL

lindyrig79 wrote:

<div class=”d4p-bbt-quote-title”>gimruis wrote:</div>
I raised 4 of them, took a shot at 3 of them, and never touched one of them. Those things are impossible. I mostly duck and pheasant hunt so grouse hunting is not something I do a whole lot of. For those of you able to regularly harvest grouse, I am impressed.

Gimruis – they are tough to hit. You have to be ready within a fraction of a second and then get used to shooting through cover. Very rarely will you get an open shot. It does seem to get easier the more you do it…. learning how to put yourself in the available lanes and always thinking ahead for potential shots… but even then it’s not easy. I’ve had both grouse and woodcock do some matrix type stuff in the woods this year, LOL

There are more ways to legally harvest Grouse other than just in the air. Ground and tree shots put birds in the bag with aimed shots, and they eat just as well (usually better) for those out to harvest game. Taking them with a .22 is rare for me but I can remember nearly every single one and they were super fun.

lindyrig79 wrote:

<div class=”d4p-bbt-quote-title”>gimruis wrote:</div>
I raised 4 of them, took a shot at 3 of them, and never touched one of them. Those things are impossible. I mostly duck and pheasant hunt so grouse hunting is not something I do a whole lot of. For those of you able to regularly harvest grouse, I am impressed.

Gimruis – they are tough to hit. You have to be ready within a fraction of a second and then get used to shooting through cover. Very rarely will you get an open shot. It does seem to get easier the more you do it…. learning how to put yourself in the available lanes and always thinking ahead for potential shots… but even then it’s not easy. I’ve had both grouse and woodcock do some matrix type stuff in the woods this year, LOL

Part of the issue is that they make so much noise when they get up that they startle the crap out of me. So by the time I realize I need to take a shot at a bird getting out a dodge, its not a good shot and there’s timber/brush/leaves in the way too. It just seems like its always such a low percentage shot. I feel like a well-trained pointer would be a valuable asset hunting grouse. It would allow me to get into a good shooting position for the flush.

Got out today for 2-1/2 hours. Was thinking I may have missed most of the woodcock flight but we had 12-13 flushes. Added 8 more grouse flushes. Only managed 3 woodcock and a grouse but had a good day afield.

Flushed 3 more grouse collecting some kindling for the fire pit. Not a great pic but you can see the outline under a group of balsams.

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Tegg- that is a lot of action for a short time!

lindyrig79 wrote:

Tegg- that is a lot of action for a short time!

I had two things going for me: We have adjacent WMA land that was recently logged (winter 2014-2015) so it’s prime for woodcock right now. It’s also super hard for the public to access. The other thing is I know that piece of property really well so I can hit all the better areas. Other than the young popple we also have a lot of alder edges that can hold both birds. Attached represents a lot of the cover available.

Looks like it doubled up on the pics

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Is that the tag alder with the multiple trunks? And is that a good guideline for areas that have been logged – 4 to 5 years?

lindyrig79 wrote:

Is that the tag alder with the multiple trunks? And is that a good guideline for areas that have been logged – 4 to 5 years?

I believe prime re-growth habitat for grouse is 10 years post logging. Earlier than that for woodcock.

A milestone night tonight for my Cash. We’ve been hunting the edge of a swamp off and on for a couple weeks. A fire lane cuts the swamp relatively in the middle. On one side of the fire lane there is an island with a bit of higher land and big trees. I couldnt access it very easily with all the rain. Now the swamp is draining a bit we worked the island. What a find. For a few minutes birds were going up like it was duck hunt. Grouse but mostly woodcock. It was a blast and I was spreading the lead. We got our first woodcock limit putting up about 35 timber doodles and 10 grouse!

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Awesome BigPike! Sounds like an epic hunt!

lindyrig79 wrote:

Awesome BigPike! Sounds like an epic hunt!

No doubt. Thank you. Cash is snoozing next to me like a drunken baby. Dreaming of bird’s I’m sure!

Don’t woodcock typically migrate through by the time the ground freezes? Can’t imagine they’d still be around by the weekend?

The sawmps are anything but froze. They must still have plenty to eat as the ones I cleaned last night had a good layer of fat around the breast. I thought they were migrating south a week ago or so as my numbers of flushes had dwindled. Im guessing they moved to different areas to feed and last night I hit the right area. I had time to scout a new area after the epic hunt and even came across a few there. They were free to fly as my bag was full for the day!

Went out yesterday, 3 flushes on grouse, and 4 woodcock flushed. got two woodcock and a snowshoe hare. The hare was unusual as I have never saw one. Oh and dog found out about quill pigs.

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Be extra precise removing those. I had one migrate and come out my dog’s back. It Nearly took her out. Thankfully yours looks pretty mild and a lesson learned for your dog. For some reason it makes your dog look French? Oui?

Yeah they were not very deep and pulled out quite easy. It is crazy how quills can migrate!

The whole day yesterday was a learning process as the dog and myself are new to grouse hunting, so getting a few flushes was pretty nice.

I saw a porkie in the woods last weekend for the first time in several years. I’ve seen them on the road, chewing on our outhouse siding and the like.

Several years ago a partner’s Lab got stuck bad. We did not have any tools with us, had to hoof the mile back to the shack to get a pliers. Ever since we all carry multi tools with pliers. Have not neededthem for porkie quills but have pulled sticks and other stuff out of dogs and humans.

Also carry a skunk kit in the vehicle. A buddy brought his drahthaar on her first hunt and she locked up five minutes into the hunt. Of course it was a skunk. He drove from Marshall MN to Fargo with the dog in the bed under the topper. Not only had to decontaminate the dog but also the crate and the truck bed.

Pliers, wire snips, skunk kit, and zip ties (for trap removal) are always along!

lindyrig79 wrote:

Is that the tag alder with the multiple trunks? And is that a good guideline for areas that have been logged – 4 to 5 years?

Yes on the alder. When it gets older it will splay out and send runners along the ground. I’ve heard that once it gets greater than about 1-1/2” stem diameter it starts to lose effectiveness.