Ruffs up north
 

Two weeks in way north Minnesota. We had Joe Weidle from PA who is becoming a Parker guy and now shoots a Sterlingworth and an RBL. Then Dick Dow and Tony Florentino from SoCal and yours truly.

Last year was warm but it’s a lot colder and wetter this year up here. We are finding birds and you betcha we are introducing the Californians to walleye and fried cheese curds. We’ve been watching the news and I think I’d rather spend another January along the Canadian border than be in Washington with all those screeching women. How about we move the capitol to Bismarck ND or some such place where people act decent?

We are winding up in Beltrami and moving south to the sunny climes of Itasca. We may see our buddy Jerry Havel down in Cass County.

More to follow. Some snow here last night.

1. Joe with a nice long tail male gray phase bird.

2. Me with a first year brown phase. My 14 month Lewellin is in her second season on birds and this is her first solo grouse.

Nice. Thanks for sharing your trip reports. I understand it is suppose to be a better year forecasted. Hope your getting into plenty of flushes.

Yes with only 2 to 3 hunters a day we are running 10-20 grouse up per day. I was 1 for 3 yesterday. Todd you seem to seem to enjoy the forum and Parker guns. How about you join the PGCA and learn the secret handshake ?

Not only will he learn the secret handshake, he’ll also reap the many benefits only available to PGCA Members rather than simply accessing only some of our website open to Forum Associates. It’s only $40 annually - heck, you spend more than that for dinner and a couple of beverages.





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Bruce as always, your posts of your adventures are a pleasure to read and view!

Bruce,

Thanks for the report! We are heading to Northern Minnesota for our annual 2-week trip at the end of next week. I'm glad to learn the numbers are decent. This will be our 37th consecutive year hunting Northern MN, mostly staying at the same cabin, and, I'm sure like you, we have lots of coverts that we know like old friends.

I get daily weather reports for the area we hunt -- mostly Northern Itasca and Koochiching Counties, so I think we are a bit north of your haunts. We used to go the first and second weeks of October, then tried the 2nd and third, and recently have settled on the 3rd and 4th weeks, mostly because it was too warm and there were too many leaves. I've seen the conditions have been much cooler, and today snow showers were reported. Glad to read your confirmation of good conditions. Our flush rates last year were very poor, so I'm encouraged to learn of your good luck.

Maybe one of these days we'll run into you. I enjoy your posts, and can tell you are a "hunter-collector," enjoying using your guns for what they were made to do. Each bird and each place its hunted has its own charm. Northern Minnesota in October is about as special as it gets.

Post more pictures when you can, please.

Hey, my wife just got off the phone with the cabin owners. They reported 2 inches of snow on the ground near Wirt, MN!

Congratulations on the first solo with your pup!

Bruce, is that the pup you had at Pine Ridge last October? She sure turned into a fine looking dog. Thanks for the report.

Yes she is. And Seth Irvin was there too and is with us up here in Itasca County right now before going to Pine Ridge in a few days.

I had my pointer Bert there also and he is of course with me. The setter has a ways to go before matching Bert.

October Fest in northern Minnesota and folks singing Beer Barrel Polka at the bar and buying drinks in celebration of today.

I’m headed to Grand Rapids next week for the annual RGS National Grouse and Woodcock Hunt. Not nearly as prestigious as it sounds but always a good time. Glad to hear things are a little better than last year. My go to gun is always the 16gauge VHE skeet gun from 1937.

1. Breakfast boys

2 and 3. Between Wirt and Bigfork

I'll be leaving Fri Oct 19 for my 2 week stint in the uP-my 33rd straight year. I was a guide at the national Grouse and Woodcock Hunt in 88 or '89. I had never stepped foot in Minnesota before, but I know what grouse cover looks like, and had my hunters in second place. One day I guided the late Robert Urich (movie star) and my buddy guided Bud Grant. Ironically, Robert Urich, was one of my wife's deceased husbands best friends, both from Toronto, Ohio, both dying tragically young from cancer. I met my wife years later.
Try not to have too much fun Bruce.

Bob Urich moved his family here to Andover several years ago in order to be closer to the wonderful hospitals and health care facilities in Boston, 18 miles south of here. Met him a couple of times - he was a very nice guy and very quiet.
Unfortunately the health care here just couldn't stop the inevitable.





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I know we are wandering a bit off the thread, but I also have an "acquaintance" with Robert Urich. Back in 2000 he was a guest speaker for our University and there was a special meeting opportunity for some of us University folk and key alums. I was familiar with Urich through his TV show, but more importantly (at least to me) for his work in publishing Once Upon a Time, a collection of Nash Buckingham stories not included in his previous books. Unfortunately, I was pretty ill and could not make the event, but my wife, bless her, was willing to take my copy of the book and see if Mr. Urich might sign it. According to her he was enchanted with the idea that someone in this academic crowd might know of this aspect of his work, and he spent a good amount of time talking with my wife about it -- much to the chagrin of some of my anti-hunting/gun colleagues. I spent a working lifetime in higher education, not always the most hospitable place for a hunter and gun collector, and this event -- albeit a vicarious one -- was among some of my most memorable. Elaine describes him as Dean has, quiet and courteous.

Another notable memory of that trip was sharing a cocktail with the late Gordon Gullion, and good friend the late Bill Goudy.

Take lots of photos Harold. Enjoy, be safe and shoot straight :bigbye:

Gary I also have a copy of this book put together by Mr. Urich. Pretty cool story!!

Rain rain rain then snow.

1. Minnesota mist all day so stick to the trails. In the brush you get soaked in a hurry.

2. Pete and Dick making woodcock , jalapeño, cream cheese and bacon poppers. Pretty spicy so Scots whisky helps.

Bruce, sticking to the trails is a good plan, grouse are birds of the edges, and you can cover a lot of territory on the trails, and have great flush rates.
I know its been pretty darn wet, but at least the temps haven't been too bad.
Where all have you been so far this fall--in generalities, and what birds? Why? I want to do this myself--I kind of figure that the year 2020 would be an appropriate year for an eye doc to retire and plan a big road trip--thinking about starting in Idaho and moving east and ending up in the UP.
Shawn, have you met up with your brother in Idaho yet? Just finished his grouse book and really enjoyed it--looks like I'll have to pick up his other books now.

September: Eastern Montana for prairie grouse, then direct to

Oct : northern Minnesota for ruffed grouse

Nov: SoDak for pheasants

Dec : OK for quail

Dec : KS for pheasants and quail

Jan: SE AZ for quail

Feb : OK for quail

That’s the intention. Two bird dogs and two guns.

Harold...

I'm leaving on the 19th to Idaho for a week. Can hardly stand the wait!

Bruce, what a great schedule. Any young dog will be a seasoned veteran after that'
Shawn, I am leaving that same day for the UP, and will be in NW Kansas from Nov 24- Dec1.

My friend that lives in NW Kansas is saying it's gonna be good.

Did someone say wet? Grayson and I hunted in Newcomb, Essex County NY in the rain this past Sunday. We logged about 7 miles walking a logging road that looped around a pond. The birds were not along the road edges so we went in after them. We both got soaked to the skin, only found three grouse and had a shot at one which I missed. Good day anyway with Grayson showing some good indications that he is getting the idea.

The day before we put in a solid 6 miles through some really good-looking covers in Blenheim, Schoharie County NY expecting to find grouse and woodcock, but the only thing we found were ticks...lots of ticks. Very disappointing. We'll be back at it this coming weekend.

Mr. Day your travels and experiences are enviable, thanks for sharing them with us. Good luck and safe travels the rest of your season!

Pete and grouse.

With the wet the birds have been up in the firs and balsams , hard for the dogs to scent. This one was on the ground.

A beautiful day here in the Minnesota north . Two to five inches of snow is forecast and granular snow is now coming on a north wind.

We will go chasing grouse a little later.

So for you southerners just lah de dahing about and basking in the sun, here is a photo for you.

Then waiting out the snow with a big breakfast of blueberry pancakes in Blackduck MN

Dang.What an extreme weather day. Snowing in Northern 48 and a major hurricane in SE coming ashore this afternoon.

Used to buy wild rice from the Landreth Wild Rice Company in Black Duck. Now, long gone

Could not find my picture of the big Black Duck in Black Duck, but there's some similarly interesting town statures up there in the North Country.

doggone if it aint paul bunyon and babe the blue ox....charlie

Absolutely brutal weather for the first few days of my fall hunting pilgrimage. On Monday we enjoyed 3 inches of rain around Watersmeet. Yesterday was two inches of rain accompanied by plummeting temperatures. We have moved a lot of Grouse from the cedars but this makes for very difficult shooting. Relocated to Grand Rapids, MN and enjoyed rain, sleet, hail, ice and finally snow accompanied by 30 MPH winds. Tomorrow is the first day of the National Hunt and we are expecting 6 to 10 inches of snow. Hard to believe, but we are having a great time in spite (or maybe because) of the weather.

Dick and grouse,finally.

Pointed by his Gordon?

We hunted south of Wirt today. Moved some grouse but not the numbers I hoped for this year.

I hope you left me a few. We head North tomorrow.

We'll be in Blackduck in ten days. I'll take a picture of the big duck. Then I'll figure out how to post it. Bruce's foto of breakfast is where we eat every morning. Owners seem to change but the food is always pretty good.

Garry , I suspect you stay in the cabins on the south shore of Clear Lake and not in the old general store on the highway. We left plenty of birds for you, I assume because we did not find many.

This is our last day up north , have to go home then get ready to go again.

But here is Pete with his 7 month old setter pup, the brother of my setter. Just a big baby that loves to run.

Then fall trails.

And finally, the woods today. If you are coming north be prepared for snow, mud and cold.

The old store was once also the post office. What you saw there is all of Wirt. My kind of town. There used to be some good cuts behind the store but they've long since grown out. Sorry you did not find many birds. When the weather gets like you've described and the birds head to the conifers, the hunting -- at least the shooting part of it -- really takes a hit. Enjoyed your pictures and reports!

In the past years, the weather in early Oct has been too darn warm and dry, hard on men and dogs. It is also miserable hunting in that slopy wet early snow that soaks right thru you. Tough waiting all year for a hunting trip, and then having bad weather.Looks like it will be better for me when I get up there next Sat--but as they say, it is what it is..I will be going regardless of weather forecast and bird numbers. Getting all those little chores and last minute packing done this weekend, luckily the wife is in Fla, so not getting sidetracked. Good luck to all.