Michigan Grouse

[joe tilford]

I have not been grouse and woodcock hunting in a very long time. Right now I have a very good french brittany that I think will love to hunt them, so I want to get up north and get after some. Will any of our members share a little information about the Michigan GEMS grouse management areas in the lower peninsula? I am thinking about a late October road trip with my dog and a Parker 20 ga.

[Dan Steingraber]

My experience has been that the GEM areas get a lot of pressure early in the season but tapers off some by late October. I suggest that you not limit yourself to
The GEM areas. There is a lot of grouse and woodcock habitat that is open to public hunting. OnX is a good resource.

[Kevin McCormack]

Agree with Steiner - another factor making public land attractive according to species you are after are local personal preferences. For years we grouse hunted public lands in NYS and never saw a pickup or SUV with dog crates in the back. All the locals cared about was deer hunting (first on their list) and those that wanted turkey hunting were truly fanatics about it. I asked a local one time why they never tried for grouse, he said "Dogs flush them all before you're ready to shoot and no one eats them anyway, so why bother?"

[Dave Tatman]

As a committed Michigan grouse hunter, we have thousands (millions?) of acres of grouse and woodcock cover on public lands. Dan is right, subscribe to OnX for Michigan and enjoy your time in Michigan’s North Woods.

Dave