2021 Maine Grouse Trip
 

This past week we made our annual journey to the Maine North Woods for grouse and mudbat (woodcock to the uninitiated :rotf:). We had a great three days of hunting. I traveled and hunted with Life Member Dale Wilkie. He brought his 11 year old German Wirehair Pointer and I brought our smallest Setter, four year old Callie. We flushed 83 birds. The numbers were almost one-half of what we flushed last season. Out of those 83, two were spruce grouse and three were nudbat. The ground was very dry and temps wer near 70 in the afternoon so we knew the mudbat would be tough to find.

Day one we flushed 20 19 grouse and 1 mudbat. I took my limit of grouse (4 for 7). Carried the Trojan 28" 16g.

Dat two we flushed 30 birds. 26 ruffs, 2 spruce and 2 mudbat. Limited on grouse (4 for 4) and 1 mudbat (1 for 1). We found them hot and heavy in the alder runs next to young pines and in the young birch and aspen stands. I carried the 12g 26" Lefever H grade.

Day three we flushed 32 birds, 30 ruffs and 2 mudbat. Limited on grouse (4 for 6), 0 for 1 on mudbat. Found some great covers!! I carried the 12g 26" Lefever H grade again.

We had some fine dog work too even with the warm afternoon temps. One day Dale and I both took grouse on the same flush and his Bell retrieved both birds at the same time!! Looking forward to 2022!!

Day 1 photo (top) I added omne more grouse to the bag about 1/2 hour after that photo.
Day 2 photo (middle).
Day 3 photo (bottom)

Dog photos-
Bell with her two bird retreive!
Callie working the alders

A few more photos from the Maine covers.

Beautiful! (Well...not you, but everything else:)) That also seems to be great shooting, especially with so many leaves still on the trees.

Thanks Garry! The thing with all the foliage, we only had one flush that we really didn't have at least a glimpse of the bird and that flushed maybe 5' from me going hard right and low through the saplings.

Beautiful! You and Dean have me jealous.

Mike, I can't even shoot nearly that well on open field birds...but then, I'm very conservation minded.:whistle:(:crying::banghead:)

Nice looking dogs. Anymore photos of the wirehair? How did she handle the grouse?

Wow. Polar opposite from our trip, congrats Mike! That's a good looking few birds next to that mustachioed beast.

Mike,
Thanks for sharing, kinda makes a fella want to hunt in Maine someday!!

I know those old “forest products” roads. Great grouse covers sll over northern New England.

Been there often.





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No more photos of the wire hair sorry. Bell is a seasoned veteran of the North Woods. She points, holds and retrieves. Once in a while she can be “mouthy” on a retrieve, but she’s 11 years old and I guess she’s been at it long enough that a few “crunches” can be tolerated. I know I didn’t have any problems with her work. She’s a great dog.

Mike, where did you stay up there?

My buddy hooks me up with this trip and really doesn't want me to disclose the location. Let's just say Maine North Woods. I't going to get harder to get into the birds. IFW changed the seasons by moving the opening date to September during bear season. Locals get on them in September already. So, the guides are now trying to sell their "combo" hunts to the bear and moose hunters. They tell the bear hunters they can bring a shotgun, don't need a dog, and they can ride the roads in the AM to shoot birds then be back and heading out to a bait site for bear in the afternoon. Same for moose season which has also been expanded. The tell the moose hunters to bring their shotgun and after they kill a moose they can also ride the roads and shoot grouse. We saw 144 in 3 days in 2020. We saw 83 in 3 days in 2021 and the bird season was moved to September last year. We have shooters here that were in Jackman. One group was there 2 weeks ago and flushed 43 birds over 3 days. Another group was there the first week and saw very few birds and were told by the outfitter DO NOT BRING ANY DOGS. :banghead: One needs dogs up there.

That's just shit, sorry. So much for sporting bird pursuits. We saw road hunters last week. Was just as bad (TO ME) as the duck hunters in Currituck Sound who shoot the ducks AFTER they land on the water. How very noble of you. I guess those guys have to make a living but how disappointing.

Ya, tuned into a preliminarily charming Ontario Ruffed grouse video on YouTube; delightful first 5 minutes or so with 2 young guys complimenting one another on their hunting prowess, fawning over their mongrel "hunting dog" companion, and admiring one another's bolt action (!!!) shotguns. Things went dark as they "bagged" their first grouse; they were shooting them out of trees like squirrel hunters with rifles! Garbage!

That is terrible and a bad image of our sport. Here is something YouTube should really take down.

Too bad Mike’s glorious thread has taken an infelicitous turn. But it is the world we live in.

Nothing new in that many hunters are not sportsmen, and that some guides will accommodate a paying customer thusly. At such a point a shooter should not be accorded the term "client”.

Not all road hunting in logging country involves pot-shooting, however. There is a big difference between jamming on the brakes, rolling down the window, and executing a bird that is perched on a branch or sitting on the ground, as opposed to getting out, stalking it, and shooting at it on the wing.

All the more reason to pick hunting partners carefully. If people don't want to observe a certain level of decorum and ethics and safety, I won't hunt with them again.

Like many here, I am fortunate to have a circle of friends who are a pleasure to hunt with and see things they way I see them.

[QUOTE=Russell E. Cleary;345723]Many hunters are not sportsmen, and that some guides will accommodate a paying customer thusly. At such a point a shooter should not be accorded the term "client”.

Nor should they be accorded the noble term "hunter" for they are merely executioners.





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I don’t have an issue with the method the guides tell the big game hunters to use for birds. It is legal in Maine to drive to find birds, exit the vehicle and shoot. My issue is that the bear and moose guys don’t care about the birds and are only shooting them to pass idle hours before sitting for bear or after taking a moose. That time of year is hard on the dogs as it is usually too warm in September to run the dogs too long, if you can run them at all. I’m usually all for expanded seasons and more freedom to hunt. I just hope IFW didn’t mess this one up for the birds.