Northwoods Grouse Hunt: Chapter 35
 

We are finally back at Cabin #6 in Northern Minnesota, our 35th year of grouse hunting here in the Northwoods. We arrived to snow squalls and cold temperatures, our first day never rising above freezing. We are finding grouse -- a flush rate over 3 birds per hour -- but not getting many shots. We've opted to go later in October the past few years to avoid the hunters of the warmer temperatures. Fewer hunters now, but spookier birds. It's all part of the hunt.

We have our new pup along, which presents both great pleasures...and challenges. Prairie Rill is a bold pup, and needs watching closely on our walks. She got to scent her first wild bird, one of what I hope will be many in the future. A hunter has to be optimistic to take on a puppy.

Key to photos:

1. The first grouse of the season is special. When it's taken fairly, with a cherished gun, and over a pup you trained yourself, it's even more poignant.

2. Little Rill is just barely 10 weeks old, but she liked her first sniff of grouse.

3. We don't seek out woodcock on these trips, but they are a welcome gift when we find them. Our dogs don't seem to like them as much as grouse, but they do like pointing them. Like others with woodcock experience, I'm finding the birds seem to move out from points more now than in the past.

4. My gun for the first week of our hunt is my 1904 DH 16. It's a #1 frame gun with original 26" barrels and high dimensions for its straight/splinter configuration. Spreader 8s for the right barrel, with spreader 7 1/2s in the left, make the tightly choked barrels good for these late October skittish birds.

5. Prairie Aspen is in his seventh season, and he is a comfortable-to-shoot-over dog who adjusts his range to the cover. He's getting most of the hunt time now that Alder has some years on her, and he likes his "couch time" after a long day in the woods.

6. Two more tired "old dogs" take a nap on the couch. Clearcut Notorious Black Alder (age 10) and wife Elaine of Italian heritage (age withheld for the safety of the poster). Yes, Andy, there are some Italians in Minnesota :). Please don't tell Elaine I posted this photo, or I won't get supper for the rest of the trip!

Looks like a great trip and great pup you have there Garry.

Always enjoy your hunting adventures and the related photos! Please keep them coming! If I ever retire I plan to make a trip to the grouse woods. At least I am getting my grouse guns lined up for a trip some day.

The UP is a big item on my to do list. This year was not the year though . . .

Great pictures and beautiful dogs Garry, one day may have to get a Gordon. I am in Escanaba, Mi as I type , and boots will be on the ground tomorrow. Drove 725 miles today. I cant get into my new-to-me cabin until Sat afternoon. Will drive north tomorrow to hunt some covers I havent been into for years, and promising new areas found on OnX. Will spend tomorrow night at cabin with my best friend Terry, and then both of us will move into the new place on Sat for 2 weeks. I dodged the snow/weather bullet. Talked to Kenny Graft, SXS Ohio, he will get into Maine tonight.
Brett Hoops is in N. Wisconsin with a friend. He is able to get 4-5 miles/day, but generally carrying a walking stick instead of a gun, but I am so happy that he is trying to persevere and still get out there.
Post more pictures, and I will try to do the same

Reggie, when I read your comment, I could not help but think about a line from Sparse Grey Hackle's story, Fishless Days, "If fishing interferes with your business, give up your business...the trout do not rise in Greenwood Cemetery." When someone chides me about hunting too much or too often, I like to note that the grouse do not flush in Greenwood Cemetery either.:)

Get those guns lined up and ready. If you choose to hit the Northwoods in late October, meet us at the oldest bar in Minnesota at Hayslips, and we'll take you on a trail or two we know of...

Harold, I'm so glad to read your report -- that you and Kenny (I hope with his lovely Miss Ruby) are on the prowl. I'm especially happy to know that Brett made it north and is getting his miles in. Good luck, good shooting, and above all, savor your time in the coverts. We only have a limited number of days, and never know when we've hunted our last covert.

Yes, please post photos! Do it on this thread and maybe others who are chasing grouse at present will do so, too. Maybe even Brett will chime in??

Very nice! I am hoping to make it up there next year. Great pics as always!

Maybe next year??

Well it's on the books, but so was this year....:rotf:

Great pics. As the owner of generations of labs I know the pups gotta go along and particularly the first season or two will provide pride, frustration, hilarity and probably some scary moments along with memories that last a lifetime. My avatar is "Smoker"s first real solo hunt, just me and the dog. Got all the above in a single morning!

Keith, you are so right about the "pleasures" of having a puppy along. It certainly cuts into your hunting time, not to mention your sleeping time :crying: but it also adds to your great memories of what I'm sure will be a special dog -- as all of them are in their own way.

You get to cherish the little things, like teaching the pup to drink from a bottle...which will come in handy on hunts in the future.

So much to do!

Well, we have completed week 1 of our hunt, and although not much to show in the way of game for the larder, we have had lots of bird contact and good, hard miles for our hearts.

This has been a remarkable year for the number of times we've gotten birds up without a chance for a shot...or at least a good one. As I noted, we have started coming up later in the season to avoid more hunters. That has certainly been the case, but I see a marked skittishness in the birds. Often, the dog will point, and before I can get up with the dog, the bird will flush far out ahead. We've also had lots of "brood points" where there are multiple birds at a point (6 birds from a point yesterday!). As grouse do, they flush when the want, and when you don't want. Frustrating, but all part of the hunt.

So, this past week our flush rate was 3.8 birds/hour. When you think that most of our hunting comes on trails that we must walk out and back (essentially hunting over ground just traveled), one could really double that flush rate. The birds are here this year, they're just not playing nice.:banghead: Actually, except for not shooting well (44% on grouse, 25% on woodcock), this has been a great hunt.

Today will be an off day as dangerous winds and rain are in the forecast. A trip to town is in order.

Here are some photos from late in the week, including some that I hope reveal the nature of the Northwoods hunt, from its beauty to the exhilaration of walking in on a dog on point (assuming you can get to the dog!).

Garry, after hunting grouse all over the eastern states I suspect the skittishness may be due to lack of overhead cover. Read that as lack of leaves in your case. I have always found the birds to be more cooperative when there is some leaf cover.

I think beeper collars on dogs have taught the birds that it's not a good sound, and they ought to get out of town

I don't use a beeper, they are still skittish.

We took yesterday off -- 45 mph winds and falling trees will keep me out of the timber (and without a chain saw, off the back roads). As for the skittishness of grouse, I'm sure there is something to the idea that grouse can learn from past experience. Gary, I also believe that thinning cover can make grouse more wary, but, like you mention, if they have some security of cover, like blowdowns or grapevine tangles, they will often hold tighter, even later in the year. As far as beepers go, it certainly seems plausible that birds can learn to associate that sound with danger, but I know enough science to not let my empirical observations set a rule for all.

I run my dogs with beepers in the Northwoods to keep a closer watch on them and, like wearing a bell in bear country, to let the wolves know we're in the area (and hopefully, for them to leave it!). We had a wolf come after one of our dogs in a clearcut some years back, and I've been spooked by that encounter ever since. I actually shot at the wolf to stop its advance. A 28 gauge load of 8s through an open choke and the very large wolf did not even slow or blink (this was at about 45 yards). I thought I was up for a close range shot when it just stopped, gave us a dirty look, and casually strolled off. My 70 pound Gordon would have been carried off by that very, very large wolf. I've read all the reports on wolves and dogs in the north country, and I know there is low risk for bird dogs, but when you have a close encounter, you sometimes have a hard time letting that experience go. There's that empirical knowledge thing again.:corn:

I'll still say that later in the season, there are a host of circumstances that cause grouse to be more skittish -- hunting pressure, thinning cover, beepers(?), etc. I know that Burton Spiller wrote that birds became more skittish during low periods of the cycle. I guess the idea is that many of the birds encountered then were not birds of the year and had more experience with hunters. Who know?! I do know that they are skittish now, and that the fact that they are is what hunting them is about, and I'm not about to let some skittish birds keep me from enjoying myself...or my dogs to not love what they are doing.

I hope everyone else's birds are not so skittish, and that you all shoot better than I do.:)(I'm pretty sure you do anyway.) And, I hope you get as much enjoyment out of the hunt.

Thanks for sharing the pictures. Gorgeous barrel on that Parker.

Days of contrasting weather -- one with spitting snow and heavy cloud cover, the other with cloud filled, sunny skies. Both without much wind -- just the way we like it. We flushed broods again on both days, and, again, because of the way they flushed, we have no shots. We get some nice points by Aspen, and are able to take some birds on the follow-up. I've hunted here so much, and thought about the ways of Northwoods grouse so long, that sometimes I can predict if a bird might hold long enough for me to get to the point. To reassert Gary's point about overhead cover and skittishness, when we find some blowdowns where a grouse might "burrow" down and hold, we generally can get close enough to get a flush within range. I haven't, however, figured out how to not have a tree in the way of a shot, and many has suffered a load of 8s over the years.:banghead:

We have found more woodcock this year than in the recent past. It is a bit wetter, and there are more coverts that are damp...and thick -- just the way the 'cock like it. Our flush rates on grouse remain good. Our shot chances remain poor.

Keys to photos:

1. This was a follow-up bird from a "brood flush" of 4 birds. Aspen trailed him for well over 50 yards, and he flushed far out. I wing-tipped him and Aspen continued the trail to run him down (thus the lack of tail feathers). For me, this is more satisfying that taking a limit of birds. It's not how many, it's how...at least for me at this point in my shooting life.

2. We visit coverts so often that we get to know some of the trees in them. This oak has appeared in many photos over the years, as it always puts on a display of rich color. There is almost always a grouse nearby, and such was the cast again this year. Alas, this bird was in a tree and flushed wild. Sometimes they play dirty.

3. One day I'll have the presence of mind to check my watch to see what my heart rate is when I get a point like this along an open road. The anticipation is almost overwhelming, as I'm sure those of you who hunt over pointing dogs know well.

4. I have a good (non-hunting) friend whose father was a hunter and had bird dogs. She always laughs when we show her photos like this. "It's like Papa's photos." She always says, "I have seen lots of dog butts in lots of old pictures!" I always smile and continue to cherish a good dog on point picture (a.k.a. A dog butt picture).

5. Driving over Caldwell Brook we had to stop and get a picture. It's scenes like this that fill out the day.

6. Mr. Leopold's "Red Lanterns" were not red when our visit began, but have lit up the trail in the last couple of days. They are at the best when the air is damp and the sky cloudy.

7. A brace of 'cock -- my self-imposed limit -- makes for a great day, especially when taken over points with a 118 year old Parker.

8. Sometimes nature will stop you to look. Late yesterday as we were heading back to the truck, the sun was like a spot light in the pine woods.

Thanks for sharing your Great pictures Garry, always enjoyed!!

Beautiful pictures!

Very nice pictures. The UP is certainly beautiful.

We are finally home after a two-day road trip. It was a very satisfying two weeks that saw good bird numbers and decent bird work from the dogs. Our puppy, Rill, traveled surprisingly well and became more accustomed to her older mentors. Aspen loves her, and ten year old Alder, after sorting out some things with the puppy, has agreed to tolerate her. Having a puppy along is an interesting endeavor, and brings back other puppies from 30+ years of hunting the Northwoods.

Our best day saw us put 23 grouse in the air in just over 4 hours. Our flush rate was very good: 4.3 grouse/hour. My shooting, marred by one day of infamy where I became overanxious trying to get shots to consummate the dogs points, ended up slightly below my long term average, but still a respectable (for me!) 39%. We took a few woodcock with wings to be sent to the national "wing bee." My average on 'cock was 43%, quite a bit below my life average, but I was shooting a pretty tightly choked gun for the entire trip.

I hate to see the end of our Minnesota trips. The intervening time seems so long. We have reservations again for next Fall. Lord willing, Elaine and I and the pups will wander the Northwoods again.

Thanks again for sharing your adventures!

Very nice pictures. Thanks for sharing them.

Thanks to all who followed this thread. And, Reggie, I don't know if it was just serendipitous or fateful that we passed a cemetery on our way to a covert and it made me think again of the Sparse Grey Hackle piece I mentioned earlier. And, for what it's worth, the grouse did not flush from Greenwood Cemetery.:rotf::rotf::rotf: