Michigan Grouse
 

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.

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.

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?"

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

The MI GEMS can be a good starting point but as others have said can be busy during the initial weeks of the season through mid October. If you do try a GEMS cut go in the middle of the week when it’s likely to be less busy. It will give you a good idea of habitat if it’s been a while since you’ve grouse hunted and several of them have “logging” roads cut through them that can make it easier if mobility is an issue. Between the national forest, state forest and timber land available to the public to access you’ll have no problems finding coverts to hunt!

Late October is a good time to be there, a d I use OnX maps religiously.