2016 sandhills grouse

edo said:
Sorry, put this in the wrong post.
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Last few posts had loads of tips...

Other then that stuff randy s. Had to say I'd add if u flush or bump a bird & it flush wild get up to that spot asap & be ready there is a stragler sometimes & or a cluster/popcorn flush of many birds in waves if that happens stay ready lots of times there 1 last bird holding I've seen this many times while holding a empty gun trying to reload after shooting at birds out on edge of shotgun range...
 
edo said:
Curious what you guys concider windy? Do you have days you don't hunt because of the wind?
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I've had excellent luck in winds at 30+. calm days are the worst for me, the birds can be anywhere. Fortunately in the Sandhills, there's considerable wind most days.

Many hunters say that grouse are spooky in the wind, but I haven't found that to be true. Especially hard wind. I've shot quick limits in alfalfa, bare pastures and windbreaks when a sensible guy would have gone to a bar.

I have to apologize because I know I probably come off as a know-it-all. It's interesting for me to hear from hunters who have differing results from mine. I met a guy at Valentine 15 years ago who said he always hunted with the wind at his back and he seemed to know what he was doing.

He did teach me a trick for very hot days. I know in the Dakotas, guys shoot sharptails loafing in thickets on very hot days. That rarely happens in the sandhills. But, they will sit below lone cedar trees as long as they aren't too tall. (Too tall is high enough for a hawk to perch.) It's a lot easier to just hunt from one shaded cedar tree to the next than trying to cover a whole range of hills.

Another trick from the old timers is to duck if you see a flock of grouse flying. For some reason, if they see you duck, they'll fly closer. I know how strange that sounds but it really works. I remember one day I was walking back to my truck with a limit of pheasants and flock after flock of sharptails were flying between the hills I was passing through. I ducked enough to pass shoot the three bird limit before I got back to my truck. A guy tends to remember those days with clarity.

Just a few more days to go... Good Luck to everyone!
 
I've found it hard to get close to birds on a calm rainy or light rainy day & or foggy conditions don't know why???

In MT we found sharptail & sage grouse at same waterholes & sharptails would loaf around large sage bushes & catch shade also would loaf in creek beds or dry Creek beds with extremely thick bushes the name escape me but they have Lil yellow Berry's on them I've seen em In sandhills also...

I've seen prairie chickens land almost on top of me & my uncle 1 time we seen 1 solo chicken coming in we ducked down & it set wings & fluttered in we jumped it & missed it worst feeling lol. There is sharptails in this same area so I assume they act similar...

No wind speed keeps me from hunting I have to travel 4-5 hours min to get to prairie grouse 8-9 to get to good prairie grouse areas outside of MN so I hunt hard every prairie grouse hunt... Plus in MN. Its a lottery Hunt for chickens u get like 9 days only per season if u draw so we hunt no matter winds...

I can hunt sharptails every year but our sharptails like in bog willow crp crop type habitat not as fun as Dakotas or Nebraska prairie grouse hunting
 
I've hunted prairie grouse many years in the Sandhills, my absolute favorite bird hunting. There really are no tricks to hunting grouse. You simply have to walk, and walk, and walk, and........ The advice above is good, and may help to hone your hunting, but when you stand on a hill overlooking a 10K acre ranch, and it all looks the same, all you know for certain is they are out there somewhere. If you hunt with the wind at your back on one set of hills, well, you have to hunt into the wind on the next one. Just keep walking, you'll run into them eventually. The best advice? Find the biggest hills and.............walk them. Happy hunting, would love to hear how people have been doing this year on grouse, I'll be going out soon.
 
Find a Lek if u do birds around simple trick look into this birds early are close studies show this ... Find out what a Lek is if u don't know... Major helper in narrowing areas... Then have a good dog...

I'd rather hunt prairie grouse as well...
 
Well, that was fun! The sandhills didn?t disappoint. What a beautiful slice of country. I especially appreciated the solitude. It was so nice to stand at the top of a dune, look in any direction and see nothing! No roads, no buildings, no cell towers, no oil wells ? just rolling hills of grass and the occasional wind mill. And it was quiet. No noise or light pollution. Felt as though I could touch the stars. And the people were great - once they got over the sight of a truck with out of state tags pulling a trailer full of dogs to hunt grouse. I got the sense that they don?t see a lot of out of state bird hunters in that part of the country.

And there are birds in those hills. But ya gotta work for them. It was a bit of adjustment from hunting grouse in the Dakotas and montana. There was food everywhere and the lack of ag land allowed the birds to be dispersed most anywhere. As the week went on, we got better at looking at a range of hills and ?guessing? where the birds might be. It was also fun to bump into the occasional chicken. That was a first for me.

Great trip! Thanks Nebraska!
 
GSP said:
Well, that was fun! The sandhills didn?t disappoint. What a beautiful slice of country. I especially appreciated the solitude. It was so nice to stand at the top of a dune, look in any direction and see nothing! No roads, no buildings, no cell towers, no oil wells ? just rolling hills of grass and the occasional wind mill. And it was quiet. No noise or light pollution. Felt as though I could touch the stars. And the people were great - once they got over the sight of a truck with out of state tags pulling a trailer full of dogs to hunt grouse. I got the sense that they don?t see a lot of out of state bird hunters in that part of the country.

And there are birds in those hills. But ya gotta work for them. It was a bit of adjustment from hunting grouse in the Dakotas and montana. There was food everywhere and the lack of ag land allowed the birds to be dispersed most anywhere. As the week went on, we got better at looking at a range of hills and ?guessing? where the birds might be. It was also fun to bump into the occasional chicken. That was a first for me.

Great trip! Thanks Nebraska!
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Did u harvest any birds???
 
yes. there was only one day that I didn't kill a bird. then again, that was the day that my truck quit on me in the most remote part of the bessay ranger district and I spent the entire day getting out of there and getting it fixed at the dealership in valentine... there was one other day that I was one short. beyond that, I managed to scratch down my 3.
 
GSP said:
yes. there was only one day that I didn't kill a bird. then again, that was the day that my truck quit on me in the most remote part of the bessay ranger district and I spent the entire day getting out of there and getting it fixed at the dealership in valentine... there was one other day that I was one short. beyond that, I managed to scratch down my 3.
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Awesome!!! Congrats...

So did u skip the Halsey area forest then & stick up north??? Or just have to go that far to get truck fixed???

How many chickens u end up with??? Any bur troubles???
 
only killed one chicken, and that was at mckelvie. we hunted mckelvie, valentine nwr, and the bessey ranger district.

burrs weren't too bad. I did boot the front paws of my setter, but that's largely because of his athleticism and the cuts he makes. he frequently gets raw pads on the prairie. shorthairs didn't have a problem.
 
I am headed up to the Valentine area in a couple weeks with my setters. Looking forward to getting them out,
 
We rolled into Valentine tonight.

This is very different cover than what I have hunted before.

I assume that the sharptail are not down in the thicker cover by the water, but up in the shorter grass?
 
correct. if you can't see your boot laces while you're walking, you're in too thick of cover.
 
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