Grouse report

wingsnfins said:
Headed up to the Northwoods for a week beginning Saturday.
Wife, dog and I typically hit up places to hike every day, so it also quickly becomes a grouse scouting trip! LOL! Hoping to add a few more places to my list from last year to hit up this fall.
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Was on a walk with dog in northern MN last weekend and saw two. Positive outlook: saw two on a short walk. Negative outlook: just one chick in the “brood”.
 
Wisconsin Drumming Survey for 2024 showed a 60% increase for the Northern area from 2023....so hopefully that trends nicely with numbers. It was a really mild winter/spring for the Northern area.
 
wingsnfins said:
Headed up to the Northwoods for a week beginning Saturday.
Wife, dog and I typically hit up places to hike every day, so it also quickly becomes a grouse scouting trip! LOL! Hoping to add a few more places to my list from last year to hit up this fall.
Click to expand...
Good luck, wow going very early. Let us know how you do. Initial reports are good for a. certain state.
 
Birdman2 said:
Good luck, wow going very early. Let us know how you do. Initial reports are good for a. certain state.
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Grouse doesn't open until September 14th.
We're just going north for a weeks getaway, but we do alot of hiking while we are on vacations, so it's a good opportunity to see/hear birds.
 
wingsnfins said:
Grouse doesn't open until September 14th.
We're just going north for a weeks getaway, but we do alot of hiking while we are on vacations, so it's a good opportunity to see/hear birds.
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Cool. Boy that would tear me up seeing all those Ruffs together.
 
I'll be headed up to the Hayward area Oct 15-19 to hang out with a buddy coming in from out of state to take care of some family stuff.. We'll probably take a couple walks for birds.
How are the leaves looking that way? How are the ticks looking that way?
Looks like we should get a temperature change and some rain this week. Hope the temps keep dropping!
 
wingsnfins said:
I'll be headed up to the Hayward area Oct 15-19 to hang out with a buddy coming in from out of state to take care of some family stuff.. We'll probably take a couple walks for birds.
How are the leaves looking that way? How are the ticks looking that way?
Looks like we should get a temperature change and some rain this week. Hope the temps keep dropping!
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I did some casual hunting a little east of that area this past week and and a few weekends before that. Leaves are still plenty leafy, as is ground cover. I didn't see a single tick. Biting flies were out in some areas this past weekend. Didn't encounter mosquitoes.

Lower temps would be good! High 70s and mid 80s were not the best temps for hunting.
 
Limitless said:
I did some casual hunting a little east of that area this past week and and a few weekends before that. Leaves are still plenty leafy, as is ground cover. I didn't see a single tick. Biting flies were out in some areas this past weekend. Didn't encounter mosquitoes.

Lower temps would be good! High 70s and mid 80s were not the best temps for hunting.
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Thanks for the reply and info! I'll have the walleye and musky gear too in case I need to adapt. LOL!
 
wingsnfins said:
Thanks for the reply and info! I'll have the walleye and musky gear too in case I need to adapt. LOL!
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The only other thing I can add is to bring plenty of water and rest periodically. We did have some streams and puddles that were fine, but there were also some scummy ponds I made sure to keep her away from.
 
Did some public land hunting in the northern tier of counties today. Flushed 5 and shot 1 on county land. Not terrible and not outstanding for 3.5 hours.

I noticed all 5 were within spitting distance of the edge of fresh clear cuts.

The shot bird had only a few bits of green leaf in the crop.

Leaves are falling pretty fast here. Did not find any ticks, which seems strange after seeing them long into freezing weather last couple years.
 
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There is supposed to be a good hard freeze tonight across much of the state so that should kill off some bugs.
 
Well.....I wasn't sure how my run north was going to go.
Since Labor Day weekend my lab, who is 9, was dealing with a back issue. He 1st injured it years ago. At that time, anti-inflammatory, rest and a steroid injection took care of it. This time, same but we added in 5 weeks of physical therapy and therapeutic laser treatment. He was all good to go after his last session a week and a half ago. No concerns or such by his doc and pt about hunting him. Also had been mixing in about 3 mile Hines between the therapy.
So.....Wednesday, get up north. Figure, let's just hit a logging road to keep it simple on him to make sure. Put on 2 miles. No birds, but more importantly, no back issues, so feeling pretty good.
Thursday is go time, head to pri e spot for 1st run. Let dog out, he mills around, does his business and then accelerates to trot to catch up to me....I'm about 15 yards ahead of him on logging road. He gets about halfway, yelps/howls in pain and down he goes. SHIT.
I'm terrified, thinking the worst with his back, he gets up and is basically lame in his back left and on 3 legs. I load him up and we eventually head back to the cabin. No change all night or the next morning. Load up and begin the 5 hour rum home to the vet.
Get him in and run through what happened......the good news was it wasn't his back. The bad news is he tore his ACL......surgery Tuesday.....poor dog can't catch a break the last month or so. Sigh. But glad it isn't the back and disabling him out.....I feared the worst with that thought.
I did, feeling guilty, take a walk without him yet that day and got 1 grouse and 4 woodcock. I let him on on the pic though.....😆
 

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Oh no! Sorry to hear that.

Congrats on the birds though. I didn't see a single Woodcock in the woods, but have seen several pheasant hunting. No plug in the gun now, so can't shoot em.
 
Limitless said:
Oh no! Sorry to hear that.

Congrats on the birds though. I didn't see a single Woodcock in the woods, but have seen several pheasant hunting. No plug in the gun now, so can't shoot em.
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Ya....tough for sure....especially at 9, I know he is on borrowed time for his hunting career. He has been hunting since 4 months old, both upland and waterfowl, so alot of miles and wear and tear.....but aside from the back issue, completely major injury free until now.....he is not happy being "forced" to chill.....his drive is crazy and I know it's going to be a fight post surgery to hold him back! 😆
Thursday I hunted probably 2 hours just on walks by myself......I flushed 3 other grouse I never got a shot at, 4 other woodcock I flat out missed, and probably 6 woodcock that I never got a shot at.
Only can wonder what the dog could've accomplished......
 
wingsnfins said:
Well.....I wasn't sure how my run north was going to go.
Since Labor Day weekend my lab, who is 9, was dealing with a back issue. He 1st injured it years ago. At that time, anti-inflammatory, rest and a steroid injection took care of it. This time, same but we added in 5 weeks of physical therapy and therapeutic laser treatment. He was all good to go after his last session a week and a half ago. No concerns or such by his doc and pt about hunting him. Also had been mixing in about 3 mile Hines between the therapy.
So.....Wednesday, get up north. Figure, let's just hit a logging road to keep it simple on him to make sure. Put on 2 miles. No birds, but more importantly, no back issues, so feeling pretty good.
Thursday is go time, head to pri e spot for 1st run. Let dog out, he mills around, does his business and then accelerates to trot to catch up to me....I'm about 15 yards ahead of him on logging road. He gets about halfway, yelps/howls in pain and down he goes. SHIT.
I'm terrified, thinking the worst with his back, he gets up and is basically lame in his back left and on 3 legs. I load him up and we eventually head back to the cabin. No change all night or the next morning. Load up and begin the 5 hour rum home to the vet.
Get him in and run through what happened......the good news was it wasn't his back. The bad news is he tore his ACL......surgery Tuesday.....poor dog can't catch a break the last month or so. Sigh. But glad it isn't the back and disabling him out.....I feared the worst with that thought.
I did, feeling guilty, take a walk without him yet that day and got 1 grouse and 4 woodcock. I let him on on the pic though.....😆
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That's too bad. It's tough to go through. The worst is the dog doesn't understand why they can't go anymore. It's probably time to retire him. I usually take them along. Dump them out for a little pretend hunt. Then put them up and take the young dog out. Then when I get back, put the young dog up and get the retiree out again. Maybe throw a bird out for them to get. It's the least I can do. Good luck!
 
Good luck with the recovery @wingnfins

Have a friend up north this week for our annual grouse camp. Tough, tough sledding for us. I spoke too soon on my 5 birds in one spot report. Every walk since then has been pretty poor. Seeing lots more hunters than usual too. Anyway we are seeing way less than 1 bird per hour wallked, and the birds we are seeing seem to be very educated. Not many shots. I missed one today I could have bagged, and my buddy shot 1 yesterday. Not good results for 2 days of reasonably hard hunting in an area we have a list of reliable spots. Not seeing many woodcock either, whether that's numbers or migration related idk.

Talked to hunter from TN who said he has been coming up here for 35 years and asked if we agreed the numbers are poor. Don't quite know the cause but we had to agree.

Good luck guys hope you have better hunting than us.
 
Did some North Central Wisconsin grouse and woodcock hunting yesterday. Hunted county land, walked 4.65 miles in 3.5 hours according to OnX and moved 9 woodcock and 8 grouse with 1 woodcock in the bag (terrible shooting). All the grouse flushed wild so no chances at them. None of the grouse were within 50 yards of any trails. I think they've been hunted hard.
 
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