MN Grouse Camp 2024

[TheGreek]

We ventured further north today in our pursuit of grouse. It did not reveal more birds. Until it did. We got into them in the last hour and a half of the hunt. I think my partner and I had 12 flushes between 4pm and 5:30pm. I didn’t shoot well but still managed to kill 2, maybe 3 grouse and two woodcock. There was a grouse kill that my partner and I could not tell which one of us killed.

A happy grouse hunter.

We thought we spotted a wolf today but further intelligence and visuals revealed they were dogs living next to the reservation. That led to a lot of laughs.

And we got a nice fire going for a field lunch of hot chili that my buddy made, only to find out that we forgot the bag with the bowls, spoons etc. So we went to town to have an over cooked hamburger. And the. My buddy found the bag with all the stuff we needed in back of the truck hours later. Doh!


We thought we spotted a wolf today but further intelligence and visuals revealed they were dogs living next to the reservation. That led to a lot of laughs.

And the bird ninja made an appearance today. I found this thing in the parking lot of the Clam Lake Junction a few years back and hid it in a buddy’s bird vest. He found it and a year later he hid it in my old carhartt coat and I found it while at MSP last year returning from this trip. I found it in the same coat this afternoon and it made its way into my partner’s vest. It’ll take a ride with some else tomorrow.

Group totals from Wednesday 10/23/24

Grouse flushed: 30
Shot at: 14
Killed: 7

Woodcock flushed: 9
Shot at: 7
Killed: 5

 

[BrentD]

looks like a great day.

The tails on those birds look long. Are you seeing mostly old birds, relative to the last couple years?

Also, nice to see proper grouse guns. What are you and your partner shooting?

 

[TheGreek]

looks like a great day.

The tails on those birds look long. Are you seeing mostly old birds, relative to the last couple years?

Also, nice to see proper grouse guns. What are you and your partner shooting?

Brent, I would say that we are definitely seeing fewer juvenile birds than years past. And seeing mostly single flushes whereas in past years double flushes and even a few triples were more common. Overall, bird numbers seem down compared to the last few years. Seems like the large rain events in June negatively impacted the broods. Especially after how high the spring drumming counts were in MN.

I’m shooting a 20 gauge Fox Sterlingworth, a Philadelphia gun from the early 20’s I believe.

My buddy’s gun is a 16 gauge Webley and Scott.

Other guns in camp include a smoking hot Parker repro in 28 gauge and a really fine Model 21 in 20 ga.

 

[BrentD]

Brent, I would say that we are definitely seeing fewer juvenile birds than years past. And seeing mostly single flushes whereas in past years double flushes and even a few triples were more common. Overall, bird numbers seem down compared to the last few years. Seems like the large rain events in June negatively impacted the broods. Especially after how high the spring drumming counts were in MN.

I’m shooting a 20 gauge Fox Sterlingworth, a Philadelphia gun from the early 20’s I believe.

My buddy’s gun is a 16 gauge Webley and Scott.

Other guns in camp include a smoking hot Parker repro in 28 gauge and a really fine Model 21 in 20 ga.

I suspect numbers have to be down after that wet spring and early summer. Now they are powder puff dry again. At least over on the eastern half of the state.

You have the American guns well covered. We shoot mostly English, one French, and now and again, a German gun or two. All vintage doubles from around the turn of the century, usually. My current grouse gun favorite is Skimmin and Wood 2" 12 gauge. Weighs in at 5 1/2 lbs. Pretty cute and easy to tote.

 

[Keep'er Movin]

I love this thread. How is MN compared to your WI hunts of the past? I just got a Griff and I can't wait to take her up to N. Wisconsin for grouse. I've followed your threads the last couple of years and was hoping you would put out another one for this year and you didn't disappoint!

 

[TheGreek]

Much slower day today. Partially because we took it easy today after running ourselves ragged the last two days with hard hunts and many hours in the woods. And partially because of weather. We took the afternoon off to stay out of the rain.

Thursday 10/24/24 totals (half day of hunting, got rained out this afternoon)

Grouse flushed: 10
Shot at: 5
Killed: 1

Woodcock flushed: 5
Shot at: 2
Killed: 1

One of the guys is pulling out tomorrow for the long drive home. The rest of us are gonna give it another go tomorrow.

Grouse camp is starting to wrap up. It’s always sad when the best week of the year comes to an end. But we’re not there yet. I’ve got two more days afield and I plan on taking advantage of them.

Woodcock harvest from the trip so far:


Which our camp host turned into his specialty, Asian woodcock.

 

[TheGreek]

I love this thread. How is MN compared to your WI hunts of the past? I just got a Griff and I can't wait to take her up to N. Wisconsin for grouse. I've followed your threads the last couple of years and was hoping you would put out another one for this year and you didn't disappoint!

Covers here are great. We are seeing less birds here than in WI years past but we are chalking that up to less birds on the ground because of the poor June brood conditions as opposed to thinking there are less birds here than in WI.

Definitely less out of state pressure here than in N WI. We’ve seen a few local road hunters on the weekends but no out of state trucks with dog boxes like in N WI.

 

[BrentD]

Covers here are great. We are seeing less birds here than in WI years past but we are chalking that up to less birds on the ground because of the poor June brood conditions as opposed to thinking there are less birds here than in WI.

Definitely less out of state pressure here than in N WI. We’ve seen a few local road hunters on the weekends but no out of state trucks with dog boxes like in N WI.

They show up in Minnesota, for sure. Count yourself lucky.

My out-of-state truck will be up there shortly

 

[jeff_gibbons]

Rocking hunt! Love the pics, guns and story. Thanks for sharing!

 

[TheGreek]

Report from Friday October 25:
My partner and I had a great morning hunting, flushing 11 grouse and 10 woodcock out of the two covers we hit that morning. We managed to each kill a grouse and we killed 5 woodcock between us.

The afternoon turned out much slower with only a few more grouse flushes and no birds killed.

Final Numbers for the group for the day were:

Grouse flushed: 17
Shot at: 9
Killed: 2

Woodcock flushed: 11
Shot at: 6
Killed: 5

Final Weeklong totals from MN for 2024 (5 guys)
Grouse flushed: 128
Shot at: 62
Killed: 20

Woodcock flushed: 43
Shot at: 26
Killed: 19

Previous year’s numbers are shown below for comparison:


Not our best year but certainly not the worst. It definitely felt like grouse numbers were down but we still got into birds and managed to kill some.

All the grouse from the week:



The end of grouse camp is always a little sad. This year is no different. I look forward to this week all year and then it comes and goes so quickly. How does a week in the woods go so quick? I guess that just shows how much fun we are having. I ate way too much, drank too much, laughed too much.

My 3rd season rifle tag hunt is just a few weeks away in NW CO, I’m gonna have to push it to get back into shape for that hunt after this past week. That’s life.

Grouse ninja struck another unsuspecting victim.


Last morning at camp before hitting the road. Until next year.

 

[TheGreek]

Crops!

Anybody know what these little white round things are?


Biggest crop we’ve ever seen. Bud can for reference.

Making meat and cutting fans.

 

[NEWHunter]

Well done! Thanks for sharing.

Just curious, if you hear a few wing beats of a flush 40 yards out, are you counting that?

 

[TheGreek]

Well done! Thanks for sharing.

Just curious, if you hear a few wing beats of a flush 40 yards out, are you counting that?

Great question. We count every flush we see and every flush we hear. That’s why we keep the “birds shot at” statistic as well. I keep these stats this way because that’s the way they are recorded for submission to the Loyal Order of Dedicated Grouse Hunter’s hunter survey (which is really cool, old school paper newsletter that you should check out and join if you are into hunting ruffed grouse).

 

[NEWHunter]

Great question. We count every flush we see and every flush we hear. That’s why we keep the “birds shot at” statistic as well. I keep these stats this way because that’s the way they are recorded for submission to the Loyal Order of Dedicated Grouse Hunter’s hunter survey (which is really cool, old school paper newsletter that you should check out and join if you are into hunting ruffed grouse).

We just did 2 days in northern WI. Basically two guys got 3 birds in two days. I think our count was getting close to 20/day by a similar definition of a flush. No such thing as a gimme, but I deferred to my brother on a gimme and he missed - shoulda been 4 birds.

The two I got were extremely makeable shots. I tend to be a bit more liberal with the lead figuring they’ll make more. The five I missed were what I call 1 in 10 shots. You know, you hear him get up, turn, see a flash at 20 yards and he’s behind a balsam and you kinda have to guess where he’s at. Only saw the one woodcock, though.