MT upland opener reports

[Hunting Wife]

The grouse opener has become one of my most highly anticipated days of the year. These midweek openers are a pain, but I go after work because hey, I waited all year for this!

Given the extreme drought in NE Montana, I expected to see fewer birds, but unfortunately my expectations were exceeded. Three hours of walking a normally very productive spot produced just one sharpie. The fewest birds I’ve ever put up on opener. Anybody else have better luck in sharptail country?

 

[Nameless Range]

Nice! I desperately wanted today off, but duty called. I have the next two days off. Blues tomorrow, sharpies and huns Friday. Sounds like it could be a rough year. Keep the updates coming!

 

[texwest44]

I'm new to the grouse game, and only got one mountain grouse today, and it just so happened to be my first since moving to Montana. I saw upwards to 20 more grouse while I was out, and a few whitetails, too. I've got the rest of the week off from work, hoping to add a few more to the pile.

 

[Hunting Wife]

Nice! I desperately wanted today off, but duty called. I have the next two days off. Blues tomorrow, sharpies and huns Friday. Sounds like it could be a rough year. Keep the updates coming!

Hopefully you’ve had better veg growth where you’re headed. The ungrazed brome is all of 4” tall where I was today. I’m not sure if the hatch was poor, or brood survival was poor. But even out working, I’m only seeing singles and doubles. Never a good sign.

There are certainly plenty of grasshoppers for raising chicks, if you can find places eggs and broods survived the heat and dessication. Good luck!

 

[JEL]

Quite a few Huns around our place. Not seeing the grouse we usually see. And it was pretty chilly last night so it seems like we went from tons of doves to just a scatter here and there.

 

[mtmiller]

Two quick walks this morning before work. No birds flushed.

 

[OntarioHunter]

Gad, there were so many sharptails last year. They were everywhere on the hi-line. Big clouds of them. Hard to believe they could all disappear. But it was a nasty winter for sure.

 

[BirdManMike]

Hopefully you’ve had better veg growth where you’re headed. The ungrazed brome is all of 4” tall where I was today. I’m not sure if the hatch was poor, or brood survival was poor But even out working, I’m only seeing singles and doubles. Never a good sign.

This is what I have been seeing running dogs. Sharptail and Sage grouse broods are near non-existent - mainly singles and doubles of last years birds. I am finding huns, but smaller groups than last season (which was the first good season in 3 prior). Cover is sparse.

 

[OntarioHunter]

When I was driving Hwy 2 back to western Montana for my 50th HS reunion at the end of July things in many parts of the state and much of North Dakota looked downright scary. Barley ready to harvest was so short in some places I'm not sure it could be cut without damaging the combine. Watch out for the rocks! Then there were stretches in Minnesota and eastern ND where the crop was so thick I wondered how a combine would ever get through it. I'm sure most of eastern Montana cattle are already off the summer range and destroying any cover left in the low country where I hunt pheasants. Many ranchers hung onto calves last winter hoping for a better market when the pandemic passed. That will only make matters worse. I have no doubt the ground is taking a beating.

Here the dairy farmers have already cut their grain whereas usually they're not getting it off until October. Like last year, the fields will all be plowed under by the time northern waterfowl arrive. The feed corn is usually not harvested till late but that didn't keep the birds last year. No barley and they just sail on through.

Sounds like I'll be hunting deer this year and that's about it. I'll take the dogs along to Montana anyway. If we don't shoot em I don't have to clean em. It will help me lose some weight.

 

[Southern Elk]

I saw several grouse while scouting for elk last weekend. I’ll have a judo point in my quiver this weekend. I get just as excited seeing a grouse as I do elk.

I hate to hear things are so bad in eastern MT. I’m taking my son over there for the youth deer hunt. We are hoping that we can both get our first pheasant. We saw a lot of them last fall, but we didn’t take a shotgun.

 

[mdunc8]

I jumped seven groups while wandering around the mountains for work on Tuesday. All but one had a handful of chicks from this year. Couldn’t make it out yesterday but hoping to squeeze in a quick hunt tonight.

 

[Irrelevant]

Old WA postponed forest grouse till Sept 15 to allow this years clutch to break up before season. The goal is more grouse long term. We'll see if it helps. There's certainly fewer grouse around than when I was a kid (though I recognize that's been the claim for 100s of years).

 

[Talk2elk]

During my scouting trips in SW MT I have seen quite a few Mountain Grouse, hope to find a few this weekend.

 

[huntingman121]

Max and I got our 3 blue grouse. Then driving out saw five bears. Two different singles and a mom with 2 Cubs. Only one was photogenic.

 

[MNHunter67]

Saw one ruffed while out in the Missoula area last night after work, of course it was just across the private border. (Must be picking up tricks from the elk haha.) Going to try up high for some duskies tonight I think, still a lot of leaves on the brush down low making it tough without a dog.

 

[MLaird]

I got out opening day and walked about 4 miles in the morning. I saw several sharptails that flushed way out in front of me and was finally able to harvest 2 about 100 yards from the truck on the way back. Went out this morning with a friend and we flushed 2 really nice coveys of sharpies(8-12 in each), both on the other side of my friend so I didn't have a shot. He managed to take one This is a pic from opening day with my dog, Titus.

 

[Hunting Wife]

Had to try again. Different spot, more water (springs), better cover. Covered 4.5 miles in 2.5 hours. Zero birds flushed.

So that’s 1 bird flushed in almost 9 miles of walking so far. Ouch.

 

[MTLabrador]

This was as close as I got to a grouse today.

 

[Hem]

I jumped seven groups while wandering around the mountains for work on Tuesday. All but one had a handful of chicks from this year. Couldn’t make it out yesterday but hoping to squeeze in a quick hunt tonight.

Why were you "wandering" while working?

 

[406dn]

I haven't "hunted" yet but have been running and training dogs for the last six weeks. The cover is thin and short. There are more birds than I would have surmised. My young dog has had roughly sixty bird contacts this summer. She has made a lot of progress.

It is doubtful that I'll hunt there as those birds are worth more to me for training.