DIY Maine Grouse

[bigbassin]

Looking at planning a trip in 2023 to Maine with a buddy to try for grouse.

No dogs, we’d be on foot. Plan would be to walk either side of logging roads, I’d assume if we could find areas that have been clear cut or burned that would be the ticket.

Any recommendation on time of season? I’d assume earlier the better.

Still very early in the planning stage but would like to hear input from anyone that’s been up there or researched a trip there.

 

[Cedarsavage]

I don't hunt Maine, but I see way more in October than September when the leaves are down

 

[GSPHUNTER]

I hunt north Wi. and have found clear cuts and burned areas to be less productive. We always hunt with flushing dogs or pointers which greatly improves the chances of finding, and retrieving. My advice would be see if you can find a guide with hunting dogs. If you chose to go it on your own, be sure to spot where the bird goes down and pass on other flushes until you find downed bird. once you take your eyes of downed location finding bird can be iffy. That has been my experience before hunting over dogs. JMHO.

 

[GSPHUNTER]

I don't hunt Maine, but I see way more in October than September when the leaves are down

YUP.

 

[NateTP38]

I live in Maine and bird hunt every year. Right now we just "heater hunt", but one in our group has an English Setter puppy we will eventually hunt over.

I will echo that going later is better, when the leaves have mostly fallen. We traditionally went every Columbus day weekend, but have adapted to go in the second half of October. We even took a trip the weekend before Thanksgiving last year that was very productive (and overlaps with deer season).

Maine Upland Guide Service

A Classic New England Grouse Hunting and Fly-Fishing Camp Jackman, ME

maineupland.com

^This guy operates in the area we hunt. I met him while out moose hunting this year - seemed like a pretty good dude. Not sure where you were planning on going/staying, but his camp is in the middle of great bird country (IE, not having to travel a ton every day to get to good covers).

 

[nettereo16]

I went up there when we got lucky to draw a moose tag. Early October.

After we shot our moose we did some grouse hunting. Basically just walking through the woods off the logging roads. We had no dog and had no problem flushing birds. It was a blast.

 

[Kenai_dtracker]

I bird hunted a lot in Maine, and for both grouse and woodcock. Not really any burn areas to speak of, but there are certainly plenty of clear cuts. Without a dog the best luck is driving crappy logging roads looking for birds, but it will be busier around Columbus day weekend. I feel that right off the roads is best, and hardly anyone walks in the woods looking for birds to flush, so you should have success.

 

[GSPHUNTER]

Agee on the logging roads especially if there are berms on both sides. When there is heavy ground cover from fallen leaves they will come out to the road for gravel. They are not smart birds, they will sit up on the berms or even stand by the side of the road and hunker down rather than fly off. And yes wait for the trees to drop their leaves and always be looking ahead and up in trees, they really stick out in trees when they have dropped the leaves.

 

[chocolab]

I went up there when we got lucky to draw a moose tag. Early October.

After we shot our moose we did some grouse hunting. Basically just walking through the woods off the logging roads. We had no dog and had no problem flushing birds. It was a blast.

this is the answer, especially if you can draw the endangered moose tag.

 

[Cedarsavage]

Something someone else said made me think...Later you go less foliage, more likely to recover birds without a dog. I don't have a bird dog, so only time I hunt over dogs is when my dad comes up, and September on your own is tough to find them and tough to find them after you hit them.

 

[Crusader]

What's the daily bag limit for grouse in Maine?

 

[NateTP38]

What's the daily bag limit for grouse in Maine?

4

 

[Rich M]

I grew up hunting grouse New England without a dog and in many instances would find more birds. We got a dog later and it was more fun but we got less birds.

Drive the roads til you find the birds. That's where you start looking/hunting, get out and start walking thru the brambles and briars and alders.

What I always found important was my cadence. step step stop, step step step stop. I'd pause 10-15 seconds and then move again. When you stop, make sure you have the ability to mount and swing. The birds will flush when you been stopped for a little bit or the first step after you were stopped for a few moments.

Grouse won't give you a lot of time to play around - you hear the thunder of wings - mount your gun as you try to figure out where it is and where the heck the bird is and flying to. They put cover between them and you real fast and you just point and shoot at the brown blur. It is all snap shooting. Every now and again one will tree or fly down a road but most shots are thick cover, heading into cover.

If you bump and miss a bird, you can follow em and try again. They often tree and when you chase after em, will fly out of a tree. They do this cause coyotes and foxes... Dogs often bump em about 8 feet up into a pine tree and they just sit there looking at you.

They do the "walk" in late September early October, where the family groups split up and the young birds head off on their own. If you find an area with good numbers and they have recently split up, can have good shooting.

We never got a limit of grouse, had tons of fun trying.

Good Luck!

 

[desullivan87]

Time of season is always a good question for Maine. Opener until end second week Oct is spectacular foliage and birds are less skittish. You see more foliage than birds on the flushes though. Then a strong storm or wind knocks alot of the foliage down by 3rd week and then see less foliage and less birds except those that flush. Go for two weeks and experience it all if possible. No dogs means more walking for hunter. Get off the sides of roads and lin a little deeper as season progresses. See you up theya.

 

[Macintosh]

Edit:I see this is an old thread revived—Oh well!

Re: time of year: Grouse are in broods until early to mid october depending on where in the state—usually around columbus day. Brood dispersal is a thing, the broods always 100% disperse as a hard-wired genetic tool to avoid becoming inbred. Early season you can have amazing days if you bump into several broods, as each group can have up to a dozenish birds…reload fast, there’s usually a few more birds in the group. but you can also walk a long ways through prime cover without seeing a thing. Plus with the leaves on there is food and cover literally everywhere so birds could quite literally be anywhere, and sometimes you cant see much, it can be frustrating if you are scouting and hunting at the same time this time of year.
After the broods disperse, birds are generally more spread out in areas that look more like distinct “bird cover” in singles and pairs. You usually dont get the big explosion of birds, but the action can be steadier, one here, one there, etc even without harassing birds by repeatedly following them up.
late in the season—say, after 100% of the leaves are down and there has been several hard freezes to kill back any ground cover, but before there is more than a couple inches of snow, usually after halloween or so— food and cover are both much, much harder to come by. This is killing season, everyone else is deer hunting so you have the place to yourself as long as you avoid parked trucks, birds will be concentrated around food, and you can generally see as well as possible to shoot, you can cover ground without sweating, etc.

If I could pick one time of the season to hunt it would be late. But without a dog and not knowing my way around, probably the third week of october. Also, regardless of time of year, without a dog I would avoid vast clearcuts or monotonous aspen cover and concentrate on linear edges along cover transitions—ie the thick strip along twitch trails, streams and alder runs, swamp edges, the perimiter of clearcuts, etc. with some evergreen growth nearby. that way you cover the highest-probability areas with the minimum of walking. Can be hard to find sometimes in areas that are mainly industrial timber. Sat images are your friend.

 

[brokeoff]

Heading up for my first season with my own dog. It's an inexperienced lab, but I have to start somewhere. Thinking of two trips. Early Oct and early Nov.

 

[GSPHUNTER]

Heading up for my first season with my own dog. It's an inexperienced lab, but I have to start somewhere. Thinking of two trips. Early Oct and early Nov.

His natural instinct will kick in once he is out hunting. I have hunted over my nephews labs many time. One of them tends to get too far ahead and flush birds out of gun range, she does the same thing on pheasant. After she burns off some energy she gets better. Labs are flusher as opposed to pointers, so they will bust birds, so you need to reel them in some to keep them in gun range. Easier said than done, LOL

 

[brokeoff]

His natural instinct will kick in once he is out hunting. I have hunted over my nephews labs many time. One of them tends to get too far ahead and flush birds out of gun range, she does the same thing on pheasant. After she burns off some energy she gets better. Labs are flusher as opposed to pointers, so they will bust birds, so you need to reel them in some to keep them in gun range. Easier said than done, LOL

Thanks.

I have had him on chukars for a few days and will switch to pheasants for one day in Sept. He does get out about 40 yds and I think I need him in around 10-20 yds. His recall isn't great, but he does sit to the whistle. In open fields that's fine, since I can see where the birds have been planted and when he starts to get birdy. In the woods, I'm not sure how I'll be able to react to his activity. Hoping to his roads/trails, edges of younger cuts, and creek bottoms.

 

[Sean Riley]

I like walking old tote roads, and grown up field edges just inside the wood line up where I am above and east of Bangor we have a pretty good beechnut crop this year. There has been a lot of clear-cutting going on though and that drives em away. Where are you planning on going? There is still plenty of walking you can do and be productive. I like going after them with my recurve. I get more shots at them without the boom!! And I usually need them!!

 

[brokeoff]

I like walking old tote roads, and grown up field edges just inside the wood line up where I am above and east of Bangor we have a pretty good beechnut crop this year. There has been a lot of clear-cutting going on though and that drives em away. Where are you planning on going? There is still plenty of walking you can do and be productive. I like going after them with my recurve. I get more shots at them without the boom!! And I usually need them!!

I'm going to start looking just north of Bethel. Then I plan to head east depending on how I do.

On the one hand, I've heard great things about the Golden Road. On the other hand, Bethel area is closest and I think proximity with help with maximizing the number of hours my boots are on the ground.