Ruffed Grouse as a Newbie

[MOwhitetail]

I recently moved to mid-Michigan and have heard people talk about hunting ruffed grouse up in the UP. How difficult is it to have a little success as someone who’s never done it before?

I won’t be living here for more than a couple years so it’s not something I am going to devote my life to learning, but I figure while I’m here I should try it out at least once.

It seems some animals it takes half a lifetime to figure out how to consistently get the job done while others are as easy as a walk in the woods.

I’ve got a chessie who’s hell on ducks and has had a few good days of picking up pheasants too, but he’s not a trained grouse dog-whatever that would mean.

 

[Nickziegler]

Hunt young cut 5-15 year aspen stands. If you walk in a cut and think your hat wouldnt come back down if you threw it in the air your in the right stuff. Hunt edges. Have realistic expectations. For every maybe 20 birds flushed you may connect on 1. They are tough birds and make you work. They are smart birds

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[go4thegusto]

I have a cabin in northern MN and have enjoyed chasing the little buggers for 35 years. Top notch table fare and a very regal bird with a storied history. I have some of the classic books on RF hunting I would sell it interested.

Anyway, I do not have a dog any longer so I typically just walk the many logging roads and trails in the public land forest. The fall woods are magical.
My main advice is to always have your shotgun at port arms with your finger on the safety They will explode fast and furious and very expectantly. I came from prairie pheasant and sharptail upbringing. The hardest thing to ingrain in your head is to IGNORE all the trees and brush! Swing with the bird and fire regardless if you just lost sight of it. They are pussies and I swear sometimes fall at the sound . Shoot 7 1/2 or 8 shot. I have had many shots where I track the bird and then fire blind only to hear the ground death flap.

 

[Nickziegler]

Also take into account you average about 1.5 seconds from the bird flushing until it's gone to take your shot. You really don't aim. Naturally point the shotgun and let it rip. Use open chokes. If you have a flushing dog an IC would he best bet. I have a 9 year old GWP that was primarily a pheasant dog but now going into her 5th grouse season. I have been using a sxs 20 gauge and choke it cylinder / skeet with good success. Don't get. Discouraged. Hammer a limit of woodcock if anything and have fun

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[AKG]

With the heavy cover and shooting through trees, any bird I don't see fly far off I bring the dog up to where the bird was when I shot and keep working in the direction of flush. Not unusual to find them again either dead from a couple pellets that weren't wasted in branches or especially early season birds they'll just fly into tree tops and hold very still. A good dog greatly improves recovery in the the thick cover. In a good bird year in the UP you can see quite a few birds just walking roads and trails in decent habitat with or without the dog. Early season you'll have more young and dumb birds, later season spookier birds but leaves will be down so easier but longer range shooting.

 

[Robobiss]

Boy, ruffed grouse sounds a heck of a lot more difficult elsewhere than it is in my neck of the woods. We just ride logging roads and shoot them out of the roads and ditches .

they are absolutely delicious.

 

[go4thegusto]

Boy, ruffed grouse sounds a heck of a lot more difficult elsewhere than it is in my neck of the woods. We just ride logging roads and shoot them out of the roads and ditches .

they are absolutely delicious.

We call that Arkansas'ing them! I was trying to start this guy out on the right foot!

 

[Robobiss]

We call that Arkansas'ing them! I was trying to start this guy out on the right foot!

Hahaha fair enough! My way is arguably more fun though, more scenery, burn more diesel fuel though and less calories.

Full disclosure, shooting any game species from, on, or across an unpaved road (even moose) is 100% legal in my state. Wouldn’t recommend trying it most other places so YMMV.

 

[mgray]

They're making a come back in northern WI. I was trapping fishers last year, and I swear you could throw rocks at them in the road and get a limit. I saw piles of them on the trails. I do believe flushing them with a dog would be a lot more effective, but I agree with everyone above. They're like little rockets when they get up.

 

[Macintosh]

If your dog hunts pheasants, it’ll be different but he’ll hunt grouse and would be good to have along. As long as you have him under control and not flushing birds out of range, he’ll be really helpful to find downed birds so definitely bring the dog. Its not “textbook” but Ive hunted mainly grouse with labs for decades and it can be very effective, so hour chessie should be fine. The pointing dog folks all seem to gravitate to bigger, flatter terrain with big growing-up clearcuts. With my labs Ive had better luck in more linear cover (cut or vegetation edges, swamp edges, stream bottoms, twitch trails grown up in whips, etc) since the dog and I are covering a +\- 40-yard wide strip, not the 100+ wide strip a bigger-running dog will. Both can be very effective but they require approaching things a little differently and maybe a different set of eyes to put yourself where you’ll be most effective given the tools at your disposal. Either way, young forest with good ground cover that’s mixed with some evergreens is what you are after, you’ll get a feel for it after a bit. It’s fun though, and can be tough shooting. If it’s a pheasant dog already, once your dog figures out these new birds are quarry he’ll get birdy and indicate he’s on a bird before it goes up 9 times out of 10, so you are at a huge advantage having a dog. You just have to learn to recognize what it looks like when he’s on a bird via his pace, if he gets helicopter-tail, etc. hardest part is maintaining visibility to see when dog is on a bird as well as for safety, so it can be helpful to put some orange on the dog (some people use a bell, I like to be quiet), and make sure you and anyone you hunt with never shoot low birds and keeps in either visual or sound touch with each other so in a “snap” moment when a bird goes up you already know where it’s safe to shoot. If you shoot, follow up with the dog, you might be surprised how many “darn, totally missed that one” birds it brings back.

Grouse are easy to kill, a standard target load of 7/8oz or 1oz of 7.5’s is plenty, and a skeet choke—or anything from cylinder to IC—is perfect.

Edit: in most (all?) of the states ive hunted in its illegal to shoot from within a certain distance (10’ or 25’ as well as any shooting over a road) a public roadway, regardless of whether its paved or a 3rd or 4th class road. So check regs. Lots of people do it, but it is not legal at least everywhere im familiar with. Theres lots of ways to hunt them, but if you are in the upper midwest the above hunting clearcut thickets with dog and on foot is what “grouse hunting” means, at least to me, so while youre there you should dabble in it at least.

 

[Nykki]

Here I hunt grouse and ptarmigan with a 22. Pistol or rifle it doesn't matter, they normally don't fly far.

 

[Austink47]

I hunt them in WA so very different country but just get out and get after it. Grouse season is a beautiful time of the year to be in the woods, worst case scenario you take your dog for a hike in a beautiful place.

Make a habit of dropping a pin every time you see a grouse regardless of season. In my experience they don’t go far. Also bring a first aid kit, my dog manages to hurt herself more during grouse season than anything else we hunt.

 

[kpk]

Move really slow and get really fast with that gun. Sometimes they'll flush and you won't see a thing. Other times they'll be perched on a down logged and you can ground swat them. They're a blast to hunt regardless of your experience level.