Ruffed Grouse season opens tomorrow and I can't wait! I normally wait til its a bit colder to head out but this year I'm going asap...Anyone else excited?
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Ruffed Grouse season opens tomorrow and I can't wait! I normally wait til its a bit colder to head out but this year I'm going asap...Anyone else excited?
Never been. Is it fun? I hear the jump up outta no where.
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it's very fun...usually involves lots of walking, although sometimes you get lucky and they are on the side of the road/trail...most of the time you flush them from their hiding spot and the rustle of feathers scares the out of you. They are good eating and fun to hunt so its a win win
Heading up to Temagami for our annual hunting / fishing boys week tomorrow. We have a couple of bear baits set up for the afternoons and mornings will be spent walking for grouse and / or fishing walleye ,lakers or brook trout. Gonna be a little warmer than I would like but we will have a blast no matter what the weather throws at us.
grouse season eve! im so freaking pumped. was in the bush today and so sad i couldn't blast one!
29C this weekend, tons of mosquitos and I hunt swamps, I may wait until a frost or two.
I have been seeing lots of doves around though, I was debating the migratory license (focusing on deer and getting my wife out hunting) but I may have to just to put a few different birds into the pan.
I plan on going far up for them this year.
Grouse is my #1 favourite game, and I still do get very excited about hunting them in my ripe old age!
That being said, still too early for me to go after them. Need to have some leaves down, and more red/yellow/brown out there instead of all this GREEN!!!
Good luck to all the early grouse hunters, but please leave me some, eh!
Made the trip north of North Bay. A little more colour than past early season trips, but that's the hottest one yet. Mosquitoes were thick too.
Awe come on share some pics. To far of a drive for my liking so let me live vicariously :thumbup:Quote:
Originally Posted by kickingfrog
Too hot, too green for me. I will start my season on Teal instead. Still too hot but at least you can see them.
I am like you Hawkman. I have hunted grouse for 56 years and I still use my Stevens bolt action 20 guage that I bought when I was 12 years old . I have shot hundreds of grouse with it, but each year their numbers are dwindling. I think it is because of the increase in owls, fisher, racoons, etc but I still enjoy the time in the bush . Also they are a lot easier to get out of the bush than a moose, deer or bear which I also hunt.Quote:
Originally Posted by Hawkman
After having sat in my stand watching my bear bait site for 5 hours, then onto another area to check on deer cams...I headed out grouse at 6pm. From 6am until 8pm, the mosquitoes were terrible...and the heat. Yikes.
I'm afraid to use bug spray because then my clothes will taint my bear and deer spots.
Decided to mess around with the 410 again, went to shoot a couple rounds in the bush and brought along some 7 1/2 just in case. Well, I knew where the grouse would be but no way could I get a shot when it took off out of the tree, too many leaves right now but glad to see one after the spring we had.
My hat is off to you sir. You started hunting them when I was just one year old! ;)Quote:
Originally Posted by Foxx
I agree with all those reasons that you mention for decrease in these magnificent birds' numbers. However, human encroachment on their habitat is also a HUGE factor. When animals lose favourable areas to live and reproduce, their numbers dwindle and almost never bounce back...
Think of how many roads, houses and sub-divisions have been built in the past 56 years!
To me, ruffed grouse are nothing less than a national treasure. Spruce grouse are fine birds also.
I have never been fortunate enough to encounter other types of grouse found in Ontario.
Sitting in my deer stand last December there were two ruffies hanging around the feeder. I was shotgun hunting and had birdshots in the pocket, but couldn't bring myself to raise the gun on them. You see, the pure joy of watching them in a relatively small patch of forest so close to town, far surpassed the temptation of eating their tasty flesh!
I took my dog into the Marlborough forest this past weekend. We had two flushes but they disappeared into the green foliage to quick for a shot. Then again, they may have been giant mosquitoes - there were enough of those around!
I was in Marlborough yesterday goose hunting, afterwards we drove the old roads from Flood up through to Roger Stevens, stopping along the way to try to jump some grouse, but really we ended making a sizeable blood donation to the mosquitos in the area....at one point I thought I heard a grouse being flushed but it happened so quick and all I could hear was the skitters buzzing around my head...its not fun slashing through the brush in 30 degree heat.
I was in the Marlborough forest on Saturday morning to set up a treestand for deer hunting. I brought along my shotgun too, in the event that I came across some grouse. The mosquitoes were brutal, and the heat was too much. It made it hard to get into the hunting frame of mind. I then went to some nearby private land to set up two more treestands, but I left the gun in my vehicle. I just wanted to get in and out of the bush as quickly as possible because of the heat and the bugs.
Was out this past weekend
Moved 8 birds,attracted a million mosquitos
Too hot for man and dog,picked mushrooms,shot a ruffed and a spruce and thanked God for the day.
Just got back from a 3 day hunt, mosquitos like B-52's and a good dose of blackflies of all things. It was just a little too warm and even getting warmer for this this coming weekend. I like the frosty nights, then they come out on the trails to get warmed up in the morning sun. Even though, managed 6 very skittish birds, the 7th got lucky.
Where abouts do you hunt them? Can you just roam around the bush and jump them up or so most people stick to 4 wheeler trails, mining roads etc?
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Some have very good luck walking while others do well on wheels.
I have always had the best luck hunting a patch of pine near our hunt camp..but I have flushed grouse in all kind of different areas, hard woods, pine, cedar, trails, roads...find where they are feeding and you will find grouse.
I always had a route, I would walk it in the morning and in the evening, would chase the grouse that flew too early because I knew where they were going, now we sold that piece of property so I have to start over again.
I prefer to follow her tail. She follows her noseQuote:
Originally Posted by Fisherman
https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4442/...8f5b25a2_k.jpgDSC00217 by [url=https://www.flickr.com/photos/153457252@N02/], on Flickr
But that was last year will see what this year will bring