Ruffed Grouse Hunt Deer River MN 10/4/2026

Sweep and I decided to have a Sunday hunt before watching the MN Vikings game.  At 60 degrees it was a bit warmer than what I like but that is early season hunting.  We went to a Grouse Management area near our house and when we pulled in there was a truck already there.  They were finished with that area and were trying to decide where to go so we were in the clear.  Right as we were hitting the woods another truck pulled in but he was a deer hunter checking on his stand and putting up his trail cameras.

We had a tailwind heading out an had a woodcock wild flush in the first few minutes.  I’m not usually a big woodcock person but I thought that if I saw one I would take a shot at it if I could as reinforcement for my dog.  Not too much farther down the road and we had a wild grouse flush from the opposite side of the trail from where Sweep was working.  I started to think that with the tailwind that the bell was giving off too much noise and warning the birds about our approach.  Not too much farther on Sweep went on point and it was another woodcock and this time I was able to harvest it.  She did a good job of finding it on the ground after it dropped.

We went around a couple of corners and Sweep went on point again.  This time it was a grouse and we took it also.  It was the nicest one of the season so far.  I was feeling pretty good about our hunt so far.  As we hit the far end of the trail and were starting to loop back Sweep swung into the wind flash a point as the grouse got up, I shot and it went down.  As I took a few steps to get it and as Sweep also closed in it flushed again and seemed to be even stronger.  I was so surprised that I didn’t even get off a shot.

We kept hunting and got a couple more woodcock points that I didn’t get shots off at.  It still ended up being our first multi-bird day and Sweep ran just over 10 miles in just under 2 hours.  She will sleep well tonight.