Mark With His First Bird Of The Season |
Ruffed Grouse Hunt Deer River MN - Day Three
Ruffed Grouse Hunt - Deer River, MN Day 2
Tina and Her Deer River Mn Grouse |
October 2nd, 2011
Saturday night was a long night as the dogs had drank so much water during the day that they kept having to go outside. They woke me up at 11:30, 12:45, 1:30, and 4:30. After the 4:30 wake up I put their training collars on them and they stayed quite. Too quite it turned out as I ended up sleeping until 9 am. That ruled out the longer drive to try some new areas that I had mapped out as it was already starting to get warm out. so I decided to retry some of the areas from the day before to see if they still looked good.
The first spot that we went to was the walking trail area. Tina and I started by walking a different section of the trail system. After 30 minutes she hadn’t really gotten birdy at all we turned around and headed back to the section that we walked on Saturday. Within 10 minutes she locked up solid and I was able to connect on a nice crossing shot. We walked a while longer and didn’t move any other birds.
Next it was Marge’s turn to see if the forest road with the older growth would produce another bird. We worked the trail a fair amount and while she did get a little birdy in a few spots we didn’t have any success actually moving one. After getting back to the truck I got out Fergie and took her for a walk. She can’t see but she still loves getting out in the woods and sniffing the air.
Tina and I then took a chance on the first spot that we had hunted yesterday. The temperature was over 70 so it was a good last spot to try. We went down the trail next to the clear cut and it still looked promising but it was just so dry it was hard to know if the scenting was decent at all. We ended up going through the new growth to get back to the truck and she did make a nice point but it was so thick I couldn’t get into a good shooting position when I did flush the grouse.
Even though we cut the day short we did put one bird in the bag, confirmed that two spots were still a good bet, and ruled out another.
Ruffed Grouse Hunt Deer River, MN Day One
Typical Cover For The Deer River MN Area |
We left Mpls / St. Paul in the morning and made the three hour drive north. After stopping at our rented cabin to drop off some gear and supplies we headed to the woods. I decided to start out by trying some brand new areas to hunt. I had purchased some maps that were created using Google Earth to show clear cuts and trails. I loaded the gps info into the Garmin and we were on our way to just north of Deer River, MN. The first area was two sets of small clear cuts with a small foot trail along one side of them. As we worked the trail we came to some older growth and moved just a little ways into the new growth and turned back towards the vehicle. About half way back we got a wild flush and moved towards where it looked like it set down. Tina was working the scent but we did not make contact again. It looked like a good enough area and with moving a bird in the 30 minute walk it has made the list to try again.
Spot number two ended up being a forest road that bordered an area that looked to be an older cut over area. I was skeptical of it’s bird potential but we were there and it looked like easy enough walking for the 15 year old setter Marge. This turned into and out and back affair but on the way back Marge made a nice point on a young bird and I was able to drop it. Another 30 minute walk and another bird moved. This area looked older than I would like but since we got a bird I added it to the try again list.
Area number three turned out to be a MN Hunter Walking Trail. There were no other vehicles there and with it hitting 60 degrees we decided to give it a chance. There ended up being a number of different trails within the system. We took the trail that looked like it went through the younger looking area. It was hot and dusty. The Northern MN area has been pretty dry after a wet and cool spring. Tina was working a good pattern through the cover and after about 20 minutes and a few non-productive points she had one nailed and I got off a decent shot and connected. We were able to repeat the pattern on the back side of the loop and collected another one for the game bag.
We made a stab at a fourth new area that also looked good but didn’t move a bird. It was getting a bit later in the day so we went to our old standby in the Big Fork area. In the first 40 minutes we moved 10 birds, got off 2 shots and didn’t connect on anything. In the last 90 minutes we only moved one bird.
All in all it was a good start to the day with three birds in the bag and four new areas to try again.
Ruffed Grouse Hunt - Ely MN September 25th 2011
Tina, Marge, Fergie, and I With Sunday's Grouse Harvest |
Sunday Sept 25th
We actually got rolling a bit earlier this morning than we did yesterday. I dropped my dad off at a new trail that he wanted to try and I went up the road to the spot that we tried for the first time Saturday. There wasn’t much breeze as Tina and I started down the trail, I was curious to see if we would see any birds or if yesterday was a fluke. It took about 15 minutes before she got birdy at all but we didn’t move a bird on the way out. After about 30 minutes we reached the end and turned back. I wasn’t feeling too optimistic at this time. About half way back Tina started to tighten up her quartering and locked solid. I was able to move in and connect on a flush through the brush. We didn’t see anymore birds on the way back to the truck. If we can get a chance at a bird or two each time down this shorter trail I’ll be happy.
I picked up my dad, who hadn’t seen any birds on his walk, and headed to the other short trail that we had hit yesterday. Marge got the call this time and we started off. About 2/3 of the way along the trail she went on point in a small area with thicker cover. It was a strait away shot and I thought I saw the bird go down but wasn’t sure. After looking and not easily seeing anything I got down on my hands and knees and found a couple of batches of feathers. I brought Marge back to the spot and she started to work the trail. After she cut back across the trail I could her the bird trying to make a run for it. Marge was right on her which was a little surprising as she is fairly hard of hearing. After coming back along the forest road we called it quits for this area.
We made another try at our old standby but again were not able to move a bird. We pulled the plug and listened to the Vikings blow a huge half time lead for the third week in a row.
All in all it was a decent weekend. Six birds in the bag, some nice Woodcock points. It was a little disappointing to be moving fewer than 1/2 of the birds that we were seeing last season.
Ruffed Grouse Hunt - Ely MN September 24th 2011
15 Year Old Marge and Her First Grouse Of 2011 |
Saturday Sept 24th
Ruffed Grouse September 2011 - Bigfork, MN
Tina With Her First Grouse Of 2011 |
Friday Sept 23rd 2011
We left the St. Paul, MN area at about 5:25 am and headed north to the Bigfork area for our first hunt of the season. After a stop over in Grand Rapids we started to hunt at about 11 am. There were no vehicles parked at our favorite spot. It soon became apparent why when we started to walk the area as the telltale signs of logging we everywhere. We decided to walk the trails that weren’t being traveled by the logging trucks. Unfortunately the logging was taking place in the areas that produced the most birds last season and not in the older areas that we ended up walking. We didn’t move any birds in the older growth. We got to an area of younger growth that has usually held a bird or two in the past so I was hopeful of some action. Tina didn’t get too birdy until we were almost through the area. As we got close to the end of the cover she became birdy and I could see the grouse holding just up ahead. Two steps towards it and it flushed and after the shot we had the first bird of 2011 in the bag.
Preseason Training Camp - Ruffed Grouse, Pheasant
Northwoods Bird Dogs
Nemadji State Forest Grouse
Finishing Up After Dark
My initial impression was not favorable as my little backwoods trails are now ATV trails. Makes for easy walking but with how close this area is to two metro areas I know how much pressure these trails get and the grouse get pushed further back into the cover. Tina and I walked for about 30 minutes on the ATV trail before we could get to a non-motorized trail. 10 minutes down the trail she went on point. I missed the first bird but fortunately I connected on a second bird. This trail died out a short distance later so we turned around and headed back to the main trail. The trail went through some good looking cover but we weren’t seeing any birds. We approached an area that bordered some lower wet sections and Tina was going on and off point so I moved in front of her to try to block off the bird. She continued to work the area but we didn’t find anything. As I walked back up to the trail a bird got up, two shots, another bird, two more shots, reload another and another bird..... eventually 7 or 8 birds got up and I took 6 or 7 shots and totally missed on them and two of the shots were nice straight away trap style shots.. I was ticked... Tina was wondering what happened as there were no birds on the ground for her to find. We continued down the trail to where it came out on the main forest road in.
Sunday October 10th 2010 - Emily Outing Area Grouse Hunting
Just in case you think I only write about my successful hunts..... Me after getting shut out.
Sunday was looking to be a continuation of the warm days. It is hard to complain about it being too nice to hunt after missing days the last few years because of rained out weekends. This was the third day in a row for the heat for myself and Tina. I decided to let Tina relax at Tony’s cabin. We were going to hunt the Emily / Outing area today. I had hunted this area quite a bit 10 years ago but shifted more of my hunting to Ely and Grand Rapids. We had good success in the years past so I was hopeful of a good showing. We hunted a number of areas that looked really birdy but only moved three birds for the day. It was dry and warm and I don’t think we were on the top of our games so I count out this area.
Saturday October 9th Grand Rapids Area Grouse Hunt
Tony, Mark, and Quetico with our bounty.
Grand Rapids MN Grouse Hunting - 10/8/2010
Tina and Her Three Birds
Grouse Hunt - First Weekend Of October - Grand Rapids, MN
MN Grouse 2010 opener pt 2
2010 MN Grouse Opener
First Wood Tick Of The Season
The Dog Dilemma
In early February my dog, Tina, started to act very whiney and was limping. A few days later her back left hip was swollen. A visit to the local vet and he thought it was a grass awn that had migrated down to her hip area. Instead of surgery we went for a round of antibiotics. They seemed to work and in a week she was back to normal.
Then about two weeks ago she started to limp but without any swelling. Her respiration was faster and she just never seemed comfortable. A trip to the Univ of MN Vet Hospital and a visit with Doc Anderson and it was pretty clear that something was definitely out of whack. He was pretty confident that it was inflammation caused by a foreign body. It would be a spendy and involved operation. Tina is going to turn eight this summer so I figured that if she did have a full recovery that she would have a few more really good seasons hunting or if she recovered just enough to be house dog that she deserved that also as she is a total sweetheart of a dog and has always put it on the line when we went hunting. It was a lot of money but in the end we decided that she deserved a shot at feeling good.
I dropped her off on Wednesday morning and they operated in the afternoon. They called in the evening to say that it went well and that they removed a fair amount of damaged tissue and were draining an area of infection. On Thursday they kept in the ICU as the anesthesia seemed to have affected her more than they thought. They also had an IV giving her more fluids as she was dehydrated. Another night in ICU and on Friday they moved her to the general care ward. We went to the U to pick her up on Friday evening and she had developed a cough so we had an X-ray done to see if it was pneumonia or not. The results looked like a slight case of pneumonia so we decided to let her stay one more night.
Saturday the U gave us a call and said she was all clear to come home. Yeah! She will be ticked off at us for two weeks while she wears her protective Ecollar and gets to stay in her travel kennel, it is a very large one though. She has had her first meal and meds and seems to be almost back to her cheery self.
The U is more expensive than the local vet but they have actual Radiologists and Anesthetists right there in case they are needed.
This round of care is more then I spent on a few cars back in the day but I plan on her being around longer than any of those cars made it.
The ruffed grouse grapevine has already put out the word on our return to the woods this fall after mostly chasing pheasants the last few years.
New Puppy
My friend Tony O was picking up his new GSP puppy from Sharp Shooter's Kennel so I went along for the ride. The puppy was nice and friendly. He whined for the first 20-30 minutes of the ride home but that is to be expected.