Grouse Season Approaching!

[FireRanger]

With the small game season approaching (not quickly enough), I was wondering what areas are most popular for fellow sportsman trying to fill their bags with grouse ? Since I am such a passionate duck hunter I don't have the time to go Grousen' as much as I used too. The area where I duck hunt foremost is north and east of Grand Rapids. We'll hit the roads and trails during the afternoon down time and do o.k., usually getting a few over a weekend. Are there more plentiful areas around the state that have better numbers of grouse then others? No need to get specific of course.....I know my exact duck hunting spots will go with me to the grave! Coming from Canada the grouse here are fairly skidish comparatively speaking. Let's see where the popular areas are!!

[Cody Gruchow]

i would have to say the park rapids area has a pretty fair amount of grouse, im not a avid grouse hunter either, we also hunt them in the afternoon when we have down time from duck hunting. only went 2 times last season and managed 4 birds first bird of the season i wasnt even 4 steps into the woods, we did hunt some back trails with very little luck, most of our success came from around our camp ground.

[Cody Gruchow]

if im reading the 2010 grouse report right it is saying that it is down 27% statewide from last year and down 31% in the northeast region.

[Go Big Red!]

They (DNR) have been saying the grouse numbers are going up and now they're going down? 

I'm getting tired of this.

[thunderpout]

Yep.... sad to say, but we are now in the cyclical downturn in grouse numbers...   The bad thing is, I dont think the #'s got as high as the counts said the last few years... Yeah, Red it definatly sucks, but its the reality of the ruffed grouse cycle, the good thing is, my English Setter is six years old, so he will be hunting the rest of the upside of the cycle for the remainder of his prime hunting years... gotta make the best of the rest of the peak!   FireRanger... The Grand Rapids area is a good area, though it gets hunted pretty hard.  The NE part of MN isnt so hot as it tends to be mostly old growth forest up there as they dont do as much logging in that area anymore... grouse thrive on a diverse forest.  The north central part of MN, Park Rapids, Blackduck, Bigfork etc., are good areas, but again, these are popular areas that get hunted quite a bit... The NW part of MN is always the best area to chase grouse after the peak of a cycle... north of Red Lake over to Bemidji... That area comes back slow after we hit the peak of the grouse cycle, and stays longer as the state #'s drop.  It also helps that there arent as many hunters chasing grouse up in that area.... always best to go where others dont, so to speak.  If I had to choose from all the things I like to do, Grouse hunting would be on the top of the list, well... ok...really near the top of the list   get out and chase some birds while we are still near the top of the cycle!