Anybody been out yet? I usually wait until after the first frost, which hopefully will happen this week.

I usually hunt the north end of the Mille Lacs WMA (because all my old hunting grounds are now posted…). Neighbors of my mom up on the lake have seen grouse in their trees all summer. They have also heard lots of drumming in the woods (my mom can’t hear).

Plan to take my oldest daughter into the woods next weekend!

My brother and his friends just got back from the Bemidji area and saw very few grouse this past weekend, but I don't think they change their hunting tactics depending on the conditions. He said that it was very, very dry this year, no morning dew and figured that is why they saw very few.

I leave Wednesday with friends for a few days of hunting grouse. If it is as dry as they say, with no dew in the morning, we will have to hit all of the small wet spots that we can find.

Lots of birds up here. The first frost was about a month ago.

Up around Willow River. Still too many leaves and too hot. Saw 8 birds on what was a pretty public area.

Trying to go out this weekend.

Woo woo

I told my sister I was going grouse hunting this weekend and she asked "what do you do with them after you shoot them?". I said "huh? You eat them!" She said, "oh I must have been thinking of something else, I thought they crawled."

But I eat rattlesnake and snapping turtle, but not snails and they all crawl.

So what's the problem?

Edit to add, I am leaving tommorrow afternoon for grouse hunting just SW of Bemidji, 1/4 mile west of Becida.

Weather forcast doesn't look good, might spend a little more time palying cribbage than expected.

My uncle went today. Ended up getting grouse, pheasants, and a goose.

The goose is the good part. He was out with two golden lab/retriever mixs (they are sisters, one is his, the other a friends). As he is walking a little blonde dog comes running up to him wagging its tail. He yells at it to go home. It dances and plays around. After yelling and pointing for several minutes he decides to continue on his way. As they are walking the little blond dog kicks up a goose out of the grass. It starts to fly away but is held up but some of the near by brush and grass, this gives the dog time to run closer to the goose. As it is flying only about two feet off of the ground the dog runs up behind it and jumps on the gooses back. The goose decided to do one of those roll things that they do to shake the air out of their wings before they land. This sends the dog flying through the air, and the goose into the ground. By this time my uncles dogs have come back to investigate, and before he can them off they seriously injure the goose. So it got its neck wrung in short order.

Normally I would not believe something like that, but I have personally seen many of his dogs run down squirrels, and catch small birds (a chickadee and a sparrow). What is amazing is that the squirrels never live, and the small birds only get a little wet. I don’t know why they catch the birds if they are just going to ruffle their feathers and then drop them at your feet, but it is pretty incredible to watch.

Spent most of yesterday hunting the north end of the Mille Lacs WMA. Beautiful weather - sunny and in the 60'2.

Never saw a grouse...

The grouse population has definitely rebounded. My two oldest boys shot their first grouse this last weekend. (click for bigger pic)


Yes, little bro got three while the oldest only got one. Dad scored a brace too.

Hey DeanC! Way to go

Where were you guys hunting? The area around Mille Lacs is just dead. Never even flushed a bird...

About an hour north of Hibbing.

What is that a MNDOT van???

Kinda carrying the blaze orange a little pass necessary arn't you?


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