Grouse Hunting - Looking for a place to get out

[Shipyard]

I ended up getting snaked out of a few days vacation this year, so my annual up north grouse hunting trip isn't going to happen. pretty bummed about it. i go every year with the family but they hunt 6 hours north of mpls. pretty hard to make that trip in a two day weekend. got me a brand new semi-auto 20 gauge for this year too. seems such a shame to let 'er sit in the safe.

was wondering if anyone out there has room for me and a buddy for a weekend or two to tag along with. or if you know someplace that isn't a 5-6 hour drive from the metro to do a little grousing i'd sure apreciate the knowledge.

anyone who knows me can tell you i'm responsible/respectful and know what i'm doing out in the field. we can bring whatever is needed for supplies and fun, we could probably come up with a little cash "honerarium" to the land owner for the opportunity to get out. beers for after the day's hunt isn't a worry - we got that covered

thanks in advance for any help.

[nyffman]

The best I can do for you is to have you check out the state forests. http://www.dnr.state.mn.us/state_forests/map.html

As has been previously posted here, farther north is probably better. I have been to St. Croix and Chengwatana. The birds were pretty scarce in the areas I hunted.

[FuriousGeorge]

I usually go to Deep Portage Forest Management Area. North of Pine River, MN. Takes about 2.5 hours to get there from the Metro area. There are snowmobile trails(fairly easy walking but hilly) that have no motorized travel the rest of the year so you don't have 4 wheelers to deal with. You can run into other hunters or a hiker sometimes but there's miles of trail and I usually see no one. You can park in a big grassy pull through area near the entrance (3 trail heads here and outhouse) or if you drive to the end of the road there's a Nature Center/Museum. You will see a gate before you get to the museum and signs asking hunters to park outside the gate. There's a trail head right by the gate also. There's a few other places you can get on the trails from but these are the places I usually park.

Directions:
371 north out of Brainerd
R 44/16th Ave. SW
S Hwy 84
L County Rd 46
L Nature Center Drive

All the trails are on the South side of Big Deep Lake

I'm looking for other areas to hunt grouse also and would appreciate others posting up where they hunt on public lands also.

George

[mjbreuer]

There are a lot better places to hunt a lot closer to the Metro than Deep Portage! You don't have to travel much farther north than Hinkley, Mora, Aitkin, McGregor, etc... Lots of public land around to sniff out and I'm sure you'd have some luck. If you need specific areas to target, shoot me a PM and I can point you in the general direction.

Bummer you can't make it up north this year. I live 4 hours north, and my cabin is 6 hours north of the Metro. We've already put down over 50 birds this season. They are young and dumb, great numbers around.