Small Game Season

[grousemaster]

I have to wait until tomorrow to get out but I expect to have a pretty good start. I've been seeing a fair number of ruffed grouse the last couple times I scouted with the dogs but most seem to be older birds as they have no qualms about running as soon as the dogs lock up. I just wish the mud bat (another name for woodcock, I have a few more too) season was open. Even sharptails seem to be more common than in the past and I expect to get a couple of them in the next few days as I work a buddy's young dog.

sharptails do not share habitat with ruffies or woodcock, they are a bird of the grassland. You must have meant spruce grouse.

[JJ]

There are some areas of the state where they dividing line between sharpies and ruffies is not too far apart. One of my buddies hunts up by TRF and a 15 mile drive is the difference between ruffs and sharps.

[45usp45]

I managed to harvest a few squirrels in my backyard to start the season.

[FJ540]

I should've been hunting tree rats instead of deer. Got a bear and what looks like yote pups in the woods, and all the deer are nocturnal as of last week.

Next weekend might be predator control season (can't do anything about the bear).

[Ramoel]

I was up on my hunting land yesterday and this morning. I didn't see any grouse but my dog kept kicking up deer that were bedding down in the brush.

As soon as deer season opens, I'll see grouse everywhere and the deer will get scarce again.

Happens every year...

[Pezhead]

I was up on my hunting land yesterday and this morning. I didn't see any grouse but my dog kept kicking up deer that were bedding down in the brush.

As soon as deer season opens, I'll see grouse everywhere and the deer will get scarce again.

Happens every year...

Tell me about it. Been pheasant hunting before see deer. Flushed turkeys probaly less than 10' in front of me. I

[grousemaster]

I was up on my hunting land yesterday and this morning. I didn't see any grouse but my dog kept kicking up deer that were bedding down in the brush.

As soon as deer season opens, I'll see grouse everywhere and the deer will get scarce again.

Happens every year...

Tell me about it. Been pheasant hunting before see deer. Flushed turkeys probaly less than 10' in front of me. I

My dogs always seem to bust out the deer to.....no wonder DNR won't let us use dogs on deer

[smurfman]

I have to wait until tomorrow to get out but I expect to have a pretty good start. I've been seeing a fair number of ruffed grouse the last couple times I scouted with the dogs but most seem to be older birds as they have no qualms about running as soon as the dogs lock up. I just wish the mud bat (another name for woodcock, I have a few more too) season was open. Even sharptails seem to be more common than in the past and I expect to get a couple of them in the next few days as I work a buddy's young dog.

sharptails do not share habitat with ruffies or woodcock, they are a bird of the grassland. You must have meant spruce grouse.

They certainly are sharpies, I have shot enough of them over the decades to know what they look like. As you mention, ruffs and shaprtails do not generally gravitate to the same habitat, but it is also true they are not mutually exclusive either. A previous poster mentioned that they can hunt both species with a 15 mile drive but there are places one does not have to travel nearly so far. I have places in both the Northwest and the East-Central areas where I can shoot ruffs and sharpies within feet of each other. Tuesday was one such outing where I hunted a mile long edge between an old pasture and a woods where I took two ruffs and two sharpies over points. I had other opportunites, on sharptails particularly, but had shot my self imposed quota for them at this spot. If the season would have been open I could have taken a limit of woodcock as well as a rooster pheasant. The birds were attracted to this particular edge for the dogwood berries and later in the season all the species are attracted to the same area for cover in the various shrubs.
Mixed bag opportunities are out there and it often pays to put in the time and effort to find such places. A little luck does not hurt either. The bird populations for any one species may sometimes not be the highest but often the sum of all the species make for very good numbers and the anticipation wondering which bird will get up adds spice to the hunt.

[Pred]

I have to wait until tomorrow to get out but I expect to have a pretty good start. I've been seeing a fair number of ruffed grouse the last couple times I scouted with the dogs but most seem to be older birds as they have no qualms about running as soon as the dogs lock up. I just wish the mud bat (another name for woodcock, I have a few more too) season was open. Even sharptails seem to be more common than in the past and I expect to get a couple of them in the next few days as I work a buddy's young dog.

sharptails do not share habitat with ruffies or woodcock, they are a bird of the grassland. You must have meant spruce grouse.

They certainly are sharpies, I have shot enough of them over the decades to know what they look like. As you mention, ruffs and shaprtails do not generally gravitate to the same habitat, but it is also true they are not mutually exclusive either. A previous poster mentioned that they can hunt both species with a 15 mile drive but there are places one does not have to travel nearly so far. I have places in both the Northwest and the East-Central areas where I can shoot ruffs and sharpies within feet of each other. Tuesday was one such outing where I hunted a mile long edge between an old pasture and a woods where I took two ruffs and two sharpies over points. I had other opportunites, on sharptails particularly, but had shot my self imposed quota for them at this spot. If the season would have been open I could have taken a limit of woodcock as well as a rooster pheasant. The birds were attracted to this particular edge for the dogwood berries and later in the season all the species are attracted to the same area for cover in the various shrubs.
Mixed bag opportunities are out there and it often pays to put in the time and effort to find such places. A little luck does not hurt either. The bird populations for any one species may sometimes not be the highest but often the sum of all the species make for very good numbers and the anticipation wondering which bird will get up adds spice to the hunt.

I can confirm what Smurfman is saying. We have both ruffed and sharp-tail grouse on our property in northwest MN, and woodcock too. Not as many sharp-tails as ruffed though but I have seen them.

[Pat]

Am waiting for the first killing frost before I go out into the woods. But sheesh - 76 today!

[Pezhead]

Just heard 81.

[AutomaticAron]

Going grouse hunting this weekend. It'll be my first hunting experience so I'm really jacked. Hoping it'll be a bountiful first time out too.

[JJ]

Going grouse hunting this weekend. It'll be my first hunting experience so I'm really jacked. Hoping it'll be a bountiful first time out too.

Understory is still pretty thick. I was in Bemidji over the weekend and its pretty tough to see what you flush at all. Good luck though.