
Bill and "Grouse Creek Mack"
The Minnesota Ruffed Grouse season ended January 1st, with numbers much less than expected. This was my 24th year guiding ruffed grouse and woodcock hunts in Mn. We hunted a few less days last fall, but had more “hunter days” than ever before.
The season comes in the 3rd weekend of September running through December 31st. We’ve kept a yearly flush rates for the past 21-22 years and are seeing more of a constant in numbers with only one real “peak” that was back in 1989-1990. Over that time period we had been fortunate to host most of our hunters for a 20+ year period, and for that we can’t thank you enough. The grouse camp has become far more like hosting family, it’s the most special time of the year.
As with everything time changes all. Our covers have changed, however Minnesota still does a great deal of clear cutting and timber management which is the most important key for strong grouse and woodcock populations. Even though there are changes, most are for the good. The same holds true for our string of English Setters. We’ve had some of the best grouse dogs a man could hope for and still have a couple old smart grouse dogs, we are however in a rebuilding stage with a host of young dogs knocking at the door. Those of you who have had great grouse dogs know how important bird contact is for the young ones to become “grouse dogs”. This year was tough, but we’ll get there.
The year started out terribly slow. It was one of the driest Septembers on record and combined with high temperatures it was some very tough hunting in late September. We found a few local woodock and a few grouse, but looked very dismal. There were reports of better bird numbers north of us so we loaded up the trailer and took off. In spending a few days we found little to no difference in numbers while taking in a pretty big swath of covers along the way. As we were heading back home a front came through with some much needed rain and cooler temperatures, and yes that was the game changer. We started finding much better bird numbers, both with grouse and woodcock. We had only a few broods and most of those had dispersed early. The ratio of young to old birds was below average, about 35-40% it seemed that brood size was small.
Of course we were hoping for a better year, but it did end up average to a little below average in comparing the last 20 years. There were some very good days, a few average and some poor days in the mix. We had more guides afield this year than years past. there was a total of 53 guide days and 106 hunter days with-in a 28 day period. The following flush rates are records from last fall and past years’ for comparison. If you are interested in seeing more comparisons please let me know.
Things are still very exciting here, in KS and SD. Am heading out to SD Jan 20th for a long weekend to look at 88,000 acres that the Browns just leased together with another lodge out in west river. This new land will be much more user friendly for travel time between properties. The whole 88,000 is on tribal land and is all native prairie. Being on tribal land the season opens September 8th with the state wide season opening the following weekend, which at that time hunters can take a double limit of birds, totaling 6 sharp-tail and 8 huns.
For those of you interested in a combination waterfowl hunt the application for the state wide license must be in by July 15th. We are in both counties that offer an over the counter waterfowl license but are only good for 3 days, but like the state upland license you can buy as many of them as you would like to. More on the SD hunts coming up soon, look for SD pictures and information in the next couple weeks.
Thanks again to all our hunters for spending time with us. We look forward to seeing you again this fall.
All my Best
Steve
steve@doublegunbirdhunts.com, www.doublegunbirdhunts.com, www.orvis.com/doublegun
Grouse / Woodcock flush rates 2011
Guides: Travis 15 days, Sandy 6 days, Doug 6 days, and Steve 26 = 53 guided days
Days Hunted = 28 Hunter days = 105
Guided days = 53 (2 guides/day average) Hunters per day = 4
GROUSE INFO WOODCOCK INFO
Grouse Flushed = 730 Woodcock Flushed = 903
Grouse Shot = 127 W/C Shot = 202
Flushes per guided day = 14 (13.7) W/C Daily Flushes per day / guide = 17
Flushes per day / hunter = 3.5 Flushes per hunter = 4.2
Shot per day / guide = 2.3 Shot per day / guide = 4 (3.8)
Shot per hunter = 1 Shot per day/per hunter = 2
% of grouse shot per flush = 16% % of w/c shot per flush = 22%
Combined
Flushes = 1633 Birds shot per day/guide = 6
Daily flushes /guide = 30 % shot birds to flush = 20%
Combined Kills = 329
2010 Grouse and Woodcock Hunting Summary
Flush and Harvest counts
October 2010
*******************2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011
Days Hunted 37 35 30 41 30 28
Hunter Days 86 111 94 93 96 105
Hunters/Day 2.3 3.1 3.1 2.3 3.2 4
Grouse Fl 701 1198 1123 1123 831 730
Daily Flushes 18 34.2 37.5 27 27.7 14 / guide
Flushes/hunter/day 7.8 11.1 12 12 8.6 3.5
Grouse Shot 84 146 167 127 109 127
Shot/Day 2.2 4 5.5 3 3.6 2.3
Shot/Hunter 1 1.3 1.7 1.3 1.13 1
% Shot/Flush 11% 12.1% 14% 11% 13% 16%
Woodcock Flushes 1023 896 777 706 805 *** 903
Daily Flushes 27.6 29.8 25.9 20 26.8 17 / guide
Flushes/Hunter/Day 12 9.9 8.35 8.6 8.3 3.5
W/C Shot 189 193 160 136 173 *** 202
Shot/Day 5.1 6.4 5.3 3 5.7 *** 4
Shot/Hunter 2.2 2.1 1.7 1.5 1.8 2
% Shot/Flush 18% 21.5% 20% 19% 21.4% 20%
Combined Flushes 1724 2094 1900 1829 1636 1633
Daily Total 46.5 59.8 63.3 45 54.5 30 / guide
Flushes/Hunter/Day 20.2 9.9 20.4 20 17 15 / guide
Total Shot 273 339 327 263 282 329
Shot/Day 7.3 9.6 10.9 6.4 9.4 11.7
Shot/Hunter 3.1 3.1 3.5 2.7 3 3
% Shot to Flushes 16% 16.6% 17% 14% 17.2% 20%
In reviewing the numbers please keep in mind the number of days hunted and hunter days. This is where the averages are based on.