SBH Hunt Report: Maine Grouse, Day 5
We tried every tactic we could think of....
This is embarrassing to admit, but hey, we were frustrated and wanted to SEE SOME GROUSE ALREADY:
We got a tip. Yep.
This week is moose season in Maine, so last week the roads were dominated by road hunters (grouse) and scouters (moose) – who many times were the same folks. Some of those scouters went way up north, like beyond the Golden Road (Google it). We got a tip for a specific location up there, and since grouse were so hard to come by where we were – and since the weather was supposed to be bad again – what the heck. We decided to check it out.
Any doubts we had about going up there were erased when we saw guides taking their grouse clients 2+ hours one way on the same route we were going. At that point we figured it must be a grouse bonanza up there, though not much of a secret…. And conversely, it must’ve been tough locally for the guides too.
What did we find? Here’s a shocker: The grass is never greener.
Why on earth should there be birds here? (Click to see way bigger.)
We went all the way up there, and here’s what we saw:
This was a big boy.
> More leaves down (good)
> Way more road birds (good sign)
> Two moose (pretty cool)
Here’s what we did not see:
> Any decent cuts (bad)
> The huntable habitat we were looking for (worse)
> Many birds
The birds were there, for sure, but it seemed like they were randomly everywhere. That definitely meant “more birds,” but how do you hunt them? We figured there had to be huntable habitat somewhere, but didn’t know the area well enough and there was a ton of land to cover.
Day 5 Count
We ended up flushing six grouse, Jay shot one. We ran into about six woodies in one spot, didn’t shoot any. Road miles on the day were more than 140. Crazy.
We did find one cover worth returning to if we ever go up that way again, but it’s doubtful we will.
We did find a couple birds here (click to see way bigger).
Did we mention it was raining again, and windy? And that Jay’s cold hadn’t liked the weather much and that Brendan had been cooped up in a truck with it for 2 days by this point?
We hunted anyway, dammit! (When we weren’t driving, anyway.) We somehow were famished after all that driving, had a huge dinner (again) and resolved to hunt the final day strictly locally and in the cover that he could hunt, regardless of how unsexy it might look.
Lots of good ammo, not many spent shells.
Next Week: Day 6 Hunt Report
Category: 2010-11 reports, Hunt reports, ME, Ruffed Grouse, SBH, Woodcock
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You are a week early, we have just got a few killing frosts here in VT and the action has really picked up. Like your site and am also a Jerzy boy in love with these darn birds!
How do you guys get the woodcock to flush by walking them up? I’ve never walked one up, actually did not think much of it without the use of a dog. Would be interested to know as I do must of my hunting alone just walking up grouse here and there. Not much help now but you should try way further up north.
-Chris
I just got the LL Bean upland bird pack and used it this weekend. It’s great. The shells are easy to get to.
Carries lots of water and whatever and the weight is all
down on my hips. GPS up on left chest area.
Right shoulder strap pulls over to left and is out of the way for gun mounting.