# Minnesota grouse/woodcock hunt



## steelmagoo (Apr 13, 2004)

I got back this week from nine days in Minnesota, Chippewa National Forest, Blackduck and Leech Lake area. 19 hour drive to our rental on Kitchi Lake. A friend and I drove up with our dogs: my English Setter Belle and his Springer Spaniel Mo. We met five other hunting partners up there with an additional four dogs: one lab and three more springers. This has become an annual grouse trip for us. 

The grouse numbers are supposed to be on the rise, but still seem a little low. The birds are there, but you have to find the right cover and often go deep into it. I saw or heard an average of 12 grouse flushes per day. On Friday I shot three grouse (two on point) and used only five shells (bragging). I ended up knocking down seven grouse and 25 woodcock over my setter. Needless to say, we ate a LOT of woodcock so we could shoot more the next day. Also shot a showshoe hare for the stewpot. Could have shot another ten rabbits and hares, but didn't want to carry the bloody things around. 

This was Belle's first hunting experience and she performed better than my highest expectations. After two days she was retrieving but bumping up birds. After three days she was pointing woodcock and retrieving to hand, but still bumping grouse. After four days she was pointing/retrieving grouse. Now she's pointing on scent, not just on sight. It's like someone flipped a switch on her instinct. Some of her points on woodcock were so staunch and so close I could have netted the birds. Anyway, it was a great trip with enough birds to keep it interesting. Belle investigated a porcupine climbing up a tree and was two inches away from getting quilled before I got the whistle in my mouth and my finger on the shock collar transmitter. Around here I'll be getting out every chance I get while the woodcock are in. Also doing some Sunday chukkar hunts with my dad at a local shooting club where he's a member.


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## birdhunt (Apr 12, 2004)

sounds like your setter stayed away from those flushers.......hope he didn't learn any bad habits from them.


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## Hoosier Daddy (Aug 19, 2005)

Great report and sounds like you had a great time with a young hunting dog. It has got to be a great feeling when it clicks for them.

Glad you avoided the porkies and got a few birds.


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## steelmagoo (Apr 13, 2004)

Thanks guys.


birdhunt said:


> sounds like your setter stayed away from those flushers.......hope he didn't learn any bad habits from them.


I was very much afraid she might end up learning to flush instead of point, but it just didn't happen. The first two days I hunted apart from everyone else. After that, when I did hunt in the line, the dog and I stayed on the end where she could work out farther than the flushers without interfering. A short tweet on the whistle usually turns her, so I have a fair amount of control. Once she is in the field or woods, she's pretty focused doing her thing! I've got to be a little careful not to let her run herself to exhaustion, which she almost did yesterday after a planted phez "hunt" at a local skeet club and the youth phez hunt at Grand River.


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