First Grouse Hunt Of 2006

This past weekend hunted in the Ely, MN area.
All predictions say more grouse which also means more grouse hunters.  There were more people out this weekend than I saw on the same weekend for the past two years combined.

I did see some decent numbers of birds.

Saturday was cloudy and about 45 degrees.  Hunting before lunch saw 10 shot at 4 and got 2.
The 2 that I missed were easy ones that I should have had.  The other 6 were in the thick leaves which haven't really started to come down yet.

Saturday evening went out to another spot but a bow hunter was heading to his stand which was in the area that I wanted to hunt so I went the other way which isn't as good. Ended up going to another spot and saw another hunter starting to pull out. Drove around the area a bit and then went back to that spot and tried to hunt it. Didn't get a flush and Marge, my setter, wasn't even that birdy.

Sunday was a nicer day. Sunny and 45- 50 degs. Returned to the same spot from the first day. Saw 4 and got 2. Another group was in the same area and got 6 birds out of the area that I got my two the day before. The joys of public land. Ended up just hunting until lunch.

The dogs did a good job and paid attention and worked hard. Fergie the pointer has come up lame. The odd part is that she was fine when I put her into the travel kennel for the trip home. Off to the vet tomorrow. Hopefully it isn't a big deal.

Ruffed Grouse Society Banquet

Attend a RGS ( www.ruffedgrousesociety.org ) banquet in St. Cloud, MN last night.
As usual I didn't win anything in any of the drawings.
Almost won something in one of the silent auctions.
They had a pretty good selection of guns for some of the raffles.

My buddy that went with me won a nice print in one of the raffles.
It was Pointer and Grouse. I said he should give it to me since I
have a pointer and he has GSPs.

Last Public Run Of The Season

The birds are starting to nest so we made out last run to a WMA for a workout.
We went a couple of miles outside of Fairibault, Mn and ran my English Setter, Marge and my Pointer Fergie. My buddy brought his two GSP's with also.

Ended up seeing a half dozen pheasants, 3 turkeys (the first we've ever seen there in 5+years of running dogs on this unit)

Afterwards headed over to Cabela's (Owatonna) to see if they had any deals. One of the guys said that they weren't going to have any more of the big sidewalk sales. I was bummed.