My buddy and I headed out at 6 for the grouse opener! We first spotted a group of birds from the road and let his lab out. She was instantly birdie and ended up putting 3 blues up and we put them all down! 3 in the bag before we had to hike! We got up to our annual spot and headed out. We talked to several rifle anybull hunters who had seen some raghorns and that was it. Soon we were onto more birds and put 3 more down, 1 lucky bugger got away!
We dropped off into some thick nasty stuff and somehow my belt buckle came undone and i dropped my revolver. It was in a camo holdster so all the "easier" to find haha! Well 1/2 hour of backtracking and i finally found it 20 yards back! Phew! I've never had such a sick feeling in my life!
We stopped at a small elk wallow to let the dog drink and suddenly she went nuts and ran into the thicket a few feet away. We could hear birds bombing out the other side and had to run around and picked off the last blue as it was dissappearing into the trees! We headed up and jumped to more ruffies in some thick stuff with no safe shot! We ended 1 bird short of our limit but what an awesome day! 4 blues and 3 ruffies! It was great the birds seemed super cooperative this year and we didn't have any "treed" birds.
Anybody have some awesome birdin' today?
I took all my wings off my birds and went and hid a couple in the tall grass behind my lawn for my 3 month old lab to find and boy was she so excited! We worked some cap-gun fetch with the wings for a while also! She's catching on so fast she'll be ready for next year I couldn't be more excited!
Just a quick question for any of you bird-doggers...i like to save bird wings to work with my pup...but do you think the scent lasts a very long time on them? Would it last better frozen? thanks!
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Nice job on the grouse. I went out this morning for a quick 2 hour hike and didn't put one up with 3 dogs, in the same area I flushed 2 by myself the day before while bow hunting. Oh well, thats why it hunting and not shooting i guess. As faras the scent on the wingis concerned, I have kept them for a few weeks and my Brittany has been able to sniff themout still, but they started to get a rotting odor after that. So, freezing might help, but I would say they seem to keep their scent until they aquire the new rotten smell. Hope that helps. Good luck with the new bird dog. I have a seven month old black lab, and man does he ever love to fetch. All day, everyday.
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Me and my dad decided to head up above Kamas after a five year sebaticle so he could become a Registered Nurse. He has a 7 month and a 9 month old German Shorthair that had never been huntin. What a great day. Just to get the dogs out working made it worth it but to bring home three nice ruffs that the older pup not only pointed but also retrieved. We found birds just bout everywhere we walked. 3 out of 4 birds seen is not a bad day. Can't wait till these pups are a little older gonna be some great dogs.
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O thought I would mention the Forest service putting up a road block at the pay station on Mirror Lake Highway. Checking vehicle registration, tree permits, and huntin and fishing licenses. Took about two minutes and we were on our way again. Good to see them out checking.
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My brother and I went out this morning at about 6:30 and hiked up to some trees and we had an awesome day!! Scared one up and he got one ruffie with in 15 minutes of getting up to where we have found them before. About 100 yards up the trees he scared another one up but we couldn't get a shot or find it again - we don't have dogs so I suggested on the way back we look for it.
We didn't see any for awhile and were about to turn around when my brother said he was going to walk to a point first then head back. I decided to head down to the trees and hike parallel to him and boy am I glad I did. I scared up 4 ruffled grouse and got 2 of them.
We headed back down to where we saw the other one that got away and we scared up 2 this time. One didn't go too far and my brother found him again and got it. The other one was way spooked and we never got a clean shot on it.
We ran into 2 more on the way down and got one of them. So our total was 5 - brother 3 and me 2. It was a great day besides I'm really tired.
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I am glad people are seeing quite a few birds this year. I saw probably three times as many during bow season as I didlast year. They just wouldn't cooperate today. Anyways, if anyone ever needs a hunting partner I am almost always ready to go. I would really like to get my dog on some grouse this year. She did quite well with quail and pheasant last year, and doves this year, but I have yet to get her on the grouse. Happy hunting to all, sounds like it was a great opening day for many of you.
Also, MacFisher you must know where to go. I was also in the Mirror Lake area, just not the right area I guess.
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Hunted this morning around the Provo area, and managed to get my dogs onto their first grouse. I saw two birds this morning, but the second was not a safe shot with my dogs in the picture. But, none the less I got my first ruffed grouse of the season. Hopefully many more to come.
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I was pretty disappointed with the opener. We hit a spot that usually holds tons of birds and we thought it would be a great year. We hiked about 4 miles and covered the best habitat ever and we only jumped 6 birds. 5 ruffs and 1 blue and we only connected on 2 birds all day.
Hopefully I can find some in my other spots [frown]
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Quote:managed to get my dogs onto their first grouse.
Glad you got them into at least one.
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You guys are making me jealous about the grouse hunting, just too dang much to do this past weekend getting things ready for our trip to WY. elk hunting Friday. When I return I hope to take my little Britt up to find some birds.
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We tried a new area this year...shoulda stuck with the old tried and true. Hiked like crazy and didn't see a bird. Oh well, still nice to be out.
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I think I would rather be in your position with one of the best elk tags in the state of Wyoming and a great Utah CWMU deer tag. [
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Don't worry about the grouse, you have more important things to worry about. [cool]
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It's actually not one of the best tags in WY. Just a high success rate on average bulls, I really want the wife to have a chance at taking a mature bull. As far as my CWMU hunt for deer I'm not really pumped for that for some reason. Might just take a nice fat forky to eat.[:p]
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Opener; I went up to scare canyon walked around up there for a while. nothing at all. headed to monte and walked around up there in the pines and didn't see or hear an birds.[frown] Anyone have an idea of where a good place is to hunt them, or the habitat they like. my idea's failed me this time, usually i see lot's of birds around scare canyon[:/]
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I was in Scare Canyon the other day and couldn't believe how many grouse hunters were there. Saw over 30 guys with shotguns running around. A few guys had some birds other were just road hunting.
What a circus, I'll never go there again [:/]
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Went out on the 13. spent all day looking, with no luck. I was up above the grantsville lake. That afternoon. I went to my spot and found 12 birds. My freind and I contected with four of them. Had an ok hunt thier. Went back to the spot on the 14 and got one. seems to be a spot that has proved itself time and time again.
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Ya i was really suprised at how many people were up there hunting. I want to head up some where around the ogden area to find some birds.
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3 of us hunted on the opener. We saw maybe a dozen birds. Connected of four of them. Just enough for a pile of grouse vajitas I'll be enjoying tonight. We were five miles from are truck and suprised to find two other groups of hunters. We would have limited up but spent the whole day walking behind other groups. All blues. We were hunting up in the cliffs.
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"Vajitas"???
LOL!!!
I thought I was the only one that used this word for Fajitas. My wife hates it [sly]
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Hey I have a hard time spelling correctly in my native
; I don't even try to get it right when it is in a different language.
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