What will you do with your grouse dog?

[Happy Camper]

Note

 

[trust me]

Hunting and finding are two different things. I'll keep hunting and hoping.

In 16 trips this season I've seen 9 birds this season, got points on 5, shot at 1 and killed it, gave a pass to 4, never had a good chance on the other 4. Most birds I've seen in one day is 3. These are individual birds, some were pointed and flushed on more than one occasion. Dismal to be sure but I'd rather follow dogs and hope than sit at home and mope. The killing part isn't important; I like to find birds like anybody else but running dogs is the part I have to have.

I"ve slowed down this year. Some days I said were too cold or too wet or too hot and stayed home, when I would have been right out in it in years past. My dogs are 7 and 5, always pretty good and some days great, and I owe it to them to get them out in the hills. Neither they nor I have gotten in shape this year.

Young people aren't grousing hunting, not enough action and too much walking when you can sit on your butt and play with your I-phone and kill deer and turkey galore anywhere in Kentucky. Grouse hunting is a dying sport, the birds are dying, just a few of us seem to care.

I figure when the KDFWR gets around to noticing the grouse are gone, they'll cut the season and the bag limits drastically. Right now I'm not sure I would argue with it. Every bird you kill is another bird that can't breed next season. I hope they at least let us run our dogs all winter.

 

[KY Swamp Beagler]

Let me first say I'm no bird hunter, but I certainly understand the heartache you feel when you see dogs with great potential wasting away from circumstances outside your control. I know with Beagle hounds that there are quite a few guys that will take hounds to condition. It isn't cheap persay, but worth it. I figure conditioning bird dogs would be more expensive. Is sending your dog off for conditioning too expensive? With pen raised birds and a month or two away from home conditioning every year you might be able to keep a dog dialed in. Let me be the first to say that in general we houndsmen don't like getting off the hip and spending money, so I understand if it'd be too expensive for a bird hunter, too.

 

[grouseguy]

I'm in a little better shape than most, since we bought the house in WI in 2008. I try to spend about 4 weeks up north during the fall and then go to western KY for a weekend of quail a time or two per year. I'm just biding my time for about 6 more years until I can retire and move to WI at least June through November.

I've had to bury my two best dogs in the past 6 months. I'm not giving up on grouse hunting, but I have given up on grouse hunting KY. As a matter of fact, I'm checking out stud dogs right now in anticipation of my female coming in heat this spring.

 

[hitch]

Keep him, and when he's gone get another. I hope all grouse hunters give it up, there's plenty of birds in the right places.

 

[Side-by-side]

I've thought about selling my dogs but I love them to much and I still enjoy getting out with the guys even though we are not finding a lot of birds.

 

[upland hunter]

Hunting and finding are two different things. I'll keep hunting and hoping.

In 16 trips this season I've seen 9 birds this season, got points on 5, shot at 1 and killed it, gave a pass to 4, never had a good chance on the other 4. Most birds I've seen in one day is 3. These are individual birds, some were pointed and flushed on more than one occasion. Dismal to be sure but I'd rather follow dogs and hope than sit at home and mope. The killing part isn't important; I like to find birds like anybody else but running dogs is the part I have to have.

I"ve slowed down this year. Some days I said were too cold or too wet or too hot and stayed home, when I would have been right out in it in years past. My dogs are 7 and 5, always pretty good and some days great, and I owe it to them to get them out in the hills. Neither they nor I have gotten in shape this year.

Young people aren't grousing hunting, not enough action and too much walking when you can sit on your butt and play with your I-phone and kill deer and turkey galore anywhere in Kentucky. Grouse hunting is a dying sport, the birds are dying, just a few of us seem to care.

I figure when the KDFWR gets around to noticing the grouse are gone, they'll cut the season and the bag limits drastically. Right now I'm not sure I would argue with it. Every bird you kill is another bird that can't breed next season. I hope they at least let us run our dogs all winter.

Well said "trust me".
I have two setter dog's also, I contemplated this
very thing when I only had my old dog, not getting
rid of him,but, whether I should get another pup.
I don't think I would be satisfied if I couldn't
go grouse hunting,so, I got another pup of course.

You're comments on the bag limits and seasons,
in my opinion, the bag limits should be lowered,
probably in half,would be realistic,but, it's probably
not going to make alot of difference at this time,
however, I heard of one guy killing 5 in one day
this year.

The season would be a different story.
As bad as I hate to say, for the betterment of the
grouse population in ky,I think they should drop
the month of February, and here's why.
(1)Eastern Kentucky have some,what I call,professional
grouse hunters, along with some really good dogs
most (that I know )don't work or are laid off in the
winter and they hunt 4-5 days a week, and they have
a mentality if, they find 4 birds, if they don't kill at
least 3 if not all their about half mad.
(2)It's pretty much a fact, if a grouse makes it to
late winter, they are probably going to be alive
to breed in the spring and there are probably more
grouse killed in February than all the other month's
put together.

I do think this year is better than last, I have hunted
a total of 19 days, equaling 75hrs, I have found
33 grouse, killed 4, all of which were pointed, the
dog's have pointed several more,but, I either
missed or they came up a little to far away, and I
don't shoot unless the dog's point them.

 

[riverview]

There are huntable populations of quail on public ground in western Kentucky if that's a doable trip for you. Do you guys have a local ruffed grouse society chapter? I have seen some quail habitat local chapters lease land and manage it for quail for the club. Maybe that would be something that's possible. On a strip job maybe. Might produce enough birds to keep the dogs interested.

 

[KY Grouse Hunter]

I have already downsized as most has had to over the years. Keeping field trial prospects and good hunting dogs. I like most of the others on here are still going out around home, but have steadily reduced the number of trips. I am 29 years old and have only taken two trips around home. So I will keep doing what I and most others have come to find at the "norm", taking multiple out-of-state trips a year and pumping a good deal of money into other state's wildlife programs and economies to justify staying in the sport so many of us love. As for the foreseeable future for upland quarry here at home, Kentucky will just keep raffling strip-mine cattle tags, boasting ungodly turkey numbers, and improving habitat at a couple WMA's, which is all they really can do.

 

[upland hunter]

Like you when I was younger we traveled everywhere to hunt. Older now and with family, 2 teenagers in school, I am now relegated to one week up north. In years past I would average 2-3 weeks in Wi. and 2 weeks in Neb. But also at that time we were flying 20-25 grouse per day in Letcher county, and a dozen or more per day here in the surrounding counties. I suppose those around my age got spoiled a bit with all the birds and just always assumed it would always be the same.

My conclusion is much like yours, to get your dogs into birds you must go out of state, or raise your own. Luckily myself and dog have been invited on a pheasant hunt tomorrow. I can hardly wait to get him into birds again, any bird at this point.

I've been working on my bride trying to get a similar deal that grouseguy has with a place up north, now that would be sweet.

I didn't start grouse hunting until grouse numbers
we're starting to decline,but, I have friend's that's
hunted around 40yrs, I've asked them about the
glory days of grouse hunting in E.KY,and also when
they started seeing declines in grouse numbers...

When did you start seeing declines from the numbers
that you wrote in your post,and, what do you attribute
to the decline, was it habitat are you thinking something
else?

 

[KY Grouse Hunter]

The state of Kentucky is over 90% privately owned. I'd venture to say that 90% of that private land (in lieu of being developed) is not managed for small game habitat and is more than likely older timber. Birds leave old timber. Period. Aside from an unbelievable increase in predators both avian and mammalian in the past 10 years, small game tend to suffer from a larger array of parasitic infestations and complex diseases. The bottom line is everything is against them, both environmental, biological, and economical. When forest management (or timbering) is an economical gain for land owners, small game habitat increases, hence increasing small game. Kentucky is now a hotbed for Elk and Turkey and increasingly White-Tail with the advancements in large game management practices. These practices yield a much higher economic return on the money spent to implement them. You can't blame fish and wildlife for focusing on what is keeping their lights on and paychecks coming. However, small game get lost in the mix.

As for quail, numbers are slightly increasing due to farmers getting out of farming. Fence rows and field edges are growing up producing you guessed it, habitat. FOOD + COVER = BIRDS.

We harp habitat year in and year out. It gets exhausting and it is really. But its the truth. That's not to say there are not pockets anywhere in the state, hitch obviously has good cover in his holds that hold birds. But I'd bet my last dollar his covers are prime habitat therefore giving birds a reason to stay. My spots however, like many others, are getting older and drying up. I have not carried a gun the last two years hunting.

 

[grouse408]

I will probably always have bird dogs as long as I can take care of them