Ruff Grouse Haven
By Scott Winston, SITFFR long time secretary/board member
There is good reason Ruff grouse have been given the honorable title… “King of the North American game birds”. They are… the most challenging of all game birds to bring to bag after all. Ruff grouse have a knack of putting trees and cover in between themselves and our BBs. The vastness and sheer beauty of the Northern grouse woods is my favorite upland habitat to be in while hunting with my spaniels. Their tails show agree.
I grew up hunting Ruffs in Wisconsin with my father who purchased one hundred acres for this purpose. Fast forward forty plus years and I know my dad is smiling to me from heaven as I have exchanged his hundred acre woods for a duplex chalet at the base of Ski Brule Resort in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan. Not only because we used to ski up north together, or even that we hunted ruff grouse together with our spaniels… I’m sure its mostly because this property is helping put his grandkids through collage.
The UP is world famous for it’s unsurpassed Ruff grouse hunting. There are more public forest lands open to Ruff grouse hunters per capita here than anywhere else. There are hundreds of timber companies with thousands of acres of timber for harvesting. In Michigan, the timber companies receive a really handsome tax benefit for opening their lands to hunters. There are many post harvest, young aspen forests in these timber company holdings. Excellent grouse numbers can also b e found on the many thousands of acres of National, State and County forest lands in the theUP open to hunting, where there is also active logging.
My spaniel family includes Sunny (mom), Ollie (dad) and Remi (their pup) now SITFFR’s new mascot, all living their best life when at Ruff Grouse Haven. They were bred and born to hunt, flush and retrieve Ruff grouse in these gorgeous wooded uplands. We will be there late September, all of October and the first two weeks of November. So… I am now ready to host grouse hunters here with accommodations and many covert grouse covers to hunt. All gun dogs are welcome.
I have been hunting and scouting in this area for the past three years and now have all the best grouse areas nailed down. Last year we spent six weeks there and had the time of our lives. I would really love to share this adventure with others. Ideally, hosting one, even up to three hunters works best as we are mostly walking trails and old logging roads. If you have a larger group, we can split up for best results. Both chalets sleep up to eight. I do breakfast, a field lunch and dinner. We will be eating grouse to keep our procession limit legal. The daily bag limit on grouse is 5 in the UP! Oh, and there is are many woodcock on migration through the UP.
I prefer a twenty gauge as it is light enough to carry all day and many miles. It’s weight also allows for lighting quickness, which often means the difference in the grouse woods between a retrieve and no shot at all. The King of the North American game birds, smart and keenly aware, prefer flushing when hunters are ducking under or stepping over trees or brush… or busting through it when it is too thick.
Last season, I was in this position exactly after I had tripped in thick brush and spontaneously launched my body airborne at the thunderous flush of an underfoot Ruff that Remi presented. I took a Hail Mary shot with my open choke without a proper gun mount or with thmy feet even on the ground. I did not see or hear the bird go down due to the thickness of the immediate setting. Remi was back in no time with that Ruff still alive in her mouth. One to remember for sure.
Another similar bird I enjoy ruminating over which Remi flushed close in, flew right over the top of me in an arc, displaying it’s beautiful full fan tail. I happen to be on a trail at a sharp turn with thick forest cover on both sides. Quickly bringing my gun up while turning my body into the shot, my peripheral vision saw a large pine this Ruff was jetting toward… a mere fifteen yards on my left. Instinctively, I knew I had one quick chance. So, with the stock almost shouldered and my head not quite down, I pulled my first trigger’ I’ve coined these Ruff shots “A short Hail Mary”. I watched that Ruff, dead in the air, sail in the arced trajectory he started in. Remi was on it and fielded it like a shortstop, almost catching it before it bounced. She did grab it on the first bounce and of course retrieved to hand.
Anyone who has hunted Ruff grouse over time learns that birds love to hang out around the trails and the edges… where sunlight reaches the ground. This is the most likely place to find the ingredients for their “grouse salad” as my Yupper friend Stewart has coined their food source. Toward the end of our stay in the UP, after watching her mom and pop, Remi figured out how to flush Ruffs across the trails into the open for me. When my dogs get really birdie, if they can, they will make a short loop, pushing toward the opening. This may be due to the number of “no retrieve” shots I’ve taken in thick cover over time.
Experiencing a ruff grouse flushing through an opening is about as good as it gets in the grouse woods when attempting to bring one of these forest rockets to bag. I feel blessed that I have had this shot opportunity as many times as I have on Ruffs. Most of the times, these rare opportunities are crossing shots left or right and mostly out front. It is a beautiful thing when your grouse dog puts up a clear shot and you nail it for an easy retrieve in the open so to observe your gun dog’s every athletic move. Occasionally, I’ve had grouse fly out past me into the open going away, or coming through the open right at me. Depending on how wide the trail opening is will determine how much time one has before the bird disappears into pines or other dense cover.
One such memorable crossing opportunity Remi gifted to me occurred on an old logging road that coursed through the bottom of pretty little valley with steep sides. She hit fresh scent right in the middle of the old road and blasted up the steep bank twenty five yards to my right. I watched her turn into a short loop and she flushed a handsome brown phase Ruff from its perch on a log. Remi was right behind that bird, even launching off the same log almost tearing feathers out of the sky. From my vantage point, this was out in front and offered a steep upward angled shot. I connected just on the left edge of the cover. I saw the bird disappear over the far bank and only heard the bird thud into the ground. Remi heard it too and then caught some air over the far bank and disappeared. It must have hit the ground running as it took her a minute to trail and catch that run away. These game bird kings offer some incredible sport. I don’t think I’ll ever tire of this species of our exciting American grouse.
For the first time, I find myself now ready and willing to share this sporting life adventure with my fellow grouse hunters. Announcing… Ruff Grouse Haven is born. You can stay with me or pay more and stay right next door. I like to connect and get to know people first before agreeing to host a hunt with them. So, if you are interested in this hunt and me as your host, take a minute to read some of the other stories I have posted here at Spaniels In the Field and Flushing Retrievers Foundation… Then, give me a call:
Scott Winston
303-250-0302
To check out the accommodations, use the link below for photos and a description:
https://evolve.com/vacation-rentals/us/mi/iron-river/501736?Property-Type=Cabin&queryID=6a39b9cb0aabcb7c65b99cafc2c55eec
