# 1st Grouse GA Trip



## RLykens (Dec 2, 2021)

Hello,

I am very much thinking about doing a grouse trip around Christmas to the mountains. Any advice. No spots I don't want your spots. Just cover, habitat, habits, equipment, etc. Myself and my dogs are in great shape so we're ready to walk. I grew up in WV so I am used to mountain hunting. But with all that said I have never grouse hunted and it is on my bucket list. If I only flushed one that would make my trip, if I actually killed one Wow I would be over the moon. Who knows maybe I'll see some of yall out there. Thanks.


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## trad bow (Dec 2, 2021)

Been several years since I’ve been. Father Time done caught up with me. 
I would concentrate on old logging roads and the spruce thickets right now. I’d also try to be above 2000’ elevation or higher. Private ground is a bonus spot but I’ve only had that opportunity in my younger days.


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## NCHillbilly (Dec 2, 2021)

Hemlock thickets, dry ridges, and brushy areas are good places to start. Good luck, they are about non-existent these days.


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## NCMTNHunter (Dec 2, 2021)

Also look for cuts that are 8 to 15 year old and burns that are 2 to 5 years old.  High elevation bogs too. The higher the better.


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## RLykens (Dec 3, 2021)

Thanks! What are a grouse 's daily habits like? Do you they stay still 9n super cold morning or move about? Do they prefer to roost on the morning sun side of a ridge? Will they sit on a tree limb when it's cold or wet?


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## NCMTNHunter (Dec 3, 2021)

RLykens said:


> Thanks! What are a grouse 's daily habits like? Do you they stay still 9n super cold morning or move about? Do they prefer to roost on the morning sun side of a ridge? Will they sit on a tree limb when it's cold or wet?



The cold doesn’t bother them but they don’t like it wet. They don’t stir around much until the woods dry out a bit.


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## NCHillbilly (Dec 3, 2021)

NCMTNHunter said:


> The cold doesn’t bother them but they don’t like it wet. They don’t stir around much until the woods dry out a bit.


I think that's why they like hemlock thickets when it's cold and wet.


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## Jake300win (Dec 3, 2021)

I basically live in the mountains and spend a lot of time around the upper end of Dawson forest WMA and the lower part of the Chattahoochee National Forest I run my dogs a decent amount but don't see many birds.  Most of the time I do see them it's close to forest service roads they like to sit around them.   The ruffed grouse society has a few areas they managed or helped get cut on a few WMA's up here.  You also might try the Cohutta wilderness area above Chatsworth.  They had the forest fires a few years ago.  I plan to make a trip or two up that way soon.


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## Rebel's Dad (Dec 4, 2021)

I wrote this a few years back for another forum, edited a bit now and I think most of it is still relevant.  A bit long but it's some of what I've picked up over the years.

Good luck.  In my mind a ruffed grouse killed anywhere is a trophy.  One killed in the southern Appalachians these days is a heck of a trophy, and a Georgia bird is super special.





Grouse hunters are closed mouthed by nature, especially in the south where flushes are tough to come by.  But I'm not giving away any secrets here, at least I don't think so.  If so it won't be the first party I've been asked to leave.

The most basic thing is to try to find areas of recent disturbance--think timber cuts 8-15 years old.  Areas like this provide food and cover.  A good cover has a diversity of plant types, those that provide food and those that provide cover.  Diversity is critical.  The cover also needs to be surrounded or at least bounded by retreat/loafing cover.  A cut in the middle of a sea of open woods won't be as good.  An area with multiple cuts within 1/4 to 1/2 mi. of each other is perfect but rare in most of the south these days.  Grouse need to disperse between covers.  A discrete cover surrounded by open woods a mile from any other disturbance might be a good place for warblers but it stinks for grouse.

Of course places like that are hard to find these days.

Moisture is important—you’re going to find most grouse pretty close to water, although that's not much of a problem in the south.  Lacking anything else you can flush grouse simply walking up creeks.  Tough going and tough to kill because it's steep and lots of rhodo/laurel.

Pretty much all cuts made now and in the last 10-15 years in the southeast are in dry areas which is NOT conducive to good grouse hunting.  "Rich cove" is a buzzword among the people who oppose cutting and that's just the kind of place that makes the most productive cover for small critters. The greens, forbs, etc. grouse eat so much of down here thrive in those moist cuts—so do the insects important to young grouse.  But cuts in those areas—really anywhere near a creek—are violently opposed, at least around here.  TU tends to kick up a fuss about it, too.

In reality, since the Forest Watch lawsuit not a lot of cutting has been done in Georgia.  Some of the old cuts can still hold birds, particularly those on slower growing north facing slopes.  The roads on the National Forest were put there for a reason, and that reason was usually logging.  Most any gated road is worth a walk to explore, and will have been logged at some point.

You can also think of a gated FS road as a linear cover.  Not the best thing in the world, but better than nothing.  There should be greens in the road and those roads are usually bordered by rhodo/laurel which provide cover from predators.

As far as food, grouse are pretty opportunistic.  They will eat mtn laurel, but I think it's a wintertime thing when it's tough to find other stuff.  It does provide excellent cover for the birds.  Early in the season acorns are a good food, any berries like greenbriar, greens like christmas fern and cinquefoil, mountain ash is excellent, tree nuts like beech are a magnet as are grapes.  I've found galax in crops, foam flower, of course clover.  Young grouse and sometimes older birds will eat insects so those are important for nesting areas.

To be honest I don't get too hung up on food down here.  I look for diversity of plant types most of all.  With good diversity grouse will find food.  Up north there are enough birds and enough areas of a concentrated food source near other covers (important) that sometimes you can really key in on something--down here that's tougher.  But if you can identify something like that it's great.  One problem with hunting down here is that patterning birds is tough.  It's danged hard to extrapolate any usable information from just a couple of flushes a day.  The best strategy is to stay in the best, most diverse cover you can find.  I hunt the UP every year and we often find a lot of birds in viburnum/highbush cranberry/hawthorn getting the fruit before the frosts mush it all up.  You can sometimes do the same with grapes in the south.  I have a few grape covers that can be terrific--but they are near other good retreat/loafing/feeding covers.  My point is that both food and birds are so spread around down here that it's hard to find the sort of food trap you can get birds in up north.

Many times up north you'll find a knot in the crop the size of a tennis ball consisting of one thing.  In my experience that's a lot more rare in the south where birds will almost always have a variety of stuff.

In short pay attention to the food and check the crops, but don't get hung up on that to the point that you're hunting an area with lots of acorns or grapes and none of the other factors like nearby overhead cover, moisture, etc.

Finally experiment with different altitudes.  This can change over the course of the year depending on food sources and weather.  But it seems like increasingly over the years the higher the better.


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## pjciii (Dec 4, 2021)

I would look at Warwomen wma. Up high where the road splits almost at the top. Stay left and back where the creek flows and the road ends.


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## RLykens (Dec 6, 2021)

Thanks yall! I'm starting to get very excited for this. Hopefully I get to give it a try. The wife is pregnant so I'm kind of at her mercy for the trip but sounds like she is good to go with it!


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## DylanSeverens (Dec 6, 2021)

I've been interested in doing this too. Sorry to hijack this thread, but do yall think size 8 shot will work or is it too small? This ammo shortage is making things tough.


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## NCMTNHunter (Dec 6, 2021)

#8 will work. I prefer a heavy #6 load but you have to take what you have.


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## NCMTNHunter (Dec 6, 2021)

RLykens said:


> Thanks yall! I'm starting to get very excited for this. Hopefully I get to give it a try. The wife is pregnant so I'm kind of at her mercy for the trip but sounds like she is good to go with it!



Best best to do is don’t get too excited lol. You are walking through some beautiful country with your dog. If that’s not enough you are going to be disappointed. If you happen to get some flushes be dang proud of it.


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## AceOfTheBase (Dec 6, 2021)

DylanSeverens said:


> ...do yall think size 8 shot will work or is it too small? ...


8s will do fine if its a close-in head shot. 
Going away at distance needs more punch.
I used to have an 8 followed by a 6 just in case I missed the 1st shot.
If you can lead on a passing shot as to only hit the head & neck, 
you'll have more of that choice grade A unspoiled meat on your table.


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## cabinetjedi (Dec 6, 2021)

DylanSeverens said:


> I've been interested in doing this too. Sorry to hijack this thread, but do yall think size 8 shot will work or is it too small? This ammo shortage is making things tough.


#8 will work I've taken a few with #9


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## Rebel's Dad (Dec 7, 2021)

Just to throw a curve, I think 7s are the best grouse load.  Not 7 1/2, 7.  Best combo of shot size and number of pellets.  Harder to find unless you reload.  RST and B&P load that size, but like everything else these days availability is a problem.


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## BeerThirty (Dec 7, 2021)

I would echo comments about thickets and hemlocks. I hunted these with my dad growing up in Wisconsin. Never used a dog but just looked for low hanging pines and most of the time you could see them before you flushed them out. More of a sight hunting technique.


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## RLykens (Oct 16, 2022)

Reviving an old thread since I finally took the trip. We hunted opening weekend. Flushed 2 birds out of 12 miles of walking between 2400' - 3000'. Not bad considering we had no clue what we were doing.  Absolutley will do again, heck the camping alone was worth the trip. We had a great time.


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## tucker80 (Oct 16, 2022)

Sure does look like you ate good! 
Going higher as it gets colder has always paid off for me.


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## pjciii (Oct 16, 2022)

With all that food and drink @RLykens i would not have cared if i got skunked. Getting 2 birds was just a bonus.


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## kingfish (Oct 16, 2022)

The dog, steak, taste of home (bourbon) in that picture make it worth the trip.  The fact that you flushed 2 really does put you over the top.  I'm not an upland guy per say, but I watch grouse and woodcock videos on Youtube quite a bit.  The scenery just moves me !!!  You fool around enough up there and you'll be rewarded.  Looking forward to the pics and story too.


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## RLykens (Oct 16, 2022)

kingfish said:


> The dog, steak, taste of home (bourbon) in that picture make it worth the trip.  The fact that you flushed 2 really does put you over the top.  I'm not an upland guy per say, but I watch grouse and woodcock videos on Youtube quite a bit.  The scenery just moves me !!!  You fool around enough up there and you'll be rewarded.  Looking forward to the pics and story too.




We're already planning the follow up trip! Good things will happen, dead birds or not.


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## NCMTNHunter (Oct 16, 2022)

That’s a good trip. I’ll take a two flush day anytime.


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## almoore (Oct 20, 2022)

Beautiful dog!  I hope he got a taste of that steak.


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## longrangedog (Oct 21, 2022)

Why kill them?


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## RLykens (Oct 21, 2022)

longrangedog said:


> Why kill them?



You could say the same for anything. Why shoot any of the game we pursue? I don't think shooting one or two a year is going to cause them to go extinct. Sportsman may harvest game but we are conservation minded also.


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## NCMTNHunter (Oct 21, 2022)

longrangedog said:


> Why kill them?



Hunter harvest for grouse is negligible. Low Hunter numbers combined the rough hunting conditions kind of self regulates grouse harvest. What isn’t negligible however, is the expansive amounts of habitat that are aging out every year and not being replaced.


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## longrangedog (Oct 21, 2022)

I've hunted since I was 10 and would have killed the last grouse on earth if I had the opportunity in my younger years, but like my dad changed in his later years I have changed as I have aged. Just can't justify killing something so rare. That's just me and I'm not expecting anyone to agree with me.


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## RLykens (Oct 22, 2022)

longrangedog said:


> I've hunted since I was 10 and would have killed the last grouse on earth if I had the opportunity in my younger years, but like my dad changed in his later years I have changed as I have aged. Just can't justify killing something so rare. That's just me and I'm not expecting anyone to agree with me.



Understandable. However, part of me wonders if they aren't as rare as everyone thinks. I think that there's just very very low hunter effort/participation in the south anymore. Agree though that there could be a lot more done to bring them back to what they were. Either way still a difficult bird to nail down.


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## JKat81 (Oct 22, 2022)

The numbers are nowhere near what they once were. Period. When they quit clear cutting on WMA’s and National Forest that was it. Really good habitat is almost non existent now. It’s all aged out. I can remember having 15 to 20 flush days in the late 90’s. Some were probably the same birds that we moved more than once, but it was absolutely awesome. I miss it so much.


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## jrickman (Oct 22, 2022)

The last few weeks up along the Coleman River from Lodgepole Creek up to the NC line, we have accidentally flushed more grouse than I remember in a long long time. Last weekend was crazy. We were scouting with nothing but our carry guns and a 22 for a squirrel lunch, and flushed 4, the last of which nearly put me on my back with a heart attack. I purt near stepped right on it in a laurel thicket and it flew right up in my face. My boys are still laughing about it. I told them if we went up there today with a shotgun, I’d probably get charged by a 12 point buck. Always the wrong species showing up for me.


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## WOODIE13 (Oct 23, 2022)

JKat81 said:


> The numbers are nowhere near what they once were. Period. When they quit clear cutting on WMA’s and National Forest that was it. Really good habitat is almost non existent now. It’s all aged out. I can remember having 15 to 20 flush days in the late 90’s. Some were probably the same birds that we moved more than once, but it was absolutely awesome. I miss it so much.


Same way then here in WV, walking an old strip mine with wild grapes,   autumn olive, multi floral rose and pines, we moved a lot of birds, some were the same birds, got more sporty.

#8s worked great for me out to 35 yards or so.

Birds definitely fell off since the NPS got their hands on the property, just let everything mature.  You can walk that same section and might get up 2 when you could put up 30 in the 80s and 90s.  Lots more avian predators now also.


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## coachdoug87 (Oct 23, 2022)

I agree that the numbers are no where near what they were years ago, but I do believe they have come back slightly in so.e areas. As for the killing part,  I agree that it won't cause extinction to take some here and there and that hunting has not been a factor in their decline. Think it is ridiculous that the limit is still 3 per day.


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## coachdoug87 (Oct 23, 2022)

I also agree that the longer you hunt, the less important it is to kill something. If the dogs point a couple of grouse, I don't care if I kill them or not.


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## Jake300win (Oct 23, 2022)

JKat81 said:


> The numbers are nowhere near what they once were. Period. When they quit clear cutting on WMA’s and National Forest that was it. Really good habitat is almost non existent now. It’s all aged out. I can remember having 15 to 20 flush days in the late 90’s. Some were probably the same birds that we moved more than once, but it was absolutely awesome. I miss it so much.


I was out hunting  them last weekend. I did not see any birds.  Talked to a game warden up in the mountains he told me about a few more places to look. We had the same conversation about the habit loss and uneducated minded "conservationist" that think a healthy forest is miles of the same 40 year old trees.


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## RLykens (Oct 24, 2022)

Thanks folks. Lots of good conversation happening in here.

I guess really the only way to get anything done for the grouse now is thru congress. I'm sure RGS is trying that avenue.


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## RLykens (Oct 24, 2022)

Thanks folks. Lots of good conversation happening in here.

I guess really the only way to get anything done for the grouse now is thru congress. I'm sure RGS is trying that avenue.


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## NCHillbilly (Oct 24, 2022)

RLykens said:


> Understandable. However, part of me wonders if they aren't as rare as everyone thinks. I think that there's just very very low hunter effort/participation in the south anymore. Agree though that there could be a lot more done to bring them back to what they were. Either way still a difficult bird to nail down.


No sir that's not it at all, the population has dropped by at least 90% in the last thirty years or so, at least in my area. I used to could take a walk behind the house and jump five or six. Every morning, I would see several sitting in the road picking grit. I would see them all the time when I was out in the woods hunting, fishing, or walking. You would hear them drumming all the time everywhere. Now, I'm still in the woods all the time, and I might see a half-dozen a year.


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## RLykens (Oct 26, 2022)

NCHillbilly said:


> No sir that's not it at all, the population has dropped by at least 90% in the last thirty years or so, at least in my area. I used to could take a walk behind the house and jump five or six. Every morning, I would see several sitting in the road picking grit. I would see them all the time when I was out in the woods hunting, fishing, or walking. You would hear them drumming all the time everywhere. Now, I'm still in the woods all the time, and I might see a half-dozen a year.


Oh yea don't get me wrong I'm sure they're no where close to what they used to be. Not even by a long shot. I just always hear how they're practically extinct and can't be found.


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