‘Grouse Camp’ brings together new, old hunters

“You could say I got into upland bird hunting because I got sick of hanging from a tree all fall,” Brian told me. “I did everything that the ‘pros on TV’ told me too, but I never even saw one of those monster bucks.

I finished college and my buddies and I all thought we just weren’t sitting in the right spot on the right day. So I bought a bunch of trail cams and, after two years, found out those monster bucks just didn’t live where I could hunt.”

“I went out west and got some OK mule deer and even got a truly big elk, but I had to do the outfitted thing on a ranch. We hunted rugged country and it was worth it as a bucket list item. Then some buddies were heading out west to hunt pheasant and sharptail, and there was an open season on archery deer in that state, and the landowner said I could hunt.

I tagged along on a couple of their morning hunts and started wishing I was with them in the afternoon instead of in my blind. I started hunting pheasant after that and got my first dog a couple years ago.”

Brian went on to tell me that he spent 10 days in South Dakota, five in North Dakota, and five days in Kansas hunting pheasant last year. He tried one weekend hunting grouse last year and failed to find a bird. “I saw more grouse hunting deer than I did when I was hunting grouse,” he told me. “Then I saw this advertised on the Ruffed Grouse Society website and I decided to give it a try.”

This was a common theme I heard around the campfire up at the Trees For Tomorrow grounds where the Ruffed Grouse Society held their second “Grouse Camp,” designed to teach adult onset grouse hunters how to hunt ruffed grouse. One lady told me that her and her husband have hunted pheasant and quail for almost 30 years.

Last year they headed north and hunted grouse and woodcock in Clark County. They didn’t see many grouse, only some on the road.

After the first day of seminars and the educational learning hunt, she told me they were looking at the woods, driving past the grouse cover and hunting what looked pretty.

“We saw more grouse and woodcock today than we saw all week last year hunting for a week,” she told me. “We can’t wait to go back this year!”

That’s out of state tourism dollars folks, something that gets overlooked when it comes to Wisconsin and grouse. It’s an important reason to maintain forest diversity in Wisconsin, along with the fact that quality grouse habitat is also quality deer, turkey and bear habitat. One comment from a participant last year who had hunted grouse for a long time went like this: “I learned more about how to hunt grouse in two days last year than I did from 23 years of hunting them.”

The goal of grouse camp is to teach and instill confidence in hunters who want to hunt grouse so they can be successful. They attend seminars on Saturday morning after breakfast. The seminars range from how to find a place to hunt on public land, what good cover looks like and what grouse eat, especially in the fall. They also learn why forest management, especially aspen and oak, are integral to grouse and woodcock populations. Shotgunning skills and how to dress are taught. And there’s also a bird dog demonstration and information how to train bird dogs, because upland hunters will always tell you it’s about the dogs.

After the seminars on Saturday, the participants then head to the woods for an educational hunt with volunteers from RGS chapters all over the state. The goal is to put together what was taught with what they know and teach them how to do it successfully by themselves.

The event is the brainchild of RGS Lead Regional Director Dave “Swede” Johnson. It premiered last fall with a bang heard around the hunting community and was just as successful in its second year. For introducing new hunters to hunting and reactivating old hunters, there is nothing even close to this out in the hunting world.

Over 20 of almost 100 participants had never hunted ruffed grouse before. About 10 harvested their first grouse Saturday. These are adult hunters that came from several states, including Oregon. Some are coming back in a week or so.

That’s called success.

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CHUCK K OLAR LOCAL OUTDOORSMAN