I get the wonderful privilege of hunting in the North Maine Woods each year. While we usually hunt deer, we decided to go a bit earlier and try Grouse\small game hunting. Now…while I think I have lots of time logged in hunting birds in the south, this was my first attempt at the Ruffed Grouse and it took some time to adjust.
During our previous deer hunting trips, we came across tons of grouse. They would be sunning themselves on the road, sitting in trees on the side of game trails, and really just mocking us. Animals seem to know when your gun is not chambered for them. Carry a deer rifle…and see a thousand birds, switch to a shotgun and you will come across a monster buck…standing broadside, eating…for an hour. Right?
So I flew into Portland Maine and my buddy Bret picked me up. First stop was Even Tide Oyster Bar for a gluttonous showdown. Even Tide is AWESOME. We sat at the bar, ordered up a few Bloody Mary’s, and went to town on fresh oysters. They had an amazing selection from up and down the New England Coast. We ate them plain….with mignonette sauce, cocktail sauce, and….check this out….by request, they would shave frozen Kim Chi pickle juice over your oyster…….dude……it was unbelievable. After a few dozen each, we had a few baskets of fresh fried clams for dessert. Next, we gassed up, geared up, and set out to the Great White North.
It was about a 3 1/2 hour ride from Bangor Maine to the camp in the interior of the North Maine Woods. We stayed at a hunting\fishing camp called Bradford Camps. As the crow flies, it is a bit closer to Quebec City than it is to the Maine coast. The drive starts easy enough until you get in the North Maine Woods. Make sure you get all your supplies before you get out of Bangor!! I am not going to call out a list of what you need, but filling extra gas cans is a must, bring all your snacks, beer, wine, liquor, ammo, clothing, rain\emergency gear. And don’t forget a camera. Along the way you will pass over and along some incredible rivers and mountains. All in all it is a pretty drive. Once you get into the North Maine Woods, you need to stop at the ranger station and pay your $20 dollar fee. They will ask where you are staying, what you are doing, and send you on your way. It is a big wilderness up there, if you get lost or worse, at least they know when you came in and where…if you don’t make it to your camp……you can rest assured that someone knows a little about where you are. One word of advice here, WATCH OUT! There is a lot of logging going on in these woods. The logging trucks are huge, fast, and they will not stop for you, or for anyone. The big trucks and little ones alike drive these dirt\snow filled roads fast as hell….they have probably driven them 10,000 times, they know each bump and curve. I am just saying….watch out. Another thing, if there is a truck cutting\picking up logs from the road, and they are blocking the road….you better pull over, get a beer and a snack, and wait it out. They are not moving for you. They are working and that is that. Just sit back and enjoy the woods, chances are you will be back on your way in 30 minutes to an hour.
Ok, once you get to your camp, fire up the wood stove, pour a coffee mug of some good bourbon, and head to the main lodge to get an idea of where you are hunting. If you have the means to hire a guide you can stop reading now. The guides up there know the areas and the animals really well. If you have a guide, well, have fun!! We hired a guide the first day the previous year to show us around and get us acquainted with the rules\etiquette. After that we kind of like to be on our own. When dinner is finished at most lodges everyone will sit around and talk about the next day’s hunt. This is where you need to take notes. There will be groups that have been hunting for a week and leaving the next morning, there will be groups that are hunting bear or moose and have advice on where they are seeing birds. You really want to find out where the most recent hunting pressure has been so you can rule those places out. Make friends, ask questions, take notes (for real), make a plan, make a back-up plan (in case someone from another camp is in your hunting area), and make a back-up back-up plan just in case. Trust me, you don’t want to have to circle your wagons at 5:00 am with a map and a flashlight after someone beats you to your “area”. Here is a short video of our cabin and surrounding area (sorry for the shaky…uh focus..)
In the morning, gear up and get out early. There tends to be some “drive up hunters” that get into the woods a bit late, I like to be off the roads and deep into my hunt before others folks get moving. We like to hunt and hike. We like to cover ground and because of that we travel light. However, the North Maine Woods are no joke. The terrain is slick, wet, and never flat. Temps can drop quickly, it can rain or snow out of the blue. Bring a comfortable back-pack with rain gear and enough warm weather clothes to get you through an unexpected storm. The folks at Bradford Camps serve breakfast at 5:00 am. They serve lunch at 11, but we always opted for a “to go” lunch that we would eat in the woods. This became one of our favorite parts of the day. Around 11:00 am, after hunting hard all morning, we both would look and try to find the “perfect” spot for lunch. A spot with a view, a spot in the sun, a flat spot…once we found it, we would eat a good lunch, and kick back for a 20-30 minute “dirt nap”. This little siesta would get us ready for a strong push to hunt the rest of the afternoon.
As far as hunting tactics go. I am no Grouse expert. If you have a guide you are ahead of the game. If you have good dogs, trained to hunt Grouse, you are also doing better than us (in most cases). We are just two dummies from South Carolina (and Boston) with guns, ammo, and the stubborn focus to come back to camp with something. Our advice is to find a place that other people have not hunted.
Just by asking a few questions to the guys\girls in camp we
would find “out of the way” places with closed roads or some sort of barrier that other groups would not cross. A river, a big ass mountain to hike up, or (my favorite) a lake that you could canoe across to get to a remote area. If it is hard to get to, most hunters will not go there (this is where plain old stubborn focus can pay off). If no one goes there, you will find birds. This is our thought process and it tends to work for us wherever we are hunting. The other thing is to spread out, we stayed between 30-50 feet apart. Ok, here is the best advice I can give you….look on the ground, in the trees, listen for the birds (you will recognize the sound after your first encounter) and KICK every bush you pass! Yes, literally kick each bush. If you don’t have dogs, get kicking! There were times that we walked right past a clump of bushes, turned around, walked back, kicked the bush, and flushed birds. Kick every bush!!! Grouse are very disciplined, they will hold up and disappear. The other thing is to stay on a bird. They will not fly to different zip codes when you spook them. If the bird gets up and takes off, watch carefully, and plan an angle to hunt that particular area. Usually it will only fly a few hundred feet. Now… grouse will run like a sprinter too…this is when then disappear. Watch closely, and again, find a way to zero in, get your buddy to take one path, you take the other, make an educated guess where the bird will want to escape, and go get it! This was my favorite part of the hunts. When you make a plan and it works…and you get the bird…..life is good!
I can’t say enough about the fun we had hunting Grouse. And the eating…….Grouse are about the size of a small chicken…and the meat resembles “white” chicken meat. It is delicious! Most lodges will cook it for you that night or you can vacuum seal and bring back to your friends and family.
This is a short video of a morning hunt. We were able to drive a few minutes from camp, hike two miles, canoe across Bluffer Pond, and hunt an old logging road that had been closed for about 10 years, Awesome day, we got our birds, and made it back right around dark.
Thanks for reading! Please leave a comment or advice or your experience. The folks up in Maine are awesome, the scenery is amazing, and the hunting\fishing is unreal. Shoot straight, be safe, and keep in touch.