Two days after Thanksgiving, my brothers and I drove up to Pine City for a half day of grouse hunting before my dad's 80th birthday party later that day. We met in Forest Lake at 7 am and piled into John's mini van - John, Dave, me and John's black lab - Carmen John. A quick stop at McDonald's for breakfast and hot coffee, then onto Hwy 35 and north to Pine City.
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| Zone 1 firearms season over |
We loaded up the guns and entered the woods at 8:15. Carmen was ready to go on this crisp sunny morning at 11ºF. After 40 minutes of walking, Carmen kicked up a group of four birds off to John's right. No shots were fired as the birds were well out of range. Typical late season grouse hunting.
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| Carmen John looking for grouse |
If you're a grouse hunter, you know that these birds normally don't fly too far and the chance for a followup shot is good. 30 minutes later our chance came. This time the birds held tight and one took wing behind Dave. He wheeled around to shoot but his gun didn't fire due to a faulty shell. The grouse didn't see me until it was too late. I shot it in self defense.
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| Ruffed Grouse |
We continued our slow walk through a forest bordered by swamp. This forest is full of Poplar, Alders, Birch, a few Maples and some White oaks. A perfect grouse forest.
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| Ruffed grouse woods! |
This woods is also home to many Whitetail deer as evidenced by the numerous tracks in the fresh snow, deer beds and a antler rub. Deer thrive in this forest.
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| Whitetail track |
We've been hunting grouse here for 30+ years and always see tons of deer tracks and quite a few deer stands. Since this is public hunting land, you cannot claim a stand as your own. What a bummer; find a spot, trim the unwanted limbs, haul in the wood, construct the stand, blaze a trail and hope no one is in your stand on opening day. One of the stands 100 yards from the road has a sign listing the "owner's" name and address. Is this supposed to keep folks out of "his" stand?
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| Deer stand |
His idea must be fairly successful as I've seen this same deer stand for years and it's always in usable condition. Like anything exposed to the elements, it will fall apart if not maintained. This stand has a new ladder with the original base made from a large wire spool. When I was a kid many of these discarded wire spools were used for picnic tables.
After two hours of slow walking we made it to the northern section of the woods where a small peninsula typically holds grouse. This time there were none to be found. We turned around, shifted our track 50 yards east and followed the sun back towards the road.
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| Blaze orange brother Dave |
We typically spread out with 50 yards between us and keep each other in sight. The safety blaze orange is very helpful to keep tabs on your fellow hunter. I've been hunting with these brothers of mine for so many years that we know where the other guy is, keep a consistent pace and don't take any risky shots. We ran into another group of birds - probably the same group - and one flew into view and I dropped it with my trusty 12 gauge Mossberg 500.
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| What a day! |
My old Mossberg is a great gun. I've used it over the past 35+ years to take Ruffed grouse, Spruce grouse, Whitetail deer, Grey squirrel, Fox squirrel, wild turkey (forgot the type -Eastern?), Ringnecked pheasant, Hungarian partridge and a variety of stumps, dead trees, bottles, a T.V. and miscellaneous targets as a youth. I bought the Mossberg used at Larry's Live Bait on White Bear Avenue in Maplewood. My buddies and I took gun safety at LLB back in the early 70's. It was incredible. A dozen bloodthirsty teenage boys itching to get their gun safety certificates so we could legally hunt. Mr. Don Nelson was instrumental in taking us hunting as my father was not a hunter. Please note, dad was not an anti-hunter, he just didn't hunt. Thanks a million Don!!!!!
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| 12 gauge! |
We continued our southerly walk knowing we had to get to the birthday party. A few years back surely we'd a come up with an excuse for being late for the party. Now as responsible adults (did I just write that?) it was time to head home. Wow, my dad will be 80 on December 3rd. Thanks God for richly blessing his life and for keeping him and mom together for all these years.
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| A dog and his boy |
We unloaded the guns, took off our extra clothes and soaked up the November sun while John took a few shots with his new model 70 Winchester with a stainless bull barrel, nice furniture, 20X40 power Redfield scope and .243 Winchester cambering. Hopefully soon we'll be out hunting Yodel dogs at the Anderson Farm.
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| Sniper................. |
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