Wisconsin Trip for Grouse and Woodcock

In Mid October we took a trip to Northern Wisconsin, one of our favorite places to be, to do some Grouse and Woodcock hunting. Although we've hunted grouse and woodcock a lot, we didn't want to have to spend a lot of time looking for good coverts, so we went with Back Forty Guide Service.

Three of the Setters made the trip along with a vizsla and a wirehaired vizsla. We had some wet and windy weather that kept the grouse in the thick stuff. Smudge and Katie both had some points on grouse. Katie nailed one 247 yards out according to the Garmin and she was standing beautifully when we got there, and the vizsla, Kate, backed her nicely. The last point of the trip Smudge locked up on a woods road standing beautifully in the sunshine. Little Maggie emerged from the woods behind him and froze into a beautiful honor. Of course I was a bit too far away and when Maggie heard the grouse rustling in the leaves, she bolted past poor Smudge and took a pair of grouse out right in front of him. Oh, the fun of puppies...

The best bird work came on the woodcock though. We had timed it right and the flight birds were in. That is something you have to experience at least once. We limited everyday but one, and that was because I was trying to only shoot them over Maggie when she pointed. And she did have several very nice finds on woodcock. She is definitely a bird dog. In three days (two full days and two half days) of hunting we had nearly 60 points on woodcock. And that was with some of the time spent looking specifically for grouse.

It was definitely a worthwhile trip, and was good to shoot some birds for the Setters.