Give a report on your 2023 Grouse season!

[Retiredguy]

Live in 6-4. Lots of grouse this year. Have not bothered to shoot any yet, but maybe a bit later in the season I will. Maybe.

[boilerroom]

strangely wasn't seeing any in late July early August in a new area of Region 8 for me. Went hare hunting first week of Sept and had to stop the car to not run the Franklins over there were so many.

[Jereky]

Never seen as many grouse as I have this year so far.

[mastercaster]

A dry spring = lots of grouse! Last year it was such a wet spring in R 3 and 8 that numbers were down. The year before that we had a dry spring and it was the best year for grouse I had ever seen! Counted 103 birds the first day out.As mentioned, lots of birds this year. So far we've hunted a half dozen days either in R 3 or 8 and have shot a grand total of 66 birds with my 20 ga. O/U. Drove by countless others!Had a young hunter out last weekend in R 8 and he shot his first mulie buck and then followed it up with a limit of grouse,,,shot a second limit the next day!

[B-rad]

yup,,,another great year for birds,,,,fairly dry May-June,,,,,blue grouse populations exploded this year in reagion 3,,,great numbers of ruffies,,,,and spruce numbers well up in areas i havent seen em in few years,,,,,,last year was an average---too below average,,,lots of rain in June,,,,2021 seaon was fairly close to what this year looks like,,,,but once again depends on region,,,,im only talking about region 3,,,,,i hope everyone limits their harvest,,and not harvest their limit,,try not to shoot whole family flocks out,,we need some birds for broods next year,,,happy huntin all,,,,hope all have a great seaon,,,,, B-rad

[Bullreaper]

4-23 has been a crazy good year. Grouse everywhere, not just average sized either, these are Boone and Crockett chickens.

[Getbent]

yup,,,another great year for birds,,,,fairly dry May-June,,,,,blue grouse populations exploded this year in reagion 3,,,great numbers of ruffies,,,,and spruce numbers well up in areas i havent seen em in few years,,,,,,last year was an average---too below average,,,lots of rain in June,,,,2021 seaon was fairly close to what this year looks like,,,,but once again depends on region,,,,im only talking about region 3,,,,,i hope everyone limits their harvest,,and not harvest their limit,,try not to shoot whole family flocks out,,we need some birds for broods next year,,,happy huntin all,,,,hope all have a great seaon,,,,, B-rad

Agree with this �� I’ve taught my son to never take all the birds in a covey. Worst thing you can do.

[mastercaster]

Agree with this �� I’ve taught my son to never take all the birds in a covey. Worst thing you can do.

The thing is if it's a relatively heavily hunted area it's bound to happen. Every time a hunter finds one or two birds to shoot at and likely kill he is shooting at what is left of a family grouping. There have been times I've thought between myself and others that we have completely decimated an area yet there they are the following year again in huge numbers.

[kevingm1987]

The thing is if it's a relatively heavily hunted area it's bound to happen. Every time a hunter finds one or two birds to shoot at and likely kill he is shooting at what is left of a family grouping. There have been times I've thought between myself and others that we have completely decimated an area yet there they are the following year again in huge numbers.

Proven studies on grouse have said that hunting them doesn't even begin to make a dent on the population. Same studies say, anything hanging out on or near the road has been run out of the woods due to overcrowding.

[Getbent]

The thing is if it's a relatively heavily hunted area it's bound to happen. Every time a hunter finds one or two birds to shoot at and likely kill he is shooting at what is left of a family grouping. There have been times I've thought between myself and others that we have completely decimated an area yet there they are the following year again in huge numbers.

Oh I agree with that, what I am saying though is when we roll up on a whole covey and we can take them all ( within our limits of course), we just don’t.