Do Grouse Actually Hang Out in Logging Slash?

[Buzam]

Whenever someone posts asking how to find grouse it is always suggested that: "do you have a dog? if you do take a walk through a logging slash?"

So, me and my lab took a walk through a slash today after my morning deer hunt with predictable results (no grouse). It seems to me that the Grouse I see are always a short flight from a tree that they can hide in and a slash doesn't provide that. So, are any of you guys with dogs having success with Grouse in slash?

The couple grouse I did see today were the usual side of the road ones, one guy I was right onto of but he disappeared into the tree. Their camo is so good I never saw him again. The other guy saw me getting out of the truck and ****ed right off, bleh, so frustrated. Really wanted to get a bird for the dog to fetch up :?

[adriaticum]

Not usually. I have never seen any.
They need trees, they eat spruce needles. So they need trees for food and shelter.
They also burrow in the ground under old trees in the thicket.

[Sofa King]

I have never, ever seen grouse in slashes.
almost always on the roads/trails or walking in the bush.
but always, always make sure you are tagged up.

[Buckmeister]

The short answer? Yes.
Last year I was in an OLDER slash that was growing up. AKA...the kind of slash a moose would like to hang in. Lots of saplings and willows growing. The grouse I saw had plenty of ground cover. I spooked them from the road, but followed their flight path hoping to get a shot, just ended up spooking them again and they flew off further. The low foliage was too thick to see them.

But the majority of the time I find them on roads close to older growth timber and good cover.

[1/2 slam]

The answer is yes. Quite often we'll go through 3-5 year old slashes with dog. We do well.

[Big Lew]

The only grouse I've seen in logging slashes have been blue grouse,
but you have to be up quite high for them. One such place I chanced
upon had literally dozens of them right out in the open and in the middle
of clear cut slashes. That was above 6000 ft. in the west Kootenays.

[rides bike to work]

Yes older slashes there are lots this year

[Moosehunter64]

I got 4 grouse this year in slash. It was older slash and they were blue grouse. The nearest tree was about 50 yards away.

[shoot um]

sharptails

[Glenny]

Yes sharptails do like the slash. They seem to frequent the same slashes too.

[Glenny]

Easy to find the sharpies. Early morn or late eve look for them roosting in the tallest decid trees in slashes. Those are the slashes they usually hang or near to the slashes they hang out.

[fuzzybiscuit]

Lots of grouse in the slash. We used to walk my Springer through the slash all the time with great luck. Still see lots sitting on stumps or logs when walking down or driving the roads in slashes in recent years but I don't bother with them anymore.

[Buzam]

Interesting, thanks for the input everyone

[frenchbar]

Look for grouse on back roads that have an abundance of water seeps along ditch lines . creeks ect ...forget the slashes this is coming from the ultimate grouse killer lol

[wideopenthrottle]

sharptails

yes I have seen big flocks of sharpies in the big tree in the middle of a recent slash (if they leave a tree)