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Lloyd3
PostPosted: Tue Oct 26, 2021 10:20 am  Reply with quote



Joined: 17 Jan 2014
Posts: 1364
Location: Denver, Colorado

Pulled the boats and docks, packed up and headed home Sunday. After a long final drive yesterday I'm sitting here processing everything. Feeling very grateful for just about everyone and everything involved in the trip. Bird numbers are clearly down from their peak about 7-8 years ago and I'm not exactly sure what to blame for that. The big drought up there is likely part of it and the huge number of raptors this year is clearly playing a part there as well (Goshawks, Broadwings, & Redtails). The number of birds-of-prey everywhere in the forest was astounding(!) and very troubling (and almost as bad as the number of hunters I encountered...damn COVID!).


[url=https://imgur.com/3FjUXOu] [/url]

Pulling the boats

[url=https://imgur.com/ehS8TeL] [/url]

Hawk kill, one of many that I saw on my hunts.

[url=https://imgur.com/32Nqlu0] [/url]

Last morning.

[url=https://imgur.com/KjD6yTL] [/url]

Last haul. one is a Sprucie hen.

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fourtown
PostPosted: Thu Oct 28, 2021 2:24 pm  Reply with quote



Joined: 25 Jan 2014
Posts: 223
Location: MN

Looks like fun. I need clarification, did you you see more grouse hunters, or fewer this year?
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Lloyd3
PostPosted: Thu Oct 28, 2021 5:30 pm  Reply with quote



Joined: 17 Jan 2014
Posts: 1364
Location: Denver, Colorado

Well....I saw plenty. As many as last year? Maybe not, but tons of road bird hunters and quite a few folks on the trails. Way more than just a few years ago.

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Lloyd3
PostPosted: Fri Oct 29, 2021 8:16 am  Reply with quote



Joined: 17 Jan 2014
Posts: 1364
Location: Denver, Colorado

Fourtown:

What are you seeing as far as bird numbers this year? It seemed to be down quite a bit to me.

As far as the number of hunters go, I was there long enough to see it from day one to MEA weekend. I saw lots of out-of-town hunters during the week and not just on the weekends (easy to ID....new and newer vehicles, primarily 4X4 trucks and SUVs, locals drive mostly old stuff). MEA is always a mess and has been for a long time now but mid-week leading up to that was darn busy too. Also...way-more of the 4-wheelers this year. The camps were chock-full of them and the conga-lines were endless on the weekends. Seeing very little enforcement of the rules on non-4-wheeler trails too (tracks where they shouldn't be).

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fourtown
PostPosted: Fri Oct 29, 2021 12:08 pm  Reply with quote



Joined: 25 Jan 2014
Posts: 223
Location: MN

Woodcock numbers have been excellent all season, I flushed one this morning walking the dogs.

Grouse numbers where I have been have been decent. My first weekend I was disappointed, very few birds. The next trip was very good. I have been hunting pheasants recently, but have been flushing woodcock and snipe while pheasant hunting.

Friends hunting in Kooch County have had good luck.
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fourtown
PostPosted: Fri Oct 29, 2021 12:17 pm  Reply with quote



Joined: 25 Jan 2014
Posts: 223
Location: MN

Lloyd3

Just to clarify, I don't hunt near Fourtown anymore. Its just my online handle. I hunt mostly in Aitkin County.

I am sure there are a lot of ATV's in the Fourtown area.

Fourtown
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Cold Iron
PostPosted: Fri Oct 29, 2021 6:33 pm  Reply with quote



Joined: 09 Mar 2016
Posts: 746
Location: Mn.

Great pictures and story as always! I have exchanged PM's with you over the years and you have said I should share on the threads. So this year I finally will Smile And thank you for very much posting your photo journal. My experience this year was very much the same as yours.

Woodcock flights did move through on time this year and saw quite a few in the evenings. Although my body does not care for the cover they are in anymore and seen them most in the late evening driving out of the woods. I call them little X wing fighters which is how they show up in the headlights.

Lloyd3 wrote:
Fourtown:

What are you seeing as far as bird numbers this year? It seemed to be down quite a bit to me.

As far as the number of hunters go, I was there long enough to see it from day one to MEA weekend. I saw lots of out-of-town hunters during the week and not just on the weekends (easy to ID....new and newer vehicles, primarily 4X4 trucks and SUVs, locals drive mostly old stuff). MEA is always a mess and has been for a long time now but mid-week leading up to that was darn busy too. Also...way-more of the 4-wheelers this year. The camps were chock-full of them and the conga-lines were endless on the weekends. Seeing very little enforcement of the rules on non-4-wheeler trails too (tracks where they shouldn't be).


I am not Fourtown but my experience mirrors yours.

Returned from Cook County Wednesday before MEA weekend same as you, for the same reason. Check into the cabin on the Gunflint trail first of Oct. Have standing reservations during the month of Oct. there. Then leave before the herd shows up for MEA. Last 2 years the number of people that are in the woods has gone through the roof. Used to see 2-3 people a week if that. Now see that a day. Or more.

I moved to Cook County from Lake County several years ago due to the increase in people that were hunting down there. 20 years ago not long after I moved to Mn. used to hunt Koochiching County between the Falls and Baudette. Camping in a tent with a wood stove but as I got older that also got old LOL.



Did sleep in the back of the truck on occasion until I turned 59 too.

r

Fourtrax and Savage16 and I have hunted together all carrying Ithaca 37 16 ga. guns. Around Greenwood Lake and that whole area has now burnt up as of a couple of months ago.

I miss hunting with Fourtrax in Lake County, a LOT and the GPS often shows spots only 20 miles away that I have marked with Steve. But it is an hour and a half or more drive with the BWCA in the way. Jay who worked with the Mn. DNR on grouse hunter education told me years ago before he retired that he can count on one hand the number of times he has hunted East of I-35. The further West you go of 35 the better the grouse hunting.

But I keep getting drawn to the tip of the Arrowhead. More than just bird numbers to me. Last year the dog jumped a small bull off the bed.



Numbers were down this year for me also. Took the son of my 8 year old Toller this year by himself. Just turned one and didn't want any interference, just have fun and get him birdy. It went well. First bird, delivered to feet instead of hand, good enough for a pup and me first year.



Shot a spruce it flew just like a ruff. And used it for training in a lake. Think the Duck Toller has that down too



He is a bit too exuberant on birds now and shouldn't have grouse feathers on the Garmin antenna LOL.



This winter will work on Force Fetch and a softer mouth. Drive is not an issue.

I'm only 63 but have degenerative arthritis in my ankles and much of my body. 20 years slinging a sledge hammer in the Navy on ships didn't do me any favors. But not so sure sitting on my arse behind a desk for the last 26 years has either. Used to hate when an ATV would go by me with someone half my age and twice my weight would go by me.

Few years ago picked up a Ranger Northstar and take it to the end of the trails and Forrest roads and hunt from there. Can only walk about 11k steps a day now as my body has started to fall apart. Might as well make it prime steps in prime cover. Built a dog box for the buggy to get us both in there.



Really pisses me off when I see UTV's and ATV's where they are not supposed to be also. Pisses me off more when I see Jeep drivers going down a Class 1 or 2 trail where they are not supposed to be. And they almost always Jeep owners. Likely from the Cities. Or Madison LOL.

Already for next years trip and wish it wasn't so far away. And would love to meet you someday in the best place on Earth. The Mn. North Country.





Just wish every Tom, Dick and Harry hadn't recently discovered it also. Maybe time to move into the Canadian Sunset Country....
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Lloyd3
PostPosted: Sat Oct 30, 2021 8:48 am  Reply with quote



Joined: 17 Jan 2014
Posts: 1364
Location: Denver, Colorado

Great photos and story Cold Iron, and thank you for confirming some of my observations. I get the need for the four wheelers for some folks (Heck, some day I might even need one), but...the majority of people I see on them are mostly healthy (many are fat) and young. I go up there to get away from the hoi palloi and because of those infernal machines that get harder to do every year.

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nj gsp
PostPosted: Sat Oct 30, 2021 7:41 pm  Reply with quote



Joined: 09 Aug 2007
Posts: 437
Location: WI

I bought a Ranger last year for farm use, and it has been extremely useful on my land in MI as well. Today we hunted land that was only accessible by atv unless you wanted to hike in over two miles to get there, and we were rewarded by some decent bird contacts - 19 birds moved in 2 hours, of which we shot 3 partridge. Figures the woodcock season closed yesterday, because the flight birds are finally heading south.

I probably should have gotten the Northstar edition, because now that I’ve put a tilt out windshield, front wiper, roof, rear glass, heater, headache rack, rear LED bed light, doors, and a winch on it, I’m almost as deep in as the Northstar…
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Lloyd3
PostPosted: Tue Nov 02, 2021 8:32 am  Reply with quote



Joined: 17 Jan 2014
Posts: 1364
Location: Denver, Colorado

Cold Iron: Has anybody in your little group ever hunted the Kabetogama Forest? That sure looked good to me the last time I went through there.

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calebg
PostPosted: Fri Nov 05, 2021 7:32 am  Reply with quote



Joined: 29 Sep 2008
Posts: 218

Lloyd3 wrote:

What are you seeing as far as bird numbers this year? It seemed to be down quite a bit to me.


I'm not Fourtown, but I've been hunting northwest Wisconsin quite a bit.

Grouse numbers have been spotty, and probably down a bit from last year. They're way down from the last cycle ten years ago.

The good reports I've heard have mostly been from people in Minnesota north of Highway 2. Central and eastern Minnesota, not so much.

We've been on a downward trend for so long that I think we've lost some perspective on what good bird numbers are really like. As recently as the late-90s peak, the forest roads were covered in road hunters who were going out and shooting a limit of road birds in a morning without leaving the gravel while sipping their coffee.

There are huntable numbers of birds, but numbers aren't what they were ten years ago, much less twenty or thirty years ago.
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Lloyd3
PostPosted: Mon Nov 08, 2021 9:37 am  Reply with quote



Joined: 17 Jan 2014
Posts: 1364
Location: Denver, Colorado

calebg: One of the people that came to hunt with me in Minnesota this year then went to Wisconsin to meet some other folks. His reports tend to confirm your observations. In past years he's experienced birds that have been severely affected by mosquito-born viruses (shrunken body mass). Pennsylvania's Game Commission has also reported that local grouse were similarly affected by the West Nile Virus. Have you seen any of that as well?

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