Minnesota Grouse and Woodcock Hunting Report: Nashwauk & Deer River Action

 Hunt Overview

• Date: October 14, 2026

• Locations: Nashwauk, MN & Deer River, MN (Itasca County Public Lands / Chippewa National Forest region)

• Target Species: Ruffed Grouse & American Woodcock

• Dogs: Sweep (pointing dog) & Tasha (14-year-old veteran pointing dog)

Morning Session: Hitting the Trails North of Nashwauk

We returned to a few tried-and-true spots north of Nashwauk, Minnesota, hoping to bag our first ruffed grouse of the day. With Sweep well-rested after a few days off, she got the first call.

When we arrived at the trailhead, an ATV hunter's truck and trailer were already parked. Sure enough, shortly after releasing Sweep, we crossed paths with the rider. He mentioned a slow morning, noting he hadn't seen any grouse yet and that overall numbers felt low in the area this season.

Working the Cover Lines

We pushed past the main trail onto a smaller, quieter side spur.

• First Encounter: A quick woodcock point, but the bird held too tight and flushed without offering a clean shooting lane.

• First Harvest: A bit farther down the trail, Sweep locked up on a second woodcock. This time, I connected, dropping the bird cleanly. Unfortunately, a ruffed grouse flushed at the sound of the shot, but thick cover kept it hidden from view.

• Dog Work Highlights: Sweep did an exceptional job tracking down the downed woodcock, finding it much closer than expected. Finding fallen birds she didn’t directly watch drop has been about a 50/50 split for her, so this was a great win.

We pushed deeper into uncharted territory for this specific run. We flushed one more woodcock without a shot opportunity, and worked our back to the main trail empty-handed on grouse. Back on the main artery, Sweep bumped a single grouse—forgivable given the tricky tailwind working against her nose.

Back at the truck, a second ATV trailer pulled up looking for the first hunter (reminding us just how sketchy cell reception can be in the deep Itasca County woods). After loading Sweep into her kennel, we shifted gears toward Deer River.

Afternoon Session: Deer River Woodcock and Senior Dog Adventures

For the afternoon hunt, we headed near our place close to Deer River, MN. After a successful run there last week featuring plenty of woodcock contacts, the primary goal was getting my 14-year-old pointing dog, Tasha, on some solid points.

• Quick Success: Within the first five minutes, Tasha delivered a textbook point on a woodcock. I connected on the flush, adding another bird to the bag.

• Pushing Deeper: We worked the trail further than our previous outing, managing a wild flush from a ruffed grouse. With zero wind in the timber, it was no surprise Tasha didn't catch scent in time to establish a point.

• The Senior Dog Challenge: On the return trek, Tasha went on point. My Garmin tracking watch initially showed her just 35 yards into the thick brush, but quickly ticked up to 100, then 150 yards. Dealing with a nearly deaf senior dog makes redirection tough. I tapped the vibrate mode on her collar to turn her around, but she pushed out to 300 yards. Navigating the heavy cover quickly, I managed to break back onto the trail. She had closed to 70 yards but veered the wrong way. After another chase reaching 250 yards, she finally turned, trotted back like nothing happened, and got leashed up for the walk back. Despite her age and range mishap, lasting a full hour of strong hunting in heavy cover is incredible for a 14-year-old dog.

Post-Hunt Recovery

The next morning brought wet, gloomy weather, but it turned out to be a blessing in disguise. Both Sweep and Tasha were limping slightly from the previous day's mileage, so giving the hard-working hunting dogs a mandatory rest day was an easy call that didn't waste any prime hunting weather.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Deer River Mn Ruffed Grouse and Woodcock Hunt 10/21/2015

Tasha and Tina with a limit of Ruffed Grouse and a bonus Woodcock

I’ve been slacking off on keeping the blog up to date but we had such a good day hunting that I thought today would be the right time to get it all rolling again.

We drove from St. Paul up to the Deer River area this morning.  It was gray and kind of gross looking when we started at 2 pm.  I wasn’t too hopeful. 

I put the 13 yr old setter Tina down first.  We started down the first trail and she was working scent pretty quickly.  She made a nice point on a woodcock but I couldn’t connect.

The trail comes to a T and we usually go to the left but Tina decided to go to the right and locked up within 15 yards.  I walked in and could see the grouse holding tight by a pine tree.  Three steps in and it jumped up and with one shot it came down.  As we doubled back down the trail we worked for a good period of time.  We had a tailwind and Tina was working hard but wasn’t having much luck until we hit an area that is a bit wetter and Tina swung to a stop after she had passed by the area.  I walked in and the bird went straight away and I was able to bring it down.  100 yards later it looked like the situation was about to repeat itself but as I walked in for the flush I only managed to shoot a tree in half…  We made it to the end of the trail and turned around and worked our way back.  Towards the end of the trail Tina went into the woods a little bit farther than usual.  I heard her beeper go off and I started to walk towards where I thought she was on point.  I couldn’t see her but I thought I was getting close.  I was about to activate the beeper again to get a better idea of where she was when I heard a leaf make a crunchy noise and the grouse came up and I was able to snap off a shot and bring it down.  When I picked up the bird I could tell that I had just hit the wing.  Covering the last bit back to the truck I missed on a wild flush.

After loading Tina into the truck and swapping out the 12ga for a 20ga Tasha and I started back into the woods.  The first spot that we hit was an area that had been cut over 4 or 5 years ago.  We haven’t moved many birds out of this area yet but it doesn’t take to long to hit it.  A short walk into it Tasha pointed and then relocated.  When I walked in a woodcock went up and I took an off balance shot and was lucky enough to connect.  Tasha went right over to where it went down so we didn’t lose this one.  She has been getting better about going to where the bird has gone down.  We finished up this area and hit a spot that usually holds a few woodcock.  She had a nice point but it flushed low and straight away from her so I didn’t get a shot off.  We continued to work the area and at the very end of the cover she locked up again and the grouse came up and offered me a straight away shot and I was able to hit it on the 2nd shot.  We doubled back and started to work part of the area that we don’t hit too often.  It is a bit older growth but we have been seen birds in this type of cover in other areas that we have hunted this year.  We hunted this area for quite awhile but didn’t get any action.  We worked our way back towards the area that I had hit with Tina in the hope that more birds had moved in.  Just a few minutes down the trail and I got a nice point and I brought down grouse number 5.  We hunted for a bit more trying to get Tasha some more woodcock points but didn’t move any more.  About 50 yards from the truck Tasha busted a grouse. Oh well, it wouldn’t be a hunt without one busted flush.

I checked my hunting log and the last time that we had filled out on grouse was 4 years and 1 day earlier and it was in the same spot.

 

First Grouse - Nemadji State Forest Ruffed Grouse Hunt - October 11th 2012

Brent with his first Ruffed Grouse

Oct 11th 2012

A friend, Brent, and I have been able to hunt pheasants together before but he had never had the opportunity to hunt for Ruffed Grouse.  We both had the same day off during the mid-week so I thought we would try some of the MN Hunter Walking trails that are by Nickerson MN.

The first two trails were in pretty rough condition and we didn’t move any birds.  The third trail was awesome looking.  Great habitat and the trail itself were well maintained.  It was easy to tell that a large number of hunters also thought that it was a good looking trail as you could tell that it seen quite a lot of traffic.

I decided to pull the plug on the walking trails and head over to Nemadji State Forest.  I used to hunt there quite a bit before the ATV craze hit full force but had mostly skipped it recently as there were too many ATV and motorcycles to worry about.  I figured since it was a weekday that there might not be quite as much traffic to worry about.

Within just a few minutes of letting my setter Tina out of the truck we had a bird that flushed wild so I was already feeling better about the decision to change locations.  We followed the main trail for another 20 minutes before turning onto a smaller side trail.  Within 2 or 3 minutes we went around a corner and saw Tina locked up on point.  Brent moved in and connected on a straight away flyer.  His first grouse ever.  The cover continued to look good so we moved on down the trail.  About 10 minutes later I heard Tina’s beeper go off.  As we moved towards the beep the bird broke from in front of Tina and Brent bagged his second bird.  I was looking at getting shut out by a first timer.

We moved on to another smaller trail and I was able to take a bird that was holding tight in a nice clump of cover.  On the walk back to the truck I was able to take a woodcock that Tina pinned near a creek in the area.

Brent was able to get his first grouse.  We only heard one ATV and didn’t even end up seeing it.  It was another good day to be in the woods.

Tina and I with our Nemadji Ruffed Grouse and Woodcock

2014 AMERICAN WOODCOCK POPULATION STATUS - Counts - Central Region Down 7.3% - US Fish and Wildlife Service

American Woodcock Singing-ground Survey data for 2014 indicate that the index for singing American woodcock (Scolopax minor) males in the Eastern Management Region was not significantly different from 2013; while there was a significant decline of 7.3% in the Central Management Region. There was a significant declining 10-year trend for woodcock heard in both Management Regions during 2004-14. This marks first time in 10 years that there has been a declining 10-year trend in the Eastern Management Region and the first time in 3 years there has been a declining 10-year trend in the Central Management Region. Both regions have a significant, long-term (1968-14) declining trend (-1.0%/year for the Eastern Management Region and -0.9%/year for the Central Management Region). 

The 2013 recruitment index for the U.S. portion of the Eastern Region (1.60 immatures per adult female) was 3.2% less than the 2012 index and 2.3% less than the long-term regional index, while the recruitment index for the U.S. portion of the Central Region (1.54 immatures per adult female) was 7.2% less than the 2012 index and was 1.4% less than the long-term regional index. Estimates from the Harvest Information Program indicated that U.S. woodcock hunters in the 
Eastern Region spent 136,700 days afield and harvested 62,500 woodcock during the 2013-14 season, while in the Central Region, hunters spent 306,100 days afield and harvested 180,600 woodcock.

See the full FWS report

A First Grouse - Grand Rapids MN Ruffed Grouse Hunt October 19th 2013

The First Grouse That I've Taken Over One Of Tasha's Points ( Fergie looking on )

Saturday October 19th 2013

The MEA weekend curse hit in full force today.  I had to go to a 5th spot to find a place that didn’t already have a vehicle parked at it.  I was at the first spot a 9 am.  It took me an hour to find a spot that we could hunt.  I started out with Tasha and we hunted for about an hour but didn’t move a bird.  The cover looked good but it is a pretty obvious place.

Area #2 looked even better but Tina and I didn’t fair any better.  One of the nice things about this spot was that there were a number of areas around it that had been clear cut in the past year or two so it should only get better.  One of the saddest things in grouse hunting is to have a good area that never gets any maintenance and the cover just gets too old to be productive.

The third spot that we hit didn’t look quite as nice but also didn’t look like it had seen as much use.  We hit this spot for an hour and moved one bird but I didn’t get off a shot.

We returned to the spot that we had hoped to start out at and there wasn’t anyone parked there.  I started with Tasha and about 5 min into the trail she went on point and the bird came up before I was ready... arrgg...  We checked the woodcock area and didn’t move anything and then it was on to the longer trail.  About half way out she locked up.  I missed a left to right shot and then a second grouse got up and I finally was able to take one off of her point.  We finished working the trail out and back and I missed two more grouse by the time we got back to the truck.  I was still excited to have gotten a bird from one of her points.

Tina got the call to finish up the day.  After a short period we started to get some sleet and was thinking of bagging it but I figured we could always take a shortcut back to the vehicle if need be.  We were on our way to an area that Tasha and I had not hit and to get there we went by woodcock hollow ( I decided to name it ).  Sure enough Tina went on point.  I swung out wide to come at her from the other side of the cover.  Two steps in to the cover and the woodcock came straight at me.  The dang bird almost flew right into me.  After dodging it I took a shot and missed but was able to connect on the second shot.  We worked an area with pine trees and Tina made another nice point and I was able to connect on an easy shot.

On our way out we ran into a guy from West Virginia.  He had been hunting in the area for two weeks and commented on how many hunters there were.  I told him that with the National Ruffed Grouse Hunt and then MEA weekend he picked two of the busiest weeks to hit the area.  He was leaving the next day for two weeks in SD pheasant hunting.

I went 1/1 on Woodcock but only 2 out of 7 or 8 on grouse.  Still, getting the first one over Tasha made it all ok.

Sunday

We woke to a steady wet snow falling.  We hunted for two hours and only moved one bird.  I did hear some shooting but I decided to pack up and head home early.

Tasha and Tina With Their 2 Grouse and 1 Woodcock

Two Woodcock Points - Bigfork MN - Video

I was grouse hunting near Bigfork, MN Sept 23, 2011 and was able to capture video of two separate Woodcock points.

It was the Friday before the Woodcock season opened.  It was fun to get a couple of nice solid points on them.

The spot that we hunted has been my best grouse area for the past 15 years but this time we didn’t move a single grouse.  This was the first time that this had happened at this area.

For More Bird Hunting Videos Visit BirdHunterTV.com

2013 National Woodcock Population Status

2013 US Fish and Wildlife Service National Woodcock Population Status Report






































Read the full report


Read the 2014 report

Bigfork - Deer River MN Grouse and Woodcock Hunt

10/6/2012

Tony, Quetico and a Bigfork MN Grouse

The weather in the Grand Rapids, Mn area was supposed to be wet snow on Friday so I decided to head up early on Saturday morning.  I met my buddy Tony and his dog Quetico in Deer River and we decided to head up to Bigfork to try an area that we’ve had good luck with in the past.  This area can be entered from two different roads so we thought that we’d try parking one vehicle and then driving to the other side and hunting our way back to the first vehicle.  This way if we got into birds we could always hunt out and back and if the birds were scarce we could bail at the first vehicle, swing back to the second and then head to a new spot.

We put the two dogs on the ground and started down the trail.  It looked to be a good morning for a hunt as there were still spots of snow on the ground.  Within the first 5 minutes we got a wild flush and didn’t get a shot off.  The trail comes to an intersection with two side trails and if you go forward you hit a clear cut that has started to have islands of growth.  It the past few years these islands and the edges of the field have held good numbers of birds.  We worked the area pretty thoroughly and did not move a bird so we headed down one of the side trails towards the parked car.

As we hit the main loop on the lower portion of the trail the dogs started to get more excited.  They started to work an area of newer growth when you could hear them slow their search.  Tony went into the area to check on the search when a grouse got up in front of Quetico ( Tony’s GSP ) and he was able to drop the bird.  We kept moving along the trail to an area that was an awesome hotspot in 2009 and 2010.  There is a large beaver pond along one side and a small pond on the other.  In ’09 and ’10 I’m certain I moved multiple birds in this small area every time that I hit it.  Tina started to get excited first as I’m guessing that she remembered all of the birds that we had seen there in the past.  We were close to the end of this area when the dogs started to tighten up their casts and narrowed their search to some softer ground.  A lone woodcock decided to make its escape and I was able to bring it down and put it into the game bag.

We finished up this trail and decided it wasn’t worth hunting our way back so we loaded up the one vehicle, swung back for Tony’s truck and decided to head to an area close to Deer River that I had excellent hunting a number of times last year.

The dogs worked the cover well but we only moved on woodcock and we didn’t take a shot at it.  I found it odd that we didn’t move any other birds from this area.  As we were leaving I did notice that the cabin across the road had 3 or 4 trucks at it with lots of guys wearing blaze orange and I don’t recall seeing any vehicles at it last year.

Even though we didn’t move a lot of birds it was still a great day to be in the woods with the dogs.

Tina and I with our Bigfork MN Woodcock

American Woodcock Migration Mapping System

Woodcock Migration Mapping will be Active from September 2012 through April 2013

Submit Daily Migration Activity Report 

Access Historical Maps and Summaries 

MAP UPDATES EACH QUARTER HOUR AND RESETS AT MIDNIGHT**

Welcome to the Ruffed Grouse Society’s National American Woodcock Migration Mapping System. In partnership with Waterfowler.com, the online authority in waterfowl migration tracking, RGS started providing real-time tracking of the annual American woodcock migration in 2006 -- for the first time in history. It has continued each year since. The advanced GIS mapping system relies on daily migration data provided by our members and online readers. Users enter the zip-code for the area they're reporting on, then select if the woodcock activity in that area is Light, Medium, Heavy, or at its Peak.
**The map is a real-time summary of daily (24-hour) entries which reset each midnight, so we encourage our visitors to report each day they encounter woodcock. To view prior 24-hour or longer prior period historical maps, click the Historical Maps and Summaries link.

More Info and Complete RGS Article

Fall guiding memories

I enjoyed this post as they guide out of an area very close to where I hunt:



The 2011 grouse hunting and guiding season is over but not forgotten. For everyone at Bowen Lodge, it was a great fall. The majority of days were sunny and warm and the woods were very dry. The guides definitely needed to know the location of beaver ponds so the dogs could drink and cool off.

There were fewer grouse than last year but plenty to make for good hunting. The dogs did a tremendous job of finding and pointing them--but some were more difficult because there were more old grouse than young. A high note was the good numbers of woodcock we found--more than most years.

All-in-all, we had a wonderful fall with beautiful days, good friends and fine bird dogs.

Daisy is out of Blue Blossom who I got from Northwoods Bird Dogs

Read the Full Post From Northwoods Bird Dogs and Check Out The Great Photos