Day 1...howd it go?

[hogsniper]

I got 2 and seen 6.  how did everyone else do.  Saw all blues today but didnt make it out til 10.  Hit a couple ridges and jumped 2 flocks!  Both had 3 birds.      Ill post a couple pics in a bit!!!

[Rgrady35]

Hurry up!

[SirSpencer]

waiting for saturday!

[grundy53]

Gotta wait until Friday . Then its off to conconully for 5 days

[Forrestrover]

 ... Shoot, I injured my calf muscle last friday, so no grouse hunting for me this week!
Good luck to everybody!

[uncoolperson]

flushed and chased one, found an area that had enough game trails in it I'm thinking of naming it deer-405.

[whitey]

Harley put 1 up and I missed.
About 2 hours of hunting after work..
Pretty sad numbers for this area..
I normally do real well in this area at the begging of the season.Will try again when I make it across the streams.

[boneaddict]

Lets see, I spent 9 hours at work, paid bills, and picked my daughter up from school, came home watched the girls and cooked dinner.     My one child has a severe sore throat.  She has been at school for 3 days now.   Yep, its the fall.

[hogsniper]

Went out again this evening and ended up getting one more. Saw a total of 16 today and got 3.   All blues!   I think the ruffes took a whoopin this spring!!!   The blues are in good family groups tho....

[ck]

Hogsniper, how high did you go for the blues?

[TangoU]

I went out late this morning after I got the kids on the bus. Spent about 4.5 hours total kicking the bushes before having to head back home. Flushed one, no shot.  Didn't see or hear another bird.  Depressing.  I was in the hills south of Cle Elum.  Not many other folks in there, but more than last year. Will have to try another location next time.

[Hangfire]

I hunted ferry county in a place where last year I  limited in minutes and could have taken 12 birds in less than a hour. This year I took the dog as I lost one bird last year. We walked with the dog and drove clear to ridge top. We never flushed a ruffed grouse. I talked to one other grouse hunter who saw nothing. Talked to two deer hunters who saw three Blues. We went out on the high, open south slope we eventually flushed 4 birds (blues) only saw 2. I got one shot that I normally wouldn't attempt and missed. 

Went to a swampy area that normally is full of ruffed grouse, but so thick that getting a shot nearly impossible. The dog never flushed a bird.

I could count all the snow berries we found on the fingers of both hands. There were only a few kinikinick berries and up high, a few very small huckle berries. There were some grasshoppers in the south open slopes where the dog flushed the blue grouse.

A very poor out look for grouse this year.

[Sumpnneedskillin]

Saw 4 and got one last nite after work.

[hogsniper]

Ck- i was hunting about 3000 ft. and up.   They sure are skiddish too.   I didnt see any today but still had a good time!    Weekend should be better with the coming rain!   

[ck]

Thanks.  We were up about that high a week or so ago scouting and hiking but didn't see much.  Only saw one bird and that was almost back down on the blacktop.

[T-Bone]

My wife and I hunted with our English Springer Spaniel near Ione. We scouted 8/31 and saw ZERO grouse. We hunted 9/1 and only saw one blue grouse. Nonetheless, we had some nice hiking in beautiful country. 

[BuckeyeMan]

New to the forums, so hello all

Day 1, lousy dove, but got 3 grouse in the afternoon.  I'm happy, since I will take grouse over dove any day of the week.

[carpsniperg2]

welcome buckyeman, 3 grouse in hand is worth like 30 in the bush

[fethrduster]

Got out Saturday and saw four grouse, and got one blue.  It was the first hunting day for my new setter and I, and I was very happy with how the day turned out.  Here are a few pics:

[ribka]

Awesome pics fethrduster. That is beautiful country.

What is make and year of your sxs? What loads shooting out of it?

[fethrduster]

Thanks!  It's a late 1800's vintage Belgian 16ga. with 30" damascus barrels.  Weighs 6 lbs. 2 oz.   I shoot low to moderate pressure 1 oz. loads out of it.  It's choked cyl/cyl, so it's no chukar gun, but it is great for skeet and close range work.  I shot it at the NW sxs championships in Mt. Vernon this year and did well with it on sporting clays too.  My main upland gun is a 6 lb. 16ga French boxlock choked m/f, and I shoot 1 or 1 1/8 oz. spreader loads out of that. 

[TangoU]

I took my 7yo son out this morning at dawn to the Snoqualmie Pass area. LOTS of berries. A couple of berry pickers. Hiked around quite a bit, kicked the bushes, but didn't flush a single bird.  Did get wet though!  I told him I was sorry that we didn't get into any grouse.  He said "that's ok Daddy, it was still fun." Mission accomplished.

[bowman]

I shot 2 on Saturday. Both Blues

[ck]

Hunted Saturday and didn't see a grouse. Walked about 12 miles of gated logging road, and drove probably 25 miles, nothing.  Hunted down low up to about 3500ft, tromped around in blackberries and alder, blueberries, creeks, and edges of clearcuts.  Only animal we saw beside chipmunks, jay and robins was a coyote crossing Hwy 20 in Rockport State Park.  For Skagit county guys is it worth it to make a long day trip over the pass for better numbers of grouse, or did I just have a bad day and need to keep trying closer to home?  I saw grouse every single trip last year and was a little surprised we couldn't find one.

[grundy53]

i hunted around conconully from friday to monday and only have one blue to show for it.