Christmas Grouse

12/23/11 
Scott, Logan, Adam, and I headed up to the central MN property that we deer hunt on for a little grouse action. It snowed about 1.5" on the drive up to the property which limited the amount of bird activity we usually see up there. We burned a lot of leather walking the property, but the birds didn't cooperate very well. Around 10:30am Adam had a bird running in front of him in the cover and he made a great shot on it after it flushed; Grandpa's ol' side by side served him well!

The bird sailed about 60yrds into the timber before going down, but Oshi made quick work of the retrieve and we had our first bird in hand. We walked out the rest of the property throughout the afternoon and only kicked up one more bird. It flushed about 35yrds in front of me and I cracked off one shot hoping to get lucky, but it was to no avail. Regardless it was a great day in the MN timber!

We also sighted in Scott's 30.06 with the low recoil rounds for Logan's MO youth deer hunt January 7-8. It's crazy how much less recoil the rounds have and they are still extremely accurate. Now we just need the deer to cooperate in a couple weeks. 

Yote Smoked!

I meet up with Adam shortly after 5 a.m. on Friday, December 9th to muzzleload hunt in Annandale. The temperature at home was 2 degrees when we pulled out of the driveway. By the time we arrived at the farm the temperature had dropped down to -2 with a windchill of -15. The wind was out of the west at 5mph and was suppose to increase to 10-15mph by late morning. It was going to be a cold sit!

I put Adam in the High Stand which sits just north of a picked bean field and is located between two bedding areas. I have had great success in that stand during past late season hunts. I set up in the Big Oak Stand which sits on the south end of a large swamp.

Adam had a very productive sit other than never getting to shoot. Just before 8 a.m. he had a button buck come down from the picked bean field. Minutes later he had a small fork buck and several young does come down the same trail. Adam was planning to take one of the does when another young doe came trotting down from the field with a nice 3.5 year old 8 pt. right on her tail. Adam tried several times to stop the buck but it wouldn't leave the young doe's tail. After several minutes of running around the buck worked his way east without offering a shot. Here is a pic of the 8 pt earlier in the summer. Nice deer for sure!
My end of the woods was like the dead sea until just before 9 a.m.. I was freezing by that time and I was counting the minutes until 9:30 a.m.. I heard something running in the woods to my south. I couldn't see into the thick cover very well, but it sounded like deer running. A minute or two later a coyote showed up to my east and was coming down into the swamp. My guess is the coyote cut off the deer coming to the swamp and was chasing them back in the woods. Either way the yote was going to get a sabot shot its way if it offered me the opportunity. The yote hopped onto a trail and walked directly towards me. I let it get to 30 yards before settling the sights of my Omega on its neck and touched of the shot. Once the smoke cleared I could see the yote laying on its side with one of its little paws sticking up in the air twitching. The dirty mutt was trying to act like it could hold the .50cal....please!