In this episode we talk about the hunt and how it all went down. Birds were bagged and we talk about the upcoming season, dogs and the upland game outlook for Utah. Hope you enjoy and good hunting!
In this episode we talk about the hunt and how it all went down. Birds were bagged and we talk about the upcoming season, dogs and the upland game outlook for Utah. Hope you enjoy and good hunting!
Tyce:
Hey folks. Welcome back to the Bird Dog podcast. This is part two of our grouse hunt opening day grouse hunt. And, uh, we're all back in the truck now and headed down out of the mountains and we almost lost. Ian put me there for a minute. You had me in the first half, but we're good. We did lose Ian. We did lose Ian. I always just went on a walkabout. So let's, uh, let's talk about tips for listeners. What should you do when you go grouse hunting in thick woods? Hey, mark Onyx map. Mark the truck, everyone. Mark OnX on the truck. Everyone do it separately. Don't trust Tyson direct so anybody can find it. It's just a good tip is, uh, yeah, mark your truck when you leave on your Onyx maps. If you have Onyx, um, especially if you go hunting with friends that you haven't been to that area, you're not familiar with that area. Um,'cause we were in really thick quakes and pines and, um, it was easy to get turned around. So we did recover Ian, he was good. he didn't, uh, He didn't die. We had to shoot the gut a couple times and honk the horn, but these guys were throwing me off, driving around just like a good homing pigeon. He made it home, so he made it So Orland, have you now been dive virginized when it comes to grow hunting? Yeah, he just, uh, first one just ground pounded him. I shot two today, so pretty awesome experience. It's different hunting. Like just thick, nasty crap. I mean, yeah, today wasn't ideal. It's raining right now and started raining. right when we pulled up here. So yeah, I mean, if you saw us all right, now everyone's wet from head to toe at Puddles. Jeff's not Jeff brought his rain jacket. We didn't realize it was gonna rain today. Jeff's the adult here and uh, so we ended up with nine birds. Total in about a three. It was about three hour hunt roughly. Sure. Call it three hours. So three, four hours. So it was pretty good, pretty good Action. We got in some cubbies so we kind of got in a big line, spread out and with. In the grouse woods. It's kind of crazy'cause it's so thick. You gotta really talk to, um, your party and be able to yell back and forth and kind of stay in voice range.'cause those birds, they come up, they just go wherever. And last thing you want to do is, shoot someone. But Mike and I were kind of working together when we found the first group of birds. We only got, there were three in that, that came up. Mike's g s p, Hika got into'em and, uh, We knocked two down out of that group. And then what was the next group we got? Oh, then we met up on a kind of, an avalanche chute type thing where the water had come down through and there were some willows and, on the edge of the willows, the tree line. We got into a covey. How many was that? I think we were all together. Three outta there. Is there, was there three, four? Was there four or five birds or something? Yeah. So got in another group. Yeah, we got three birds out of that group and then, kept working down through the mountain in Orland. You wanna tell us what you want into a group? I mean, we just kept going through that mountain and then, I mean, we got up through into ravine and. Um, it started getting really wet, raining and we're bushwalking through willows and, Ian and I and, uh, Ty met up and I looked under the tree and there's this, oh yeah, this stud grouse. He was a male grouse just sitting there on the log, just hunkered up underneath the rain and so outta the rain until rain, until we got the dogs in there. They were sniffing it out, pushed it out, and then I took a whiff and miss it was like 10 feet from me. Quick shot you were going. 12 gauge. Yeah, it would've been nothing. It was tactical. Nothing left. So good thing I didn't, and then we kind of just went up the hill and hunted a little bit more up in there. And then, uh, Ian just smoked him. So the old 20 gauge, it was good. Yeah. Oh, did you drop that one? Mm-hmm. Yep. Nice work. So just before that, we were working down along a river and one came out and kind of went back into the trees. I'm not sure if that was that one, that there was one just before that one that Orland was talking about. We got, but that one got away. How many do we think got away? Four or five maybe. Yeah. Total today. Probably at least four or five. Yeah, maybe at least four. And then Orland, you. Were working down and got into a, oh yeah, got a cve right? Six or so, got down into a cubby and, um, there was probably six or seven of'em just staring at me as I'm tripping over logs and stuff. But they ended up, started working up the hill back towards the guys, and I just started yelling, get over here, but we couldn't even hear you. Yeah, The birds just kind of walked up the hill and I shot one and then, um, one flew over and. We shot that one too, so yeah. Pretty good. Then there's another one with, we were working down in, and Mike, well one came up in front of you, Ika, and then Haika got a beautiful point on Juan, and, and we didn't get up there in time. the bird wasn't having it and took off though, so. Yeah, I think overall it was a good hunt. Um, tons of deadfall. There was a lot of trees that had fallen over. Um, Jeff was the only one to bring his jacket. Jeff, what do you have to say? Any comments tell us your experience, your feelings on the grouse hunt this morning? I'm happy to not have any injury that I can. Tell right now, I'll probably find a bunch of scrapes on my legs, but, um, I only fell a couple times. It's fine. Uh, the dogs did really well. Surprised, only lost one for like 10 minutes, but then found her. But, uh, overall I'm pleased with how everything went. Ian, what's your comments on opening day of grouse on 2023? That was fun. Just a lot of hiking around, walk. Walking around tripping over trees. Yeah, it was, uh, eventful. It was good to see as many grass as we saw, so that was pretty nice. Yeah. It sucks when you go up there and you've seen nothing. Just going for a hike rather than a hunt. So I'm glad we got to hunt. Yeah, yeah, exactly. Mike, it's a good morning. That to Mike. There you go. It was a good morning. And given the conditions, lots of rain. Yeah. Everything's wet. Um, I think we were fortunate to see as many birds as we did and shoot as many as we did. Yeah. But, um, I think we need to get back up there when it's sunny. When it's dry. Yeah. And see what the bird numbers are really. Cover was thick ground, was slick. All of us fell. Probably all of us fell several times. Multiple times. Yeah. Dog work was really good. Yeah, it's always fun watching those dogs run. I love watching just the energy of the, short hairs. Yeah. And they just have fun. Yeah. Yeah, I think overall ties it was good. Yeah. I think just, from the bird count, from what we were seeing, it's looking good so far, at least in this little pocket that we went into. I hadn't hunted it for a couple years and always had found birds. But like Mike was saying, I think with this rain, And to be able to knock nine birds out in a few hours, that's a pretty good hunt. I think a lot of the birds were really hunkered down in the trees in the real thick cover to stay dry. So anyhow, folks, that's part two. Thanks for listening. Get out there, get your dogs out. We had a bunch of young dogs out today and there was their first time jumping, getting in that type of cover. So it's a little bit of a learning experience, but every time you get your dog out, they're just gonna get better and better. Haika. She's the oldest dog here, the G S P, and it was her first grouse hunt, but she had some points and just her experience really proved It pays off to get your dog on birds. So good luck hunting the hunts have started. It's a great time of year to be out in outdoors and in the mountains, and we'll see you on the next show.