Ruffed grouse are still out there in wet weather — and they still taste just as great. That means it’s worth going out if your only chance to do so has a damp forecast. Grouse adapt to the rain and go on with their lives.
Here’s how you can adapt to grouse behaviour in wet weather and still bag some birds.
We would all prefer a dry hunt, so if you can, head out early to dodge the rain. Grouse know when rain is coming and feed actively before bad weather. Or, you can drive to your spot through the rain to be there when it ends. Don’t go out in drenching rain but be ready to get out shortly after it ends. Rain makes for good hunting when it stops. Since storms are often local events, it may be possible to drive for an hour to get into an area not affected by heavy rain. When grouse hunting, it’s always good to find new covers so you are never without an option. The season is too short to miss a day because of less than perfect conditions.
Looking for grouse
If there is no way to beat the rain, then go anyway.
In light rain, drizzle, or mist look for rain birds in their normal covers but when vegetation gets soaked look for them where they can still peck out a living without getting soaked. Grouse know where natural umbrellas are. Choose locations that have the features that attract grouse in wet conditions.
These are stands of evergreens with food sources mixed in. Not single-species pine plantations, but stands with some birch, aspen, or maple mixed in so they can feed on maple keys, birch catkins, and a salad of tender plants, mushrooms, berries, and bugs. If your only option for a conifer stand is a plantation then hunt around the edges of it and look for any openings where the vegetation is more varied. Deadfalls are natural umbrellas and security shelter so check around them as well. Thick patches of raspberry and blackberry canes are natural umbrellas too, if they still have their leaves on. I have flushed bone-dry grouse from beneath them in wet weather.
When the rain has ended look for grouse in openings with low cover and along trails where they can move around without getting their feathers drenched by contacting wet vegetation.
Wet weather tactics
Grouse can’t fly as well with wet feathers. When they are damp, or don’t want to get wet, they are less likely to flush. They would rather run. This is a great advantage when hunting with a dog. They will hold better for a pointing dog and flush closer to a flushing dog. Also, moist air holds more scent for the dogs to find them. So, keep your dog working in mixed conifer stands if it hasn’t already figured out that is the best place to hunt for them.
A common grouse trick is to fly up to a lower tree branch when a dog or hunter approaches, so if the dog is birdy then loses the scent, check in the trees for a grouse looking down at you. Always be listening for the soft flush of a grouse flying up to a tree branch.
Scouting northern style from a pickup or ATV will be less productive while it’s raining but good before and after the rain. If it is raining, you can improve your odds by getting out to sneak through the pine and spruce stands you find along the trail.
What to wear
The hunter on foot will definitely get soaked from the waist down from vegetation. I prefer not to wear raingear and just embrace the wet. Rain gear is heavy, noisy, and interferes with my gun mount and swing on flushing grouse. It traps in sweat and heat. Since I hunt with a pointing dog, I am always moving at a good pace generating my own heat and don’t get cold even though wet.
I don’t wear heavy pants because they weigh me down and tire me out when soaked. In fact, in the mild weather of the first half of the season, a light rain helps the dog and I to run cooler allowing us to hunt faster covering more ground in search of grouse. Waterproof boots are a must though, as is a billed hat to keep rain off my glasses. I always bring dry clothes to change into after a hunt.
Rain takes the crunch out of the forest so a hunter with no dog has the advantage of moving quietly. Hunt in stealth mode through productive cover looking for a grouse sneaking away from you or standing on a log trying to get a glimpse of you. Look under the low branches of spruce, pine, and balsam trees as well as 10 to 15 feet up the tree.
Pungent, wet dog smell and tangy gun cleaner are the inevitable consequences of a rainy-day hunt. But I like all of it; even the sticky, wet feathers of a rain-soaked bird.
Originally published in the Fall 2023 issue of Ontario OUT of DOORS
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