Alpine Upland Hunting

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Deleted member 67409

How successful is upland game hunting in the mountains of NH and Maine? I've kicked up partridge a few times in the piney alpine areas near mountains while hiking. Does anyone hunt these areas regularly and successfully?
 
How successful is upland game hunting in the mountains of NH and Maine? I've kicked up partridge a few times in the piney alpine areas near mountains while hiking. Does anyone hunt these areas regularly and successfully?
If you've kicked up a few partridge on an area....and it's legal to hunt there......that's all the info you need. Hunt it. Partridge (aka grouse) don't move around too much
.....if they are there......they stay there.
 
If you find good grouse and woodcock cover, its generally good year to year. Which is a blessing and a curse, cause some spots get overhunted.

Mark these places where you flush birds on the gps or map.

As far as hunting its year to year, some years like this one, have a wet spring, and eggs/chicks don't do well in wet/cold/damp late spring.
So that year and some of the following years will be not as good.

I have lots of vacation this year and my plan is to go up into Northern NH or Maine with the dog for a few days. Ill likely do NH, because I don't like Maine and it's wardens, and I already buy a NH hunting lisc for rifle. Grouse production here in MA is really bad, I'm lucky to flush one a year and I hunt a lot.
 
Grouse production here in MA is really bad, I'm lucky to flush one a year and I hunt a lot.

I think that the grouse production in Mass has been on the upswing the last year or so. I’ve seen multiple dead grouse on 91 the last year or so. Before that I haven’t seen one in many many years.

I stopped hunting them many years ago. You can’t hunt what isn’t there.

Bob
 
We've hunted western and northern maine for grouse and woodcock for years. Here are a couple more opinions.
The mountain terrain and spruce give birds distinct advantages when hunted with pointing dogs. They don't wait around under a good dog's point when they can glide down, or make a short flight to more cover to safety, and burn so little energy. Your legs and your dogs will last longer if you go down to flatter topo. Look for beech and streams.

Regardless of terrain, i think when the population is such that - to see several birds in a day requires driving miles of roads for hours, the population is too low to hunt. Not fair to the dogs or man.

I wouldn't shoot a grouse in Mass. But i had a grouse in two places i sit for deer in Ma for the last couple years. Like clockwork. They flush loudly going up and down from cedar trees like they're PO'd I'm there.

good luck!
 
I think that the grouse production in Mass has been on the upswing the last year or so. I’ve seen multiple dead grouse on 91 the last year or so. Before that I haven’t seen one in many many years.

I stopped hunting them many years ago. You can’t hunt what isn’t there.

Bob

Ive seen a few on the roads myself.

I dont shoot grouse in MA either.
 
With a good dog and the right location, they are not rare. When I was hunting hard, we would take at least one grouse per hunt. That does not count the ones we missed. :(
In maine when I hunt up there we see a dozen or more for every mile of dirt road we drive down. I don't road hunt them like the Main hunters do.......just telling you they are EVERYWHERE on the logging roads up north central maine based on my trips up and down those roads to get to hunting spots. I don't expect them to be that prevalent to consider them not rare.....but......

You'll NEVER see numbers like that in mass.
 
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I'm surprised mass has a season on them they have been so rare.

I really don't think they should anymore or severely limit it to a shorter season.

That said, I dont target them anymore, I generally go for pheasant, and alot of times the grouse are just absent from pheasant cover because of the pressure year to year.

I usually move one or two grouse a year now. But back when I started pheasant hunting in the 80's I'd move 4-5 a day in the same covers.

Add to that, when I walked in the dark bowhunting, I'd move a few almost every time walking in. Believe me, you remember when they flush in the dark, its a Fxck, that thing scared the shxt out of me moment. So, I would recall the area, then kinda be ready the next time.
Now, I nearly never run across one walking in the dark.
 
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