Grouse Report - Sandilands, Manitoba

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Pharic.270

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I have been scouting for the past week and a half (since fire ban was over), at all times of day (early morning to late morning, afternoon, evening to dark)... And today grouse opened... Well my scouting showed no signs of grouse and my hunt also came up empty today.

My findings for the last couple of weeks:

- Little to no activity amongst the smaller creatures of the forest
- Lots of coyote poop, with lots of tracks
- ALOT of dried up watering holes, swamps and ditches
- And not very much deer activity, actually haven't even seen a single deer in the past two weeks, including road killed deer (on #1, 302, 12, 52, 210)...

My trail cam on my property, still only has the one doe and fawn, picture taken a couple of weeks back. The previous years I have had multiple bucks and countless does.... My grouse season was wonderful last year where I never came up empty, always came home with at least one grouse (usually 3 to 4 with one time maxing out) or a rabbit or two...

Looks like the bad winter we had and then this very dry summer has done a number on the animals out here (GHA 35).

Hope this helps some of you guys....
 
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Wow. I hunt near there and my first two days doing spot and stalk on whitetails I got within 30 yards of five deer. Twice I snuck up on two does and the third just a single doe. No bucks but still deer. That was a grand total of three hours of actual hunting. Amazing how close you can get with some scent killer and being quiet. It's also really hard to see them close in the bush when you aren't walking.

On my 72 acres of personal hunting land I spooked six grouse setting up my treestands.

It doesn't seem like a crazy year for grouse. But deer in my area are still the same.
 
I'm on the West side of Sandilands, usually hunt off of road 54 and 60 (also 64 for deer). I'm use to seeing way more my way. You must have a decent water source by you.
 
LOL that is too funny... The road hunters... I like to take my big LOUD diesel work truck down the road at 10 Km/hr and blipping the throttle on a weekend just to piss those guys off. You should see the dirty looks I get.... There are some really nice spots which are no where NEAR the roads if you are willing to put the time and travel in....
 
I hunted in Sandilands last fall and saw lots of them. One guy got mad at us because when spooked his deer while passing him on the road. He was stopped and was trying to take aim with his rifle rested on the passenger window frame. All this at least an hour before legal hunting time.
 
I usually hunt grouse down the trails off the East Braintree Rd. Haven't had a chance to scout down there this year but it's just too hot and there's too much foliage still. Once I get back from moose hunting and some leaves are down I'll probably get a little more serious. Hope by then that some birds are showing.
 
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