2023 Season Update

The season has been excellent with large numbers of grouse and woodcock flushes providing some good shooting opportunities. Even though the drumming count was down 9%, cool dry spring weather made excellent conditions for the young poults to grow into adult birds.

Late October with the leaves falling and high hunting pressure, the birds became a little skittish flushing at long distances in front of the dogs. More hunting as the season ends January 9th 2024.

2022 Year End Results

It was a great 2022 year grouse and woodcock hunting. We had several hundred grouse and woodcock pointed providing excellent shooting opportunities. The weather cooperated and all our hunts were exciting and rewarding. Looking forward to 2023 and expanding our hunting territory for new cover and birds.

2022 Season

Looking forward to this up coming season. My top dog Rebel passed away due to kidney failure. I trialed several dogs and could not find the top grouse dog until later last year. Fortunately I located a great top bread english setter from a gentleman from Tennessee. She’s a nice little English Setter who is a joy to hunt behind. Great grouse dog who finds and holds lots of birds. You will enjoy hunting with her. Look forward to an outstanding season.

UP Michigan Hunt

Hunted the UP of Michigan for 7 days. The weather was excessively hot and took extra care to make sure the dogs had plenty of water. Some young dog work was on the schedule and the birds cooperated holding tight. After a lot of brush busting the young German Shorthair was doing phenomenal. Several grouse and woodies killed solidifying his skillset as a topnotch grouse dog.

10/2/21

Grouse and Woodcock season early this season has been great. Seeing a lot of young grouse that are holding tight allowing some good shooting. Woodcock are in good numbers given the hot dry weather. I expect to see more migrate as the weather improves. The dogs are not handling the heat so well as the temperatures are in the 80 degree + range. Lots of water and breaks have made hunting in these conditions acceptable.

2020 Results of Hunting First Week of Wisconsin Ruffed Grouse Season

  • Opening day of Ruffed Grouse season in Central Wisconsin was off to a bang.

Hunted in the rain all day soaking wet, but the results were spectacular. Several grouse and woodcock were pointed. Since Woodcock season is still out ….no shots taken.

However the Ruffed Grouse were cooperating and provided a lot of shooting opportunities. Three kills for the day in heavy brush was more than expected. The dog work was excellent even in the driving rain. Should have been duck hunting but couldn’t miss our favorite game bird … Ruffed Grouse.

I feel the grouse numbers are up this year and my 1st week of hunting supports that initial forecast.

Additionally talking with some hunting guides in Michigan they too are reporting good numbers.

So if you’re looking for a guided Ruffed Grouse hunt close to the Chicago land area … give me a call. No need to drive 6 to 7 hours to get into some great Ruffed Grouse hunting. Only 3 hours away.

Good Hunting,

High Point Hunts LLC,

Tom

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2020 Season forecast - Good News

Just returned from Northern Wisconsin and the UP of Michigan. Spent several days scouting for new hunting spots and running the dogs.

I was verifying ruffed grouse populations vs relying on the DNR to provide guidance. Sometimes they are late with their predictions and have found the data not as accurate as mine.

As all great Grouse Hunting Guides do, they always look for sign and listen for drumming to verify the hunting opprtunites for their clients. Additionally I am looking for new cuts and logging sections that will hold birds this coming fall.

Good news is that I heard more drumming than I have in the past several years !!! Every morning I heard birds all around the woods. The weather has cooperated and hopefully the hatch will be good as well.

I will continue to verify and keep all updated on how the season looks

Good Hunting,

High Point Hunts LLC,

Tom

2019 Season Recap

Hi All Hunters looking for Wisconsin grouse hunting guides. 

2019 was a great year for Wisconsin grouse hunting guides. High Point Hunts was no exception, as we had a great  year getting into Ruffed Grouse and woodcock  providing our  clients great hunts and good shooting opportunities.   Bird populations were up and the dog work spectacular. Even though the weather was not always cooperating,  birds were holding tight and the dogs had ample scent to work with early in the season. As the leaves began to fall, the birds became a little more skittish requiring shifting strategies and excellent dog work. We were pointing birds and killing birds while other hunters were not even seeing birds.  With hundreds of dog points, we were able to provide some wonderful hunting shots and excellent hunts. Most of the time the birds were in heavy aspen cuts feeding on buds and green vegetation. For some of the younger hunters who were out, we had a wonderful time teaching the ethics of sportsmanship, good  gun handling, and how to handle a bird dog.. As Wisconsin grouse hunting guides learn from their experiences, High Point Hunts has always enjoyed sharing  Wisconsin grouse hunting guides tips and locations to find grouse. We enjoy sharing our wisdom and bird knowledge with the youth who are the next generation to carry on the tradition. For some of the senior hunters, we were able to get into some birds that allowed good shooting and great dog work that will be remembered for a lifetime. Most checked off their Wisconsin grouse hunting guides bucket list with High Point Hunts . We hunted  all over central and northern regions of Wisconsin. As Wisconsin grouse hunting guides will boast of their locations of number of birds killed, High Point Hunts was locating grouse and woodcock as the bird populations in each state and local patch of woods. Unfortunately the season was cut short in Wisconsin due to the West Nile Virus  making its presence.. As Wisconsin Grouse hunting Guides will attest, the birds we’ve seen have not been affected but we are always on the lookout to report hotspots.  We here at High Point Hunts look forward to a 2020 season and hope you will join us as your grouse hunting guide for this year.   … Good Hunting

2018 Recap

Grouse Hunting Wisconsin for the season was unfortunately cut short this past year. The Wisconsin DNR made a difficult decision early in the season as there were concerns of west nile virus killing birds. 


I hunted all season and did not see one troubled  bird, but there could have been areas where this dreaded disease populated.   

I generally hunt all the way through to the end of January 31 providing ample grouse hunting Wisconsin opportunities for the average hunter. 

Durning this year of a shot season, required hunting jumping around and hitting a lot different areas where grouse hunting Wisconsin is good.   

My season included running my dog down logging roads and hitting a wide cast of dog power. When my English Setter settled on a point I would slip out of my truck and see what he had pointed. If there was a grouse I would then pull over and begin hunting that area.  

My most productive areas were from this type of searches as it allowed me to locate grouse where you would not typically find birds. The key to this type hunting is first to have a dog that handles well and can run over 30 miles in a hunt.  

It takes a special breed to enable this jumping around. 

I found grouse hunting Wisconsin to be more of a challenge this year. The birds were spotty and in pockets requiring hunt and move. Several areas I found this past  year I would have never dreamed a bird would be there. I suppose that these new areas located were not pressured as aspen / popular cuts posted on several websites. 

Additionally the weather played a lot of results as I found that sunny days tended to produce more birds on the ground and provided shooter opportunities. Windy cloudy days would drive the Grouse into the trees and produce more unproductive points and fewer shooters. 

So I would encourage all grouse hunting Wisconsin to be patient and look forward to another year. Hopefully there will be a good hatch and the birds will bounce back.