Early winter ruffed grouse / bear ?

[wolc123]

I am headed back up to the nw corner of the Adirondack park this weekend for a couple nights.  Usually that trip is over the long Thanksgiving weekend, but that didn’t pan out this year for various reasons.  
 

I ended up filling my buck tag at home then, so there will be no deer hunting for me on this trip.  My plan is to stay up late visiting with the in-laws Friday night, then sleep in until it warms up to about 32 outside.  
 

I am bringing my 16 gauge J Stevens Springfield side by side, a box of 7-1/2 shot, and a few Remington sluggers (in case I run into any bear sign but I expect them to be hibernated).   
 

After it warms up, I am going to walk up to the ridge top where I killed a doe in mid October.  There were lots of grouse there  then.  One was drumming about 15 yards away and I contemplated a head shot with my ML.   Hopefully, I will run into that one, or it’s friends, this weekend when I am a little more appropriately armed.

It has been about 10 years since I have been blessed with a grouse, and they are by far my favorite bird to eat.  

 

Edited December 3, 2021 by wolc123

[wolc123]

13 minutes ago, wolc123 said:

I hunted for bear and grouse pretty hard yesterday, with no signs of either, but did see some deer.  Those are off limits for me, because my buck tag is on one hanging at home in our garage.  It is supposed to get warm tomorrow, so we are heading back to WNY early, to get it processed and into the freezer.

It was a short, but enjoyable trip.  The local deer population certainly looks healthy.  We brought up some barn wood for my father-in-law’s winter projects and I got a snowplow working on his new tractor.  My wife helped her mom at craft sale in Star Lake yesterday. 
 

I would love to come back up here next weekend and try for an Adirondack buck or doe with my ML (I still have that either/or tag) but I will be stuck at home, chasing 3 antlerless deer with my shotgun and my last 3 9F dmp tags.

This picture is a scrape I found yesterday, along a heavily used  deer trail, prior to 3” of fresh snowfall.  There was bushels of deer scat on about 50 yards of that trail. 
It might be tougher to come back without a buck than to come back with one, with the conditions out there today. 

 

 

Trip summary

Edited December 5, 2021 by wolc123