My 17 year-old son and I went out hunting this morning. It was the opening of small game season, ruffed grouse, rabbits, squirrels.
We call it "Grouse Season" at our house. He took his J.C. Higgins 12 gauge pump (a buy at $89 when he was 12). I carried my OU 20 gauge, a not too fancy Italian job that I've had since before my son was born. Also had a Smith 649 .38 Special in a pocket holster, as usual.

I've been going to the same place on opening day for a lot of years.
It has woods with pines, aspens, maples and a few oaks. A creek runs down the middle of the area and there are a lot of old two track roads left from mining, logging and farming years ago.
The upper part of the area has restricted access/no hunting these days but there's a lot of territory left.

We went there today. No grouse showed up but we saw a flock of 60-80 geese fly over, and a smaller flock later. We also saw a few crows, and a mature bald eagle. We saw the eagle two weeks ago on a scouting trip too. We had the place to ourselves this morning. After work more folks will probably be out there and we may go somewhere else.

My older son quit hunting some years ago and lives out of state now.
I miss hunting with both sons, but my younger son and I always have fun in the woods even if we don't jump grouse. The season has started and I am smiling.

Sounds like a nice time. Hard to forget Sept. 15 and Nov. 15. The UP is beautiful country. Home of da yoopers!

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Misty

Great clear blue skies here today too. Just a little hotter than I would have liked.

You're killing me. I'm a native born Michigan grouse hunter, now located in the south. I'd kick off the year's hunting season with a weeks camping in the north woods starting 1 October, splitting the hunt between archery deer and grouse. I'm 62 now and looking back, I'd say it was the best time of my life.

That sounds like a great day!! Any day in the woods with my sons make me smile also. 2 more weeks and pheasant season opens here. I can't wait and my sons are counting down the days!

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Dom

My son is old enough to hunt on his own now.
Tonight, he's out in the same area we hunted this morning with a friend.
He decided to carry a single-shot 20 gauge tonight instead of his pump 12.

We may go out again tomorrow for a while.

I'm jealous. There's little better time to be in the north woods than grouse season, especially if it coincides with the woodcock migration. A little early for leaves down, isn't it?

Some folks here won't hunt grouse till October because they want the leaves down. We start the first day of the season even though there are a lot of leaves still on the trees.

I've killed grouse on opening day before so I always figure I could again.
Quite often it is hot and all we see are flickers and chipmunks. We are out hunting, however, and that's what matters.

My son and I went out again this afternoon for two hours.

We parked the truck intending to walk a woods road. Instead, he headed off into the thick stuff to the left of where we parked. He had decided to come out when he heard movement so kept on battling the brush. Shortly, he flushed a grouse. It flew off to his left and he fired at it and missed. "It was a pretty small one," he said. He also told me that the shot was something like one he usually makes in trap, but with more brush in the way.

After another couple of detours we walked a couple of small two-tracks. My son usually went 20 or 30 yards off in the brush and paralleled me. He's jumped birds out to me doing this and I sent one his way last fall and he knocked it down with one shot. It was his first grouse.
It didn't work today but probably will later.

Before going home we walked a short trail near a creek. He was down near the water when a grouse flushed up near me. If we'd just kept walking we might have had a shot. He went into the trees and stomped around but didn't flush the bird again.
We heard three other shots in the area while we were there but met no other hunters.

It was a good second day of the season.

Don't forget Fall turkey hunting in Michigan!

Our grouse season doesn't open until this coming weekend, but with conpany here, I'll have to wait. Maybe I can get out for a bit on Monday. I don't go back to work until Monday night.

Fall is the best time of year!

i have never hunted with my father, fished but not hunted, you are a lucky man. I had to find some other men to take me under their wing and show me.
I have been for pheasants the last few years and doves . i missed the PRK dove season this year 9/1-9/15. opens again 11-14 thru 12-28. really tough finding good publicy accessable land.

i plan to take my son hunting as soon as hes old enough. (turns 1 year and 4 months tomorrow)

My son got the first grouse of the season this evening. We went out without much time and only hunted for an hour.
He was walking a side trail off of a bush road and bumped into it.
We had flushed one earlier but, due to heavy brush, neither of us saw it.

The grouse is cleaned and in the freezer waiting for Thanksgiving when we try to have wild game on the table.

My wife came along and picked blackberries while we hunted. Then my son and I fished for trout for a while while my wife picked. The trout in the pond we hunted around, and fished in, were jumping out of the water after bugs. Some were just coming up to the surface and picking bugs off of it leaving a boil in the water that was impressive. I tried to attract those using a spoon that was green with yellow dots on it. My son used a Dardevle imitation in red and white. He got one bite, I got zip.

My wife had put a chicken in the oven before we left and it was just ready to eat when we got back. It was a fine evening in the U.P.