5 tips for hunting ruffed grouse (partridge)
 Grouse hunting is an exciting and interactive experience for hunters of all skill levels. Grouse can be hunted with a Big Game or Small Game Hunting License, and no additional permits are required.
This year, grouse hunting season runs from September 30, 2023 to December 30, 2023, with a daily bag limit of 4 grouse for all Wildlife Management Districts (WMDs). This gives you plenty of time to sharpen your shooting skills and enjoy Maine's great outdoors. Make sure to review Maine's current hunting lawbook before you head out. You can even save it as a PDF on your phone to reference in the field!
Ruffed grouse can be found throughout Maine in cover types of hardwood, softwood, old fields, and orchards. Approximately 27,690 square miles of Maine is forest land and is considered grouse habitat.
Here are five tips to help you on your grouse hunt this fall!
Ruffed grouse may be active all day, but they are more actively feeding in the morning or shortly before sunset.?They are not active during the night, except males may drum during the night, particularly on moonlit nights.
Ruffed grouse are omnivorous; they eat green leaves, fruits, and some insects. During winter, when snow covers the ground, they live almost exclusively on the dormant flower buds or catkins of aspens, birches, and cherries. Aspen is generally regarded as the most important single year-round food for ruffed grouse in Maine.?
Getting off the road and taking a walk in the woods can present more opportunity to spot grouse. Look, listen, and watch your step! Grouse and woodcock will often wait until the last moment to flush.?Take it slow, whether you're hunting with a dog, or not. Work through cover or along trails and edge habitat and continually look ahead for shooting lanes as you go. Woodcock prefer moist young forests and dense cover.?Slow down and focus on slight movements. Listen for increasingly frequent ?chirping? which can indicate an alerted grouse ready to flush from cover.?
As with any form of hunting, practice is key! Stop into your local rod and gun club and practice with sporting clays, trap, skeet, or other clay?target sports to be in top form. Even a backyard thrower will help improve your aerial shooting skills!
While a?12-gauge shotgun is a good choice, don't overlook using a?20-gauge or even a 28-gauge shotgun with #7 ? or #8 shot loads.? Find a shooting range?near you that allows skeet shooting.
If you're looking for even more hands on opportunities to improve, check out our Next Steps Programs?offered around the state.?Programs are designed for first timers as well as those eager to bring their skills to the next level.
We encourage bird hunters to wear hunter orange at all times. When hunting ruffed grouse with a firearm during the firearms hunting season on deer (including youth days) or muzzleloader season on deer, two articles of orange is required; one article of orange is required within an open moose hunting district during moose hunting season.
When hunting with a partner, ALWAYS have a plan: Know your zones of safe shooting for both of you at all times and stay in visual contact at all times.
Ruffed grouse are abundant throughout Maine, but their density varies across the state.?The highest densities occur in the transitional zone between the "big woods" and more developed areas of the state.
When it come to hunting, you have two options - you can hunt on private land with landowner permission or public land. MDIFW has?69 Wildlife Management Areas (WMAs)?(WMAs), equaling over 110,000 acres of public land available to hunters.?These areas provide opportunities for public recreation, including hunting.? They also allow the state to protect and enhance important wildlife habitats.
All MDIFW-owned Wildlife Management Areas (WMA),?except Swan Island and portions of Steep Falls and Killick Pond WMA, are open for general-law hunting and trapping.
IMPORTANT - Make sure you can tell the difference between the ruffed grouse and the spruce grouse. There is currently no open season on spruce grouse. If you make a mistake, be an ethical hunter and contact your local game warden.
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