Minnesota Grouse Call Kooch Home

​Minnesota offers some of the best grouse hunting in the country with 11 million acres of public hunting land, 528 designated hunting areas in the ruffed grouse range covering nearly 1 million acres, more than 40 designated ruffed grouse management areas and 600 miles of hunter walking trails.
Koochiching Country and the area surrounding Rainy Lake is one of the few places where all three of the state’s native grouse species reside. Sharp-tailed, ruffed and spruce grouse are all plentiful here, making hunters’ chances of success high: even in down years of the grouse population's cycle, Kooch forests and fields fairly hum with grouse activity.

Ruffed GrousE

• Ruffed grouse habitat includes forests from southeastern to northwestern Minnesota, putting Kooch and Rainy right in the thick of it. Look for the birds among aspen forests, alder lowlands and patches of gray dogwood.
• The ruffed grouse’s spring mating ritual sounds like the beating of a distant drum, caused by the male compressing air beneath its wings in hopes of attracting a female.
  
• Although the cause is unknown, ruffed grouse populations rise and fall at intervals of about 10 years. 

Sharp-tailed Grouse

• Sharp-tails prefer open grassy or brushland areas and are not fond of trees. In fact, if trees begin to grow in their habitat, they will abandon the area. As Minnesota's grasslands and brushlands have disappeared, so have sharp-tailed grouse, whose range is now restricted to northwestern and east-central Minnesota.
• Male grouse gather in groups of up to 25 each spring to perform a courtship dance. The grassy dance floor, called a lek, will be used each year if the habitat remains unchanged.

Spruce GrousE

• As the name implies, this dark colored grouse prefers spruce forests, which in Minnesota, are found only in the northern-most part.
• Because of this limited habitat area, the spruce grouse population is smaller than the ruffed grouse.
• Also known as fool's hen and fool's grouse, spruce grouse aren't afraid of people. 

According to DNR records, Minnesota hunters annually harvest about 10,000 to 20,000 spruce grouse and an average of 500,000 ruffed grouse. In addition to a sturdy pair of waterproof boots, a blaze orange hat and vest and a shotgun, all you need to hunt grouse in Minnesota is a valid small game license. Check the DNR website for season information.