Grouse Hunt

In a lifetime spent outdoors, I only recently spotted my first ruffed grouse. He was a brown-phase bird and just beautiful. In my part of the Cascades, we have plenty of blue grouse, but very few ruffs (I would have bet that we didn't have any), and so I just couldn't shoot him. But now I am very interested in learning where I might locate healthy populations that would warrant a hunt. Is anyone willing to direct me to some good, public ruffed grouse country in the southern part of the state, or in northern California? Thank you in advance.

LAST EDITED ON Nov-11-13 AT 04:57PM (MST)[p]What I have observed about the ruffed grouse is that they are very up and down. Some years there will be dozens in a given area and one or two years later you may not see even one. As far as location, I have seen very few south of Grant County but I would imagine that there may be some around Lakeview or Klamath Falls (not the towns but in that area) I have always seen ruffs at 4500-6000 feet and almost always within 1/2 mile of a creek or a spring. They seem to like semi-open canopies so areas with big trees and small trees together along with open areas and strips or patches of dense trees for cover, I've rarely seen them in areas that have vast areas of large trees or dense medium trees, they like to find cover there but they seem to feed in areas with a broken canopy. It seems that the Blues are higher in elevation and like denser canopy than the Ruffs. To find some areas where they may be, I would drive roads in the last 1-2 hours of daylight. If there are good populations of grouse, you will likely see one or two along the road and then you can maybe do some hiking in that area to see what you can find. Sorry I don't have any specifics for your area but hopefully that helps a little.

LAST EDITED ON Nov-11-13 AT 10:39PM (MST)[p]
Thanks, bonepicker. You have just doubled what I know about these birds. The individual that I saw was at 2000 feet elevation and in a thinned manzanita, ponderosa pine and black oak woodland at least 1 mile from the nearest stream. Not at all what I expected!

I believe i've seen them in the Heppner Unit. but not further south

I say "I Believe" because i am not the best on identifying seperate species.

Elk hunting early morning, a little bit of mist coming off the ground, and one flies up from under your feet and sounds like a helicopter going off.

talk about a heart attack

LAST EDITED ON Nov-12-13 AT 09:25PM (MST)[p]Thanks, elkliver. Under the circumstances, it might have been difficult to identify the species. If it flew into the trunk of a tree and broke its own neck it was a blue, I suppose; otherwise, a ruff?

Interesting differences between the westside and eastside behavior patterns!

I have killed ruffed as far south as the diamond lake area, many one year west of Eugene. I remember seeing them in the rogue unit and sixes. Just seen some blues east of lakeview. No ruffed. Pretty common just very few in some areas. I have even saw some in lapine---------------------------------------------------------------------------------support your local guzzlers. OHA life member,lapine oregon

Blues seem to fly off about 50 yards and land in a tree. Or you see them hanging out along the gravel road. And i 've seen them in just about every unit in Oregon i've hunted

The Heppner/heart attacks were definitley Ruffed