Hi team!
I hope this post finds you well and that everyone is transitioning post Halloween and dialed in on the upcoming holiday season.
I am currently up to my eyeballs in work at the Sioux Falls HQ having spent the past two weeks on the road with my pop up show at Fine & Dandy Archives in NYC (www.fineanddandyshop.com) immediatly followed by my three day Grouse hunt at Pine Ridge Grouse Camp in Remer, MN.
My current priority is getting merchandise out for the holiday season, as well as dedicating time to establishing our new partnership with W.C. Russell Moccasin Co (more in the next blog on this exciting development!). However, I wanted to provide a brief summary of my Grouse hunt before my memory of it becomes pureed in the holiday season blur.
Location:
Pine Ridge Grouse Camp, Remer, MN
Remer is located 3 hours north of Minneapolis-St. Paul in northern Minnesota. I made the trip by driving from my home in Sioux Falls, South Dakota, about 6.5 hours away.
Pine Ridge is a Havel family affair, evolving from what was originally their family hunting camp into a family business. The camp is run as if everyone who comes through the door is adopted into the family. Jerry and Brenda Havel, who are the “bosses” of Pine Ridge, are more like defacto “parents” and both work hard to promote an ethos that is centered on low key casual comfort. They also endeavor to enlist the patronage of hunters who fit their ethos and appreciate their vision of what a grouse camp should be.
Preparation:
I am typically very dedicated to researching locations and learning as much as possible before I arrive at a hunt, but due to my hectic October schedule, I had only performed the bare minimum of background research, which was locating the camp on a map. Sadly, the lovely Lady Nidderdale was called away to attend to a last minute overseas work assignment which left me flying solo.
Gear:
No shocker that I am heavily into vintage gear, so my bag was packed with mostly older items including 1930’s Sears hunting breeches, a 1940’s Sears duck cloth hunting jacket with corduroy collar, a Holland & Holland wool lined shooting vest, a WW 2 era US Army wool shirt, a 1980s US Army wool sweater, Ice Breaker merino wool long sleeve undershirt, a pair of vintage Abercrombie and Fitch leather front briar pants, a pair of vintage Game Hide briar pants, a vintage Abercrombie and Fitch red shooting shirt with a leather shooting shoulder patch, and my 1970’s Russell Moccasin Imperial Boots. I went modern with my socks, which were thick Red Head type hiking socks and my belt was my Albany belt from Winn Hines Leather complimented by my WWI Imperial German Army field belt.
Layering was important, as the temperatures each day in the field reached over 65f. I was fortunate to have brought a wide assortment of clothing so I could adjust to the unseasonably warm temps.
Gun:
Caesar Guerini Magnus 20ga O/U choked to 1/2 and 3/4, shooting mostly Fiocchi #6 shot.
Accommodations:
All inclusive is the bill of fare at Pine Ridge, but the facility is not a “fancy camp” by a long shot. Camp life is 100% centered around hunting as the primary pursuit. My small clean comfortable cabin had two single beds and a portable heater. Essentially, it was a place to store my gear, stay warm, and sleep. Fine by me.
All social activities take place in the main camp hall which holds the bar and dining facilities and where a large fire pit is located just to the rear. Socializing with other hunters is a requirement at Pine Ridge, where the bourbon fueled banter shifts into high gear around the post dinner camp fire.
The food is solid fare that matches the vibe of the place, simple, good, and filling. Breakfast and dinner are in the main camp hall with lunch being taken in the field. The lightly breaded walleye was a particular standout. I also tried my first pickled herring, which I was surprised to discover, I liked quite a bit.
The bar is open, and guests access it liberally.
Pine Ridge can essentially supply almost everything you need to hunt, including guns and ammo. Bring yourself, your clothes, a good attitude, and you are good to go.
Hunting:
Grouse hunting at Pine Ridge was unlike any type of bird hunting I have ever encountered. It was by far the most challenging I have experienced on several levels.
In actuality, there were 3 birds we pursued on our hunt, Ruffed Grouse, American Woodcock, and Snipe. During my three days in the field, I bagged at least one of each. All birds are 100% wild. No pen raised floppy birds here! Trust me when I say that on all three days, I felt lucky to have shot anything at all.
Each day begins in the main lodge hall with 07:30 breakfast and an assignment of hunters to guides. After breakfast, guides load up the dogs and hunters, and then everyone heads out to the woods for the day. No area I shot was more than 30 minutes drive from camp and mostly on public lands.
I was out each day with a different guide, each using an assortment of dogs (in my case mostly Gordon Setters) in a combination of single dogs and pairs. Hunting begins around 8:30 and lasts till around 17:00 with a short break in the field for lunch. In total, about 8 hours stomping through the woods each day. Whew!
So what makes this hunting so challenging?
The Quarry: All the birds break very fast, offering a hunter no more than two seconds to locate the target and get off a shot. On the majority of flushed birds, a hunter won’t have an opportunity to take a shot due to the challenges of distance and the innumerable trees blocking a clear view of the bird. On my first day, we flushed 41 grouse, and I had a clear shot at about 5, taking 2. Rarely does one see a bird from the point of flush, only catching a quick flash of feathers once the grouse rises above the small aspen. It took me the entire first morning to break the habit of watching the ground for a flush and to instead direct my eyes out, head level in front of me, during a point. I found that I was losing at least a second on each flush while focused on the ground. It didn’t take too long to realize this habit carried over from quail and pheasant country was self defeating. Take my advice, don't do that!
The Terrain: The wooded terrain is very dense, typically with hundreds of small aspens surrounding a hunter, with small limbs smacking one in the face at any given time, making line of sight difficult to establish. Cedar swamps are occasionally encountered, each possessing an amazing green primordial silvan combination of moss and decay. Despite their beauty, these swamps contain countless blown down cedars with criss crossed trunks one must navigate. In one such swap, me and my day 3 guide, Kyle, stumbled on a black bear in his lair, hidden in a large hollow created under a fallen cedar. Our dog was attempting to locate a downed bird when he found the bear instead. Needless to say, we forgot about the bird and vacated the bear zone! Yikes!
Bad Footing: The footing is difficult due to the forest floor being littered with countless fallen limbs and blown down trees one must continually crawl over, under, and around. While moving quickly up to the point, keeping one’s footing through the underbrush can be difficult. If one is caught off balance, carefully picking a way through the trip hazards when birds flush, catching up to the flush for a decent shot is virtually impossible.
Fatigue: On an average day we walked 6-10 miles through this challenging terrain, leaving all but the most in shape hunter at a maximum level of exertion. Falling is a real concern and everyone face plants a few times, even the guides, as a result of the combination of tricky footing and tired, leaden legs. In short, wobbling along, fatigued, in a perpetual state of unbalance, makes taking an accurate shot…difficult.
The weather during my hunt was exceedingly warm for late October, so I was ringing wet with sweat most days. My legs ached and my feet were sore at the end of each day. Bottom line…it was tough.
Not that numbers matter to me, but the miles/total birds…I walked about 25 miles over the course of 24 total hours spent in the field. I shot 1 snipe, 3 grouse, 5 woodcock…
I can’t wait to go back!
Many thanks to Jerry, Brenda, Stephen, Debbie, and Kyle for making my visit a great one.
More info on Pine Ridge Grouse Camp can be found on their website at www.pineridgegrousecamp.com
Good read!