"Those previous two years they hung up in Koochiching County and northern Itasca County, and hunters I knew up there were telling me they were seeing woodcock everywhere," he said. "I wasn't seeing them at all. Then the wind changed direction and they blew right by me in two days and were gone. If you're not hunting your area in those two days, you don't see them.

"Last year it worked out perfect. We had some wind that brought them to me and then it switched to the south for about eight days and I was into woodcock everywhere I went."

As far as habitat, Horton explained that woodcock and grouse are prone to using some similar haunts.

"The habitat for both grouse and woodcock is very similar," he said. "The difference is that you find woodcock in cover that is younger than the grouse prefer. After a clearcut you see the woodcock move into this area seven or eight years after the cutting. Grouse won't move in until 10 or 11 years after the cutting. Grouse like their cover a little older than woodcock."

Remember that if you do decide to hunt woodcock, they are a migratory bird and you will need a HIP certification on your hunting license.

Both Horton and I laughed a lot when we swapped stories about the shots that were missed. I had to tell him about the two friends that came up from Iowa that had never hunted grouse before. They brought a pointing dog that was absolutely outstanding, which is unusual for a dog to make the transition from pheasants to grouse so quickly. When he pointed that first grouse early, I knew we might see enough birds to make it a good hunt. Six birds flushed by noon and neither of these two had connected. Since they were my guests I was holding back and not shooting. By midafternoon we had flushed three more and none had dropped, even though there was a lot of lead flying.

The boys were getting a bit tired, but the dog was working well, and when he went on point, I could see a grouse getting nervous as it paced under the cover of a small pine. There were two dead trees right at the edge of this pine, and when the grouse flushed, it flew almost straight up in the air right between these two dead trees and two guns started barking.

Dead branches were falling out of the air and dropping on my head. Wood chips were filtering down on a light breeze, and when that grouse was about 3 feet from the tops of the trees, it turned and flew behind us, crossed the road and landed in a patch of grass. I could see that every shot was way behind that bird.

I looked at the hunters and asked them if they wanted to backtrack and flush that grouse again. My old buddy Vern looked over at me, smiled and said, "That one deserves to live. My gun is empty. Let's go home."

As always, the grouse hunting will be good for those who find birds, and there will be some to shoot at again in 2005. The far northeast will likely produce tough hunts, but the part of the grouse cycle we're on this year tells us we should have it a bit better than last year.

The bottom line is, don't get in a rut and keep hunting spots where you're not seeing birds. Grouse habitat changes, and spots get cold while others heat up. Instead of hunting those old memories, try to create some new ones.