Grouse Hunting

Start your own tradition of Minnesota grouse hunting at Back O’ The Moon Resort. Minnesota is the top ruffed grouse-producing state in the U.S. No other state harvests as many ruffed grouse each fall or provides as much public hunting land containing ruffed grouse.  We’re located in the heart of Ruffed Grouse country, and year after year successful hunts are the norm at the resort.

The ruffed grouse is a native woodland bird about the size of a small chicken. The bird is noted for its fan-shaped tail marked by a broad, dark band. Some ruffed grouse–called red-phased birds–have chestnut-colored tails, and the gray-phased birds have gray or slate-colored tails. The bird also has a concealed neck ruff that the male puffs out during courtship displays.

Male ruffed grouse make a well-known drumming noise that sounds similar to a distant lawnmower engine. He drums by beating his wings in the air, starting slowly as a series of thumps, and then, as beating speeds up, the sound resembles a drum or engine. The drumming occurs on logs, boulders, tree roots, or other elevated sites known as “drumming logs.”