How To Digitally Scout For Woodcock And Ruffed Grouse

One of the most challenging—and rewarding—parts of ruffed grouse hunting is being able to look at large, seemingly similar swaths of forest and discover productive covers that hold birds. I got to experience this a few times last fall while hunting portions of Superior National Forest and various state and county lands in northeastern Minnesota. On one especially productive morning, two companions—Ben Brettingen and Kali Parmley—and I managed to bag five grouse and flush two others while walking through a mix of young aspens and various conifers.

While I won’t downplay the efforts of the two bird dogs we hunted over that morning, another tool had significantly contributed to our success: the onX Hunt app. Using this application, we’d digitally scouted the area, found some prime grouse habitat, crafted a plan and executed it successfully. And the beauty of this technology is that any hunter, anywhere with ruffed grouse and woodcock seasons, can do the same.

FIND BIRDS AND ACCESS

Step one is determining where to find birds. Even in states with exceptional hunting, birds—and good habitat—are not distributed equally. Nor are public lands. You must hunt where there’s a good population of birds, quality habitat and abundant public ground.

To start, Brettingen, onX Maps’ manager of hunt marketing, uses drumming counts, brood surveys and other state agency resources to help identify productive areas. He also sees how much rainfall a particular region received from mid-May to mid-June, during the hatch, and avoids areas that had lots of rain. Excessive rainfall then can negatively affect survival of younger birds, which often make up a large percentage of hunter-harvested grouse. During our own hunt this past fall, we moved south of our original hunting area, which received heavy rainfall in early summer, and wound up finding more birds.

After locating an area with ample grouse, Brettingen uses his computer to look for quantities of public lands via onX Hunt. The app’s private and government land layers easily display public areas and boundaries, while the Possible Access layer shows private lands that may offer public access. In grouse country, timber and paper companies and land conservation groups own most of the latter, with many actively logged and most allowing hunting. Always confirm this and obey any rules set in place, though. Michigan’s Commercial Forest Program layer and Wisconsin’s Forest Tax Law layer show similar privately owned forest properties that may allow public hunting. Again, confirm public access and follow the rules.

You also want enough accessible ground to support the number of days you’ll be hunting. Brettingen usually hunts two to three covers a day and likes having at least 15 spots planned out for a five-day hunt. Having more options isn’t a bad thing, though, in case a spot doesn’t pan out or someone’s already hunting it. You also want to avoid hitting an area multiple times during your hunt. And plan to spend a day or two on spots farther away from your original hunting area. On our hunt, if we hadn’t explored about 20 miles south after struggling the first day, things may never have turned around.

Beyond ample public lands, look for mixed ownership of lands. A smattering of national, state, county and private lands is ideal, as they’re often managed differently. Usually, national forests aren’t managed as actively as state, county and private forests. Grouse thrive in successional habitat, so active management is key. They also love diverse habitat, so a national forest’s mature trees abutting younger trees on state or county land, for example, could be great.

DRILL DOWN

Next, analyze the habitat on an area’s properties to pinpoint spots with potential. While some regions contain millions of acres of public land, you can’t hunt all of it, nor should you. Look for diverse habitat, which some call a “mosaic,” “patchwork” or “quilt” of habitat, using onX Hunt, a similar app or free satellite imagery tools, like Google Earth. Different types of environments should exist within a relatively small area, creating many edges and fulfilling most, if not all, of a ruffed grouse’s habitat needs. Think a younger stand of aspen trees adjacent a mature aspen forest interspersed with conifers, with a trail system running throughout and a tag alder swamp or a creek nearby. This area would have successional habitat, water, roosts, thermal cover and food sources to sustain birds all year.

Alternatively, avoid seas of similar age-class trees. A swath of national forest with mature trees may hold grouse, but a mix of age classes is better. As is having other types of trees and habitats, plus water (especially in the early season). And prioritize stands of trees, especially aspens, between 5 and 15 years old. (Woodcock like 3- to 10-year-old or younger trees, along with moist soils).

The Forest Disturbance and WI Game Bird layers, in Minnesota and Wisconsin, respectively, illustrate potential grouse and woodcock habitat in onX Hunt. The former (which we used extensively on our hunt) labels and color-codes timber cuts by year, while the latter shows likely grouse areas (highlighted a peach color) and woodcock spots (purple). OnX’s Timber Cuts, which shows logging activity on national forest land, Young Aspen Forests and Historic Wildfire layers also help reveal successional habitat.

Prime age cuts vary with soil quality and growing season, among other factors. Where we hunted in far northeastern Minnesota, we found birds in nearly 20-year-old cuts at times. In areas with good soil and longer growing seasons, prime age cuts likely skew younger.

Other states may have less available data on timber cuts. This is often true in Northeastern states, where Ruffed Grouse Society & American Woodcock Society Northeast Forest Conservation Director Todd Waldron lives and hunts. Waldron says that, generally, there are more working forests in northern New York, Vermont, New Hampshire and Maine. Without the plug-and-play layers, he suggests hunters rely on satellite imagery. He says you can still see patches of active timber harvesting and other disturbances, edges and the reverted farmlands and orchards that attract ruffed grouse in southern parts of the region.

When he views satellite imagery, Brettingen searches for smooth areas, which usually depict younger trees, amongst a sea of rougher, larger greens, or mature trees. He also looks for odd edges—a perfect turn or a straight line—which are unnatural and likely indicate a timber cut. Once he’s found a cut, he may plug the coordinates into Google Earth and use its Time Slider to view past imagery and see when the cut was made. In places where timber harvest info isn’t as available, this works well.

In onX Hunt, Coniferous and Deciduous Tree Distribution and Wetland layers also help show habitat diversity. Turning all on simultaneously may be distracting, though, so consider alternating between active layers, or activating them once you’ve focused on a specific spot. Lastly, turn on the Trails, Recreation Sites and Motorized Roads and Trails layers. A property or area can have great habitat, but if you can’t access it, or access is exceedingly challenging, it may not be worth the trip. Conversely, areas that are difficult—but not impossible—to access can be productive later in the season once easily accessible parcels have been hit hard.

PLAN YOUR HUNT

After finding a good-looking spot, drop waypoints and plan your hunt. Brettingen uses specific, color-coordinated icons to limit confusion. (OnX Hunt has 92 different icons and 10 different colors). He marks access points, parking areas (which he usually places off a main road to protect dogs), key areas to hunt, important trail junctions or turns and potential cutoff points if a walk is proving unproductive. He’ll also use the line distance tool to draw and measure a walking route that skirts the edges of desirable cover. Routes shouldn’t traverse the same ground twice or require lengthy walks through dead zones—unproductive cover—to reach areas you want to hunt. Distances should also be reasonable: not too far, not too short.

For areas you’ve only digitally scouted, Brettingen recommends using the default red color for icons to save time. After seeing the spot from the ground or hunting it, change the color based on observations or results. Use the colors you want, but know each’s meaning, and keep your process consistent.

Prioritize efficiency and time savings when planning hunts. Mark three to five spots, or covers, fairly close to each other to hunt one day to avoid spending hours traveling between spots. Don’t plan a lengthy drive just to hunt one cover.

Before heading out, also create and download offline maps to your phone through onX Hunt. Brettingen recommends first downloading a very large, low-resolution offline map that covers the entire range of areas you may hunt. This way, you’re never without customized maps in areas with poor—or no—cell coverage. He then suggests downloading a medium-resolution map that covers a smaller area, as well as several smaller, high-res maps for detailed looks at specific areas you wish to hunt. When saving offline maps, ensure every layer you want to see in the field is on, as you can’t activate them once in the woods. Any offline map created on a computer automatically populates in your phone app, but you still must download it. Do so somewhere with Wi-Fi or good cell signal, and ensure each offline map has a green checkmark by it, confirming its successful download.

EXECUTE AND ADAPT

Once in the field, Brettingen suggests fully shifting focus to execution. If you’ve planned your days and walking routes effectively, this should be easy. Walk the edges of key habitat you’ve identified, allowing dogs to work farther into the woods and cover more ground. If a bird flushes and you miss or can’t get a shot, note where it flies and follow to see if you luck into a second flush. Hunters without dogs should focus on trails and prime habitat edges, since they can’t cover as much ground. They should also walk slowly while looking and listening for moving or stationary grouse, and stop occasionally, as anxious grouse can flush during these pauses.

After hunting an area—either at the truck or later that evening—change the color of your icons. Use different colors for productive and unproductive spots. If you shoot a bird, look around and consider why it was there. You may discover a pattern you can apply to other areas. Similarly, as you begin cleaning birds, check their crops to see what they’ve been eating. Whether you see clover, hazel catkins or another food source, it can inform future hunting plans.

While hunting, turn on onX’s Tracker tool at each new spot. That and the app’s built-in compass mode can prevent getting lost in the thick cover that dominates the grouse woods. (Always carry a traditional backup compass, too). Lastly, if your vehicle has CarPlay, try running onX Hunt through it. This can help you quickly compare and learn what actual habitat looks like on the ground versus what it looks like in satellite images, and it makes navigating to your spots easier, too.

Pursuing grouse can humble anyone. Shots can be quick and difficult in and around thick cover, and the birds expertly use these obstacles to their advantage. With forests maturing and prime grouse covers constantly aging out, the scouting process never truly ends. But, the personal satisfaction of finding a good cover, putting in the miles to reach it and connecting on a difficult shot make it all worthwhile.

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• This article was featured in the September 2025 issue of Game & Fish magazine. Click to subscribe.

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