November 2023 • Nebraskaland 35
but they will be hard to get close to. Areas that are ungrazed,
grazed early in the season so that the grass has recovered,
or lightly grazed areas tend to be good places to look for
prairie grouse. Talking to land managers — be it the ranchers,
federal or state land managers — can be a good start in
fi guring out where to hunt. Vegetation height also seems to
be important to grouse. They tend to avoid uniformly short,
ankle-high, and uniformly tall, waist-high vegetation, with
a preference for heights in the mid-shin to knee-high range.
Taller vegetation may be used if there is a lot of shorter cover
mixed throughout.
How much work is required to bag a grouse in the
Sandhills? How's the terrain for hiking?
Generally, a hunter should be prepared to do some walking
to bag prairie grouse in the Sandhills. If grouse numbers are
good and you are in the right habitat, a limit of three birds
in two to three hours of walking is reasonable. If grouse
numbers are down, bagging one grouse in that amount of
time would be a success.
How you cover the ground can make a diff erence as well;
taking more time to thoroughly walk an area of good cover
can be more eff ective than covering a lot of miles in a straight
line. The fi rst steep hill to hike up always seems to be the
most challenging to me. Once I've gotten up onto a dune ridge
I plan to hunt, the terrain tends to be more rolling than steep
climbs all the time. That said, it helps to do some walking
ahead of the grouse hunting season if you want to enjoy your
hunt.
How does grouse behavior change throughout the day?
Grouse do have habits throughout the day, which can be
impacted by the weather conditions. Typically, they will
leave the site that they roosted for the night early in the day
to spend some time foraging. Around mid-morning, they will
typically settle into a day roost to rest and digest the food
