outdoors

Why do ruffed grouse hunters hunt?

Well, yes, to shoot birds.

But a first-ever scientific survey of Minnesota grouse hunters, done by the University of Minnesota, shows that enjoying nature and getting away from crowds is far more important to grouse hunters than bagging birds or shooting limits.

About 97 percent said enjoying nature was very or extremely important, while 25 percent cited bagging grouse as that important. Just 4 percent said shooting a limit was important.

Hunters generally are satisfied with their experiences as well as the regulations and bag limits. But ATV conflicts -- long a sore point -- remain for a significant number of hunters.

Twenty-five percent said other recreational users had interfered with their grouse hunting over the past five years, and 61 percent of those cited ATV riders as the offenders.

The survey showed metro-area hunters are bothered by ATVs more than outstate hunters. Almost 39 percent of Twin Cities hunters say their grouse hunting is disrupted by ATV users, while 25 percent of outstate hunters agree. And almost 36 percent of Twin Cities hunters say there are too many ATV users where they hunt, but just 24.4 percent of outstate hunters agree.

Still, 49 percent of Twin Cities hunters say ATV users don't bother them when they are hunting; nearly 58 percent of outstate hunters say they aren't bothered.

"It's something we'll definitely look at more closely,'' said Ted Dick, ruffed grouse coordinator for the Department of Natural Resources.

The exhaustive scientific survey of 767 grouse hunters was done earlier this year, and the results were released last week. The poll reflects the opinions of the 92,000 hunters who hunted grouse last fall, officials said.

The majority of grouse hunters were moderately or very satisfied with their general grouse hunting experience, the quality of grouse habitat, the access to public areas and the five-bird bag limit. But 25 percent expressed dissatisfaction in the number of grouse they flushed.

Some other findings:

• Average age of grouse hunters is 43.7, and 95 percent are male.

• 69 percent are married; 22 percent are single.

• Just 2 percent said grouse hunting was their most important recreational activity, but 46 percent of metro hunters and 31 percent of outstate hunters said it was one of their most important activities.

• St. Louis, Itasca, Cass, Aitkin counties were by far the most popular counties to hunt.

• Metro grouse hunters traveled an average of 119 miles to hunt; those outstate averaged 64 miles. Metro hunters said the maximum distance they would be willing to travel in a day to hunt grouse was 153 miles.

• Sixty-one percent took overnight or multiple-day trips to hunt grouse.

• Metro grouse hunters spent an average of $451 grouse hunting last year; outstate hunters spent $397.

• Fifty-eight percent frequently or always hunt by walking without a dog, while 37 percent walk with a dog.

• About 10 percent frequently or always use an ATV to hunt.

• Grouse hunters are modest: 51 percent classify their skills as intermediate while 34 percent say they are experts.

• No surprise: Grouse hunters hit the woods more in October than any other month.

• 98 percent hunted grouse only in Minnesota last year.

• State forest lands were the most popular hunting areas, followed by county, national forest and private land.

• The top reasons for not hunting ruffed grouse this fall are lack of time (27 percent), lack of money or cost of gas (13 percent) and other hunting (10 percent).

• About 15 percent chose not to hunt grouse during years with low grouse numbers, and half hunted fewer times during seasons with low grouse populations.

• Outstate Minnesota hunters averaged nine birds last year; metro hunters averaged six.