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Where to Hunt
New Hampshire The State of New Hampshire offers many opportunities for the upland gunner. Whether you are searching for wild birds such as woodcock and grouse, or the ringneck pheasant which is stocked, you can find it in New Hampshire. No bird hunter is going to give up his grouse and woodcock covers that may have taken years to seek out, but there are some nice tracts of land open to the public. The best wild bird hunting is in the northern part of the state in areas like Pittsburg and Colebrook. These areas also get more pressure. There is some good hunting in the central part of the state where I do most of my hunting. A new hampshire atlas and Topo maps of the area you want to hunt are a good start. Google earth is another tool you can use to look at areas you want to hunt. As far as pheasant hunting goes, the state lists all of its stocking sites on the fish and game web site. Some of the areas I like to hunt are the Franklin Falls Flood control area and Pine Street in Brentwood. Franklin Falls is a huge area and is one of the nicest places to hunt I know of. The army corp of engineers manages this site and they do a great job. There is a variety of cover and food plots and not only will you find pheasants here but it is a fly way for woodcock as the Pemi runs through the entire area. Field trials are run here in the off season so you will also find quail and the occasional grouse. What more can you ask for? Pine Street is in the southern part of the state and is managed by fish and game. Its a great place if you don't want to travel far. This is mostly pheasant with some woodcock. There is a lot of swamp here so rubber boots are a plus as is a dog that retreives.
Tom Keer and a brace of NH woodcock Vermont Vermont has everything I like about bird hunting from overgrown orchards to stone walls to young growth covers with plenty of food, water, and shelter from predators nearby. And maybe most importantly, not a lot of hunters. There are still a lot of dairy farms in Vermont that abut the mountain ranges making for stunning views where you can see forever. I find the people very friendly and generous when it comes to giving permission to hunt private land. Vermont also has lots of wildlife management areas open to hunting and the Ruffed Grouse Society has projects on a number of them to manage sections of land for grouse and woodcock habitat.
The joy of being Aspen Massachusetts The eastern section of the state is mostly put and take stocked pheasants. Massachusetts has an aggressive stocking program putting out about 50,000 birds during the four week season. Most of this is done on Wildlife Management Areas though there are some private lands the state stocks. You can get all the stocking info on the fish and game website. You will find woodcock around if you know where to look but if you are hoping to find grouse your best bet is the central to western part of the state. When the state did their drumming count a few years back they did not count one grouse in our neck of the woods. Some of the better known WMA'S are Bolton Flats, Barre Falls, Martin Burns, High Ridge,and Quaboag though there are many others especially in the western part of the state.
Maine The state of Maine has more huntable land and a higher grouse population than all the other north east states combined. Some of the best hunting occurs from the Rangely area and continues north up to Grand Lake Stream. Maine has thousands of acres of land controlled by the timber and logging companies that are open to bird hunters. This is big woods hunting and at the minimum you need a compass, a gps is even better. One of the nice things about Maine is there are a lot of guides and outfitters, most of them supplying dogs if you don't have one. On the downside, there is no Sunday hunting.
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