Grouse hunt in NC

I am mildly interested in trying to go to North Carolina a couple of weekends next year and try to find a Grouse. I do not know anything about NC, the area, where I would need to go. I have looked at the NC web site ,but did not get much information. Would anyone on here care to point me in the right area, as in what National forest , closest town, not looking for specifics, I have a year to scout and learn, just need some direction. Please do not bash me!

you can't beat the Nantahala Forest. There's more land than you could cover in a lifetime but it's beautiful and I've seen a lot of grouse up there through the years.

Second on the Nantahala. NC does more timbering than GA and the gated logging roads are planted to clover usually. Some roads will produce multiple flushes. We had 10 and 12 flush days, but we hunted hard and covered a lot of miles. Good sense of direction necessary as we would often leave one road to hit another or follow a promising area. Compass and GPS as you feel comfortable.

I am not kidding about covering the ground. Our last hunt we left the truck at 8am. Didn't get back till about 5. We never stopped for lunch. When we turned around to head back to the truck, we were 4 miles as the crow flies. So we know we covered at least 8 miles in the mountains. but we had zigged and zagged before we turned back for the truck so that added some distance. We were steady at it for 9 hours and had a dozen flushes. Some areas were pretty barren, others had multiple flushes. Truthfully the last hour was steady humping just to get to the truck with some light left.

Habitat wise, look for pole aged hardwoods, bordered by older more mature timber. Pole aged is the diameter of about your wrist to about your thigh. It would be a 15 year old or so clearcut. Nice to have the clover roads, and creeks with rhodendedron and mtn laurel as winter cover. It doesn't hurt to just strike some good looking edge and follow that for a while. The intersection of 3 or more habitat types with a creek nearby is money.

The NC DNR has good maps called Gamelands maps if I remember right. We go to the same places all the time now, but I think that any of the gated logging roads that will intersect or follow creeks would be worth the walk. minimize your driving time by targeting similar looking roads near to one another and I think you'll be in business.