Grouse Hunt FAIL.... SUCCESS!!! *PICS*

i find with grouse and rabbits that there is a "magic hour" (usually only 35-50 mins) where the grouse and rabbits seem to pop up from nowhere, everywhere! I find it usually starts within the last hour before sundown, sometimes as late as the last few mins of legal light. Find that window of time, and remember where you see the animals during that time because where there is one, there is many.
 
small game take advantage of the magic hours during dusk and dawn when predators have not yet adapted thier rods and cones to the failing or gaining light. Hunt the edges that have shadow as birds will follow this shadow line for predator protection. Like mentiooned you might get more grouse off the road in some areas but gravel roads and the edge effect that borders them usually results in a higher density close to the road. Creek beds are another good place, eroding cliffs in the forest and clear cut edges are also good. Like was mentioned old apple trees are the mecca of grouse hunters. Ruffies that are drunk on frost bitten crab apples make good eating!
If you look in the crop of your first bird of the day you'll get a hint about what they are targettting for food. If you find a spruce grouse with a crop full of wild cranberries keep them to cook with.
 
Not a hunter but I have to share this...

Leaving the gun range the other day (I was the only one there), I stop the truck to lock the gate behind me and as I am getting back into the truck a grouse comes out of the bush and stops in the middle of the dirt road in front of me.

I thought "stupid bird" and drove away, the grouse went back into the bush.

Later, telling one of my shooting friends the story the comment was "that bird will be dinner before too long, he just stepped out in front of the right guy today".

My point here is that you never know where you will run into them along a dirt road LOL.

Cactus
 
Went out again for a half-day on Saturday (including the evening hunt) and a few hours on Sunday in the middle of the afternoon. The wind was howling so hard you couldn't hear your hunting partner 50 yards away.

Still, we came home with 6 ruffies. That's a decent weekend even without the wind and the limited time in the field.:) My personal results so far are 6 ruffies for 5 days (or part days) in the field. I've come home with at least one bird every time out to this point.

It still looks like an average to good year for ruffies in north-eastern Alberta, to me. I'm not nearly so confident about sharptail, though. The sharptail season opens in 3 days, so I guess we'll find out soon enough.
 
Silverado said:
You'll have more success getting out of the truck and a little ways off the road. Do you have a dog? I can't imagine how many hunts would have been fruitless without my Lab.
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I can attest to that - Silverado's Allie is a grouse gettin' machine!:)
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Cat
 
david doyle said:
Go Back to the same spot that bird will likely still be there abouts and might just have a half dozen progeny in tow. Something to try is to drive past the bird stop out of sight and walk back to it. When you see it again pause a bit to sort out where the other ones are. If they flush and you don't get them not all is lost, sit and listen for a bit and they often start calling to one another. You can start still hunting to where you figure the bird went. They have short attention spans and make Alot of noise going about thier bussiness. I might just be slow but for me it is not uncommon to flush the same bird 2 or 3 times with out having a shot before I finally get it.
Don't get discouraged those skunked or 1 bird days always lead to a morning that fills your bag limit and leaves you more addicted then before.
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Bingo !!! That works very well for us on the lease roads...
 
Anytime hunting and a female are both in the same equation it is a sucess in my books!! Someitmes half the fun is getting out. My buddy and I took a friend from work and only saw one covey of partridges in 2 hours, didn't get one, but it was still good to get out. Good luck and keep on trying!
 
So went out today with a buddy to do some scouting for deer. He's been hunting for years, and it was a great chance to learn some stuff.... And now that bow season is open, I figured it'd be a good chance to get out and do some looking. Ends up all day, all the areas I had scouted before, we found 0 sign... :(

So on the way from one spot to the next, we're just driving along, chatting it up, when I look up and say: "Well, isn't that a nice big fat grouse!"

Along w/ my bow, I had my Grizzly Mag, (with the mag that I've blocked to two shells...) So I stop, get out, load up and run up to where I saw the grouse go into the bush... I had Surefire ear plugs in at the time also...

So I get to where the grouse went off the trail, and don't see anything. I take a plug out, and hear it, then spot it about 10 meters into the bush... So I sight in on it, and ka blamo! :shotgun:

Anyways, it was a nice one! Got home, and he mentioned that growing up in PEI, they always plucked their grouse, and roasted them. I've never tried it, so I figured, what the hell... So he guided me as I plucked it, and then gutted it from the rear end. It's going in the pot tomorrow w/ some bacon wrapped around it, some salt/pepper, and some onions.... Might throw some stuffing in aswell. Also kept the heart and liver for gibbits... He also showed me how to clean out the gizzard.... Said it's really good meat.

Here are some pics... First off are just some of the area where I hunt, and the trails...

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Here's me with the grouse.... I don't know what's with the dumb look on my face though?! :eek:

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Here's the gibblits (heart, liver, gizzard)

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And the bird, plucked and cleaned...

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It was a different expirence to pluck it and clean it like that, but it was pretty easy. Having my friend there to help was a plus also. I was going to take better pics for like a step by step, but once the feathers started flying, it got kinda sticky/fluffy...

Hopefully there will be some more to be had! I'll let you guys know how it tastes :D
 
Grouse Man said:
Please tell me you're not "hunting" by driving down the trails in your truck . . .
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Well seeing as I wasn't out "hunting" at the time, per se... But yes, I was driving around in my truck, scouting different areas for deer, and happend upon a grouse...

So what, should I have driven back 5-10km and walked back in, to make it "real" hunting, or what?

Oh, and I appologse aswell. Working 16 hour days leaves me tonnes of time to walk the bush in the evenings. I think last week I walked about 18km in the hour and a half I had after work in the evening.
 
I went out for the second time this season last night around 7 pm(on foot) and got one 30 yards from the house!

shake and baked it by 8pm! not bad, but wife didn't like it much.

I love the idea of walking out the door and getting supper like that. Gives new meaning to the term FAST FOOD! good luck deer hunting.
 
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