Darn Grouse

On a recent deer hunt in the interior we ran in to areas with a lot of grouse. Both ruffed and a few blues higher up. They were extremely skitish and were quick to fly when they would beat their wings hard and fast to do a low sprint through the underbrush then glide as far as they could and land completely out of sight.

I hunted a couple of days by myself on the way home and decided to get a little bit serious about chicken hunting one afternoon with my .22 Cooey with a 3/8" bolt for a peep sight :D Spotting one far away then stalking slowly and carefully using the cover to get no closer than about 40 yards without being detected I was able to get a nice fat ruffy for supper. I too shoot for the base of the neck/backbone area and the one I took died instantly with the backbone and one wing broken - zero damage to the breast. ;)
 
Hey popcan, I just saw your dogs! Beautiful animals! We've got a 4 month-old GR ourselves. Have you taken either of the Goldens out for grouse? Done any special training for them? I'm hoping to take Cookie out next fall for both ducks and grouse. She is absolutely bird MAD, can't get enough of them. She literally attacks my hunting clothes, gun case, shell bag, etc. and just goes mental when I show her a bird.

Can't wait!
 
I gotta good crack at one yestersday thundering out of some highbush cranberry shrubs. About 60% sure I hit him but he kept flying across a logging road, down an incline and over a little ridge. Just as I lost sight he started to glide a little. Went down to the area where he disappeared and from behind a spruce thicket he took off (heard did not see him). As I was walking back I along the same line I heard a flutter death-flap ..... I had got him afterall and the second-flush bird was another one. After 5 minutes searching found him almost burried under an old windfall - lights out. Moral - go after/follow all of them - cause you never know when those pellets work there way in during flight.

My Father's famous story (told at least 1000 times) was when he fired at one (saw feathers fly) and it disappeared into a pine grove. He looked for 5 minutes and nothing. So he walked the trail in for 40 minutes and returned at almost dusk. Decided to give one last look for the bird and all of a sudden heard a crash and the old bird fell out of a branch almost right as his feet!
 
I had avery similar experience just today actually. I walked around for the better part of 3 hours, flushed a big total of 0 birds and went back to the car. I was driving down one last road just before calling it quits and as luck would have it, a nice fat grouse ran right across the road about 5 feet in front of the car.

So I got out, walked to the edge of the road where he was hiding behind a bush and took a shot with my 16ga from about 30 feet away (using #6). I was certain I hit him but he appeared to be still standing there. Just as I readied another shot, he took off with some thunder and I kept my eye on where he went (sort of...).

As I walked over there, I checked out the bush where I had shot him and found a couple of loose feathers and a nice clump of feathers with some skin. I walked towards where he flew to and about 50 yards in, there he was standing on a log. So I blasted him, went over to pick him up (very dead this time) and found another dead grouse about 10 feet away.

I figure the first one that I hit flew in and expired near his sibling and then I shot the sibling. Moral of the story, don't give up on birds you think you've hit. If a deer can run 50 yards after being shot in the chest, a grouse may be able to fly for a few seconds after taking a pellet or two to the chest.

Also, just as a fieldnote, the ground conditions were good for spotting grouse today. A heavy snowfall that melted in the last couple of weeks kind of flattened out all the leaves and twigs on the ground and now the ground is frozen so its nice and flat and crunchy and silhouettes stand out nicely.
 
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Lots of grouse in Alberta this year....yummy.

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I got an e-mail from a friend of mine yesterday who was bowhunting for deer in Southern Ontario. He got this photo of a partridge while he was hunting from his treestand. This a real photo and is not edited at all. I still can't believe it.

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I quit ... just did a 10-miler today and saw sfa ... and your buddy has them perching on his firking compound bow ..... polly want a lead cracker!
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Great Shots Slooshark!
 
You must have super-intelligent grouse where you live smitt, here you just keep your eyes open at the side of the road, usually around midday they gravel up. Sometimes they'll spook but usually give you lotsa time to get outa your k-car and blast 'em to hell. It has been a better than average year here.
 
That pic was priceless!! How come that never happens to me in SW Ont??
I did however have one land in the tree just beside me the first day of bow season this fall. He wasn't THAT friendly though!
 
Grouse Man said:
Roadhunters . . .
Click to expand...

come on////
think : you drive on the road up to your hunting place....
one grouse on the ground....

1...you take your shotgun out, load and shoot
2. same but you get closer and make the grouse fly so you can shoot it "on the wing"
3. same as above, but because the grouse refuses to fly, you get even closer... kick it and kill it in the same move... now you have to throw it in the air so you can put some pellets in.... :D
4. your shotgun/rifle is loaded already (by regs.) so you open the window, cycle the action and shoot....
5. you turn the vehicle so your hunting buddy from the passenger seat can have a better shot, in the same condition as above..
6. you let the dog loose, knowing he'll have fun munching on that bird.
7. you refrain from shooting it on the ground with a rifle... adn it is not ethic to shoot it with a shotgun .... so you pass, hoping that will not be the last one you'll see all week...

Did I miss any?
Oh yea.... driving over it... not good. :runaway:

which one you chose?
 
Road hunters who shoot dozing grouse on the sunnysided bank, dog & hunter who have that extra keen sense of smell working for them .... hey whatever the method - then I respect it.

But for me, its one-on-one - mano-a-wingo - heading into the Grouse's dense coverts - his home field and getting busted a bit by brambles or scratched/slapped in the face by alders --crawling through one end and have them jet out the other - wading through a cedar swamp to surprise them from a different route only to have nothing/nobody home - cause you know if you do your homework - can read the habitat - know their current food choices - you're eventually going to score - and that anticipation and the thrill of the hunt make it all worth while.
 
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