Grouse Hunting Ethics

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Doogs said:
Ground shots are more ethical because you have a better chance of a clean kill with less meat wasted. I find with wingshooting, by the time I cut out the lead and feathers, all I have left is a beak and an arse hole
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What loads are you using?..... I have never had pellets but the breast that I couldn't readily see and pick out very easily.....
 
Doogs said:
Ground shots are more ethical because you have a better chance of a clean kill with less meat wasted. I find with wingshooting, by the time I cut out the lead and feathers, all I have left is a beak and an arse hole
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Quite the opposite... I get fewer pellets in birds shot on the wing.
 
Doogs said:
Ground shots are more ethical because you have a better chance of a clean kill with less meat wasted. I find with wingshooting, by the time I cut out the lead and feathers, all I have left is a beak and an arse hole
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This is solely dependant on where you aim. I was taught for upland game on the ground, aim one inch in front of nose/beak. Part of bird shot pattern does the actual killing.
 
Brutus said:
This is solely dependant on where you aim. I was taught for upland game on the ground, aim one inch in front of nose/beak. Part of bird shot pattern does the actual killing.
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The idea is to get the pattern away from the breast... so aiming above the head is better than in front of the beak... also the amount above depends on how far you are from the bird... it is best to pattern your gun on a golf ball sized dot (birds head) and do this at various distance to see how high you should aim before the pattern thins out too much to reliably strike the head/neck...

Or... flush the bird and take your chances... tell that to the guy who has walked for 10 km and is looking at the first bird of the day... a good test for personal ethics.
 
We used to have this older gent come in the shop years back. Always on the hunt for the ultimate 4:10 grouse gun. He used to crack me up. He had a little flat piece of white plastic he had cut to fit into the muzzle of a gun. If it went in past a check mark on the plastic that choke was too open. But if it fell on the check mark or never made it that deep that was the gun to have. He never did find the ultimate gun, at least not in our shop and of course it had to be a single shot Cooey or such to pass muster! One day he is telling me how to aim so far above a grouses head and at what distance to cut the head off clean and not get a pellet in the breast. I said if you are so worried about a pellet or two in the breast and want to decapitate the bird why are you using a shotgun? Use a 22. I said you know you will never find a shotgun that fires a load of shot in a single file row! He didn't care for that remark, lol.
 
Way back when I was a kid,I shot a grouse with my 303 when I was deer hunting....blew it to smithereens-never again.Now I either pass up or carry a 22 rascal( only weighs about 3lb) one guy I know packs a air pistol for shooting grouse( this is the one reason I would like to be able to carry a 22 handgun when hunting )
 
How about using a truck or a quad instead of walking. Sometimes after a night of sitting around the fire telling stories and drinking beer my legs don't want to work to well the next morning. Is it ethical the drive my truck through the bush then shoot them on the ground?
 
I got a grouse a few years ago that bounced off the car ahead of me on Old Guysborugh road. I slowed down, opened the door leaned down and snatched it up. It was just dandy. wasn't even busted up. I am sure that it didn't care that it wasn't shot off a branch.
 
in my part of NB, we shoot them however we see them. flying, sitting, or running. when grounded, i take their head clean off, when flying, i shoot them in the wing to get them back on the ground for a headshot. all this is done with a full choke 12g.

ethically, the way i look at is it's only an unethical shot if you ruin meat with a pellet.
 
I doubt I will ever have to shoot another grouse .......... before a person can even pick up and load a rifle / shotgun , my dog has caught it , and is either chewing on its head , or pouncing on the still twitching body with her front legs ....... sometimes she picks it up and throws it in the air a couple times ....

then if I let her continue she likes to pull the feathers out of the wings and eat the feathers before moving onto the chest / body .
 
burnt_servo said:
I doubt I will ever have to shoot another grouse .......... before a person can even pick up and load a rifle / shotgun , my dog has caught it , and is either chewing on its head , or pouncing on the still twitching body with her front legs ....... sometimes she picks it up and throws it in the air a couple times ....

then if I let her continue she likes to pull the feathers out of the wings and eat the feathers before moving onto the chest / body .
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Wish mine would do that, she goes through so much damn bags of ammo and leaves her spent casings all over the lawn. Not one grouse.
 
I don't really care what any of you people do but lack of knowledge of shotguns and wing shooting on here is painful. I also love all the comments saying how impossible it is to shoot one on the wing in this or that area because how thick the brush is... hunters are hunters worst enemy, congrats everyone! slow clap...
 
airjmc87 said:
I don't really care what any of you people do but lack of knowledge of shotguns and wing shooting on here is painful. I also love all the comments saying how impossible it is to shoot one on the wing in this or that area because how thick the brush is... hunters are hunters worst enemy, congrats everyone! slow clap...
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I can't wing shot neither can any one in my Family I think I'm the only one that has a shotgun but we don't let that stop us
 
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