Upland wingshooting tips?

If the lead isnt flying the birds aint dying.
Do you follow through on the swing or have you not that far yet?
It is frustrating I know, humped my 870 up and down Mount Maxwell on SaltSpring Island (Southern gulf Island)
And those blues would bust from the Salall and it was maddening not being able to get a bead on them let alone get ahead on the swing do to cover.
Nothing what you really wanted to hear, but I commiserate your feelings.
Rob
 
Sounds like your ranges are short and the action is fast. If this is the case try an open bore or skeet. At the short range you won't have to lead much, just cover the bird with the muzzle and let er rip any more than that and you'll be over leading. Good luck eh!
 
Jack O'Connor once wrote "... if you find a fella claiming he can tell you how to hunt grouse, throw the book in the fire, because if he lies about that, he'll lie about everything else too.... ". He said in one of his books that wing-shooting grouse was the hardest shooting he ever did and that he had a good day if he hit one in five. Lots of good suggestions above, but ultimately you'll find the method, the gun and the load that works best for you, but, even then, well, let's just say that Jack and I have about the same averages (and I been doin' this stuff for more than 50 years.... :( ) . Just have some fun takin' long walks in the woods, carrying a gun. ;) :D
 
The other posters have already covered it. Look at the bright side, you're out and at least seeing birds. Southern Ont grouse are often rare.
Don't give up, and enjoy.
 
Ruffed Grouse in your area( Southern Ontario) and mine (Southern Quebec) are the toughest wing shooting targets we have in Canada.
The very best shooters have trouble averaging 50 %. These fifty percent shooters would likely be AA shooters in Trap or Skeet, ie 97 percent plus in either of those two clay target games. So do not get discouraged. Try to focus on the front of the flying Grouse, not your barrel/bead, swing through the bird, pulling the trigger as you sense the barrel just passes the bird. Don't worry that you will be shooting through brush/branches. Follow up on each shot for a bird that might fall even though you did not see it fall.
I shot my first flying Grouse here in the Eastern Townships of Quebec at age nine and hunted them every season for over 50 years. Ruffed Grouse and Bird Dogs have been a life time passion for me. Keep at it, you will become successful also.
 
I would suggest you go to skeet range and shoot International skeet where you must have gun on butt level with your hip and after you call for bird there can be up to 3 second delay
 
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manitou210 said:
I would suggest you go to skeet range and shoot International skeet where you must have gun on butt level with your hip and after you call for bird there can be up to 3 second delay
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Sporting clays is even better for simulating actual hunting conditions.

The most common mistake that I see people make, is that they try and use the beads to aim a shotgun like a rifle. That is pretty much a guaranteed way to either miss, or not even get off a shot before the bird is gone.
 
As Manitou and Canvasback have indicated, regardless of your clays game, the important thing is shooting from a low gun position to be come proficient in mounting the gun and target acquisition. I like the delay that Manitou mentioned; I might suggest it at my sporting clays club.
 
All good advise you're receiving here. Practice, practice, practice.

And congratulations to you for voluntarily accepting one of the hardest challenges in the hunting world. Don't give up. You will one day connect. Maybe you have to wait for the leaves to fall a bit more, or even when there is snow on the ground. But you will connect on one bird which flushes and tries to rocket away. And when you hit that bird, there's no feeling like it. After that, you'll never shoot a bird on the ground or in a tree. When you give this little bird the respect it deserves, it changes the game completely.
 
Your arms are getting tired because you're using muscles you haven't had reason to use before. It's not your arms as much as the shoulders that need a bit of toning. Common thing for lots of us.

You can exercise those muscles in your office without any special gear. Start with your arms at your side, keep them straight and lift until they are extended straight out in front of you, hold for a count of 5. Lower back to your side. Hold a book or water bottle to add a bit of weight when it gets too easy. Do two sets of 15 repetitions every other day. Don't push hard to start. As you get stronger, add weight and hold for a longer time. Results will show up fast- you'll notice an increase in strength in your shoulders by the second week. And carrying a shotgun will get easier by then too.
 
It's getting a bit easier to see them here as the leaves are thinning. I was out 3 times last week and managed one grouse each trip. Our numbers are way down due to the winter last year. I am an AA skeet shooter in most gauges (damn the .410...) and confess 50% would be a decent day on grouse as Pete G alludes to. Open chokes, light shot (7.5 is my favorite) shoot quick and don't wait for a perfect shot is my advice. Your focus has to be on the bird, not your gun barrel or the bead. When I was a kid I would spend a lot of time just practicing a quick mount and making sure I was lined up on the target after the gun was mounted. It got instinctive after a while. You can do this at home. The gun will go where you look if you have a solid mount of the butt to your shoulder and the comb to your cheek. No lifting your head off the stock as you fire is key as well. It's been 33 years since I shot my first grouse and I have had some great days in the woods since. Shooting clays is a great way to get more proficient at bird hunting. You work hard to get the opportunity to shoot them, it's nice to be able to capitalize on that opportunity consistently. CD
 
Thanks a lot for the advice guys, a lot of sense from a lot of good guys is why I come here.

Now that I know about mounting the gun and pointing is more of an instinct, makes sense to me when it comes to quick shots. There was no way I could aim down the rib with bead and take a shot. Basically repeat mounting until the bead lines up without having to focus on the bead would be the way to go. I can see how much practice this means. Maybe a straight month of mounting and checking every day for 20 minutes or something should at least help me into the december grouse hunt area.

The skeet range here requires me to have a membership or a friend who can invite me over - maybe wont have a chance to go this year, but I definitely will try the mounting practice and see if I can hit a flushing grouse this year.
 
Slaymoar said:
Thanks a lot for the advice guys, a lot of sense from a lot of good guys is why I come here.

Now that I know about mounting the gun and pointing is more of an instinct, makes sense to me when it comes to quick shots. There was no way I could aim down the rib with bead and take a shot. Basically repeat mounting until the bead lines up without having to focus on the bead would be the way to go. I can see how much practice this means. Maybe a straight month of mounting and checking every day for 20 minutes or something should at least help me into the december grouse hunt area.

The skeet range here requires me to have a membership or a friend who can invite me over - maybe wont have a chance to go this year, but I definitely will try the mounting practice and see if I can hit a flushing grouse this year.
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Once you shoot long enough, you won't even notice the bead.
 
That is, IF the shotgun fits you and points where you are looking. You should not have to even think about the barrel; if the gun is on your shoulder and cheek it should hit where you look. If that's not the case, you'll need to do some work to get it fitted properly, or get a gun that does fit.
 
Here's what a normal sequence of events looks like:

1. See /identify flushing game
2. Raise firearm, remove safety
3. Swing through, fire.

Here's my typical southwestern Quebec sequence:

1. Fire!
2. that was a grouse
3. missed again.

I'm not saying that I fire before I know what I'm shooting at, I'm making the point that to successfully hunt these little rockets your body has to be trained to react. A properly fitting shotgun is also most crucial in this type of hunting. You don't need a bespoke Purdey, but knowing your measurements sure helps. I added a slip-on butt pad to my old A300 and now I'm deadly with it - if you consider 1 bagged out of 12 encounters deadly.
 
Grouse Man said:
And when you hit that bird, there's no feeling like it. After that, you'll never shoot a bird on the ground or in a tree. When you give this little bird the respect it deserves, it changes the game completely.
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I would like to counterpoint your logic here...

I will say upfront that I vastly prefer to wingshoot upland game birds.... but for the sport, NOT out of respect for the bird.

For many hunters, the thrill of the hunt is at the dinner table... they don't see the point in flushing a bird and potentially losing it, just to shoot it out of the air... and what can be more "respectful" to the animal than a clean, one shot kill... which is far more likely if the bird is sitting still. Shooting sitting birds may be distasteful to you and that is fine, you don't have to do it. But for those that believe a bird in the hand is better than two in the bush (where do you think that saying came from?)... their methods are legal AND ethical AND moral... those folks however would have a legitimate argument to make against the lack of respect demonstrated by our wingshooting.
 
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Ruffed grouse are very easy to kill. I can't recall the last time I shot a bird in the air which didn't come down dead or was dead when I got to it. For me, there's no point in shooting one on the ground, meat or not. I'll give up the meal of those delicious grouse fingers if it means I choose to pass on sitting birds birds. I prefer to give them some chance of escape. Sitting, they have nothing. But in the air, the odds are in their favour.

But that's the challenge. That's why I love it.
 
Grouse Man said:
Ruffed grouse are very easy to kill. I can't recall the last time I shot a bird in the air which didn't come down dead or was dead when I got to it. For me, there's no point in shooting one on the ground, meat or not. I'll give up the meal of those delicious grouse fingers if it means I choose to pass on sitting birds birds. I prefer to give them some chance of escape. Sitting, they have nothing. But in the air, the odds are in their favour.

But that's the challenge. That's why I love it.
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Sure... but the challenge is for you... it has nothing to do with "respect" for the bird... in other words, there is nothing "disrespectful" about shooting a sitting bird.
 
Practice is all I can recommend. I can count on one hand the number of grouse I have shot when in flight. One sticks in my memory. The bird flushed and I brought the gun up, swung through and gave it a perfect lead, squeezed the trigger while following through only to have a 4" tree erupt in toothpicks. The bird had flown behind the tree at the perfect time!

Having only hunted grouse in S. Ont a few times I feel for you. All I ever heard was the bird chirp following by a flurry of beating wings as they take off into the thickest #$% imaginable. Living in N. Ont now I get them on the initial jump up or hit them in the head if I am in a hurry. Best of luck honing your skills and pursuing the most enjoyable of wild game.
 
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