Grouse Anyone?

A

Andy

New member
Any other grouse hunters out there? I've been at it a couple of weeks so far. Only
2 in the freezer so far....yeah yeah yeah so I'm a lousy shot. Lots of em in the woods though....top of the cycle...tons of flushes tons of shots...tons of fun...not many hits :). Oh well

havin a blast in WI

Andy
 
Last month my wife shot a prognhorn, and we brought our Pointer to northwestern Colorado and also shot Sage Grouse. We bagged three in an afternoon, and also shot a double. We stopped at three, leaving some for our next trip. What a blast!

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It is far better to dare mighty things, though riddled with failure, than to live in the dull grey of mediocrity.
 
Andy,
You did better than me! I went for squirrel and grouse the first part of September in upper MI. Got 1 squirrel. Never hunted grouse before but had a great time trying! Never got off 1 shot. My fault, too much hesitation and man are they FAST! I have got to do this more often!
 
2tapcm-

Yeah they are FUN. We like to say that you can't hit em if you don't shoot, so we shoot ALOT! I think "supressive fire" is the correct term to use :) I've only got 2 on the fly in my couple years of grouse hunting, but hey I'm still young :) Best of luck

Andy
 
Hi folks!

New to the Forum.

Just picked up a nice Marlin Papoose with a Bushnell .22 Varmint Scope on it.

Any tips or websites to visit to let me know how to grouse hunt?

Here in the Seattle Washington area, our season goes till the end of the year.

Help! Never hunted in my life. Hear grouse meat is delicious.

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The Seattle Shooter
 
2tap
Ive hunted a bunch of grouse (spruce hen) in the U.P. outside of White pine, and Otanagon and had a blast. Used to live by the White Pine mine so it was right out the back door and get with it.
Since I cant hit anything that flies I had to learn to get them by another means.
When you flush one it'll get exactly 100yds in the direction he left the ground. Walk real slow right on his line. when you get within 20yds he'll start cluckin and carrin' on, gettin real nervous, start lookin. He is as apt to be on the ground as sittin on a limb. As you get closer he's gettin real nervous and will rustle his feathers when you hear that sound he's history. 400 yds min and you'll never see him again. Gotta get him after the first jump and before the second. Count on it. 100 and he'll sit down and wait for you. Ive had them sittin on a limb right over my head and throw their voice like there right in front of you, Wrong! Rustle rustle whoosh - gone. Try it --NEVER FAILS
 
I love and live for grouse hunting. I too live in the U.P. as TGS and find nothing finer than a walk in the bush looking for "thunder chickens". I admire natures most explosive flying machine and refuse to shoot them on the ground or in trees.
It really saddens and enrages me to see road hunters in vehicles "swatting" them as they do. Then they are the first to ask where all the birds went.
If you want some good reading on the subject check out books by Gordon Gullion (RUFFED GROUSE), Gene Hill, George "Bird" Evans, Steve Smith and Corey Ford.

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[This message has been edited by mcshot (edited December 10, 1999).]
 
When folks. Got a Remington 870 shotgun and my small game license last week.

Any tips for a wanna-be grouse and rabbit hunter in Western Washington?

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The Seattle SharpShooter - TFL/GT/UGW/PCT/KTOG
 
I used to live in washington, never found a very good rabbit area, we always would just stumble upon one or two and plink them. You should try hunting for grouse on the weyerhauser roads. Thay're gated off from vehicles but you can walk and hunt up them. In the early morning (usually while deer or elk hunting) we'd see up 10 maybe 15 in an hour, but weren't hunting them. They come down real early to eat the sand and gravel off the roads. Good luck.
 
Thanks for the tips. In the mornings, Fort Lewis has tons of gravel roads for the grouse. :) Sultan isn't bad either from what I hear.

Just picked up a Boonie sling for fast mounting from the hip. Love the concept!



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The Seattle SharpShooter - TFL/GT/UGW/PCT/KTOG
 
yep, we hunted fort lewis, kindof a pain though.We'd hunt it for deer, but had to call in that morning and say where you wanted to shoot, but it was first come/serve so hard telling where you'd end up for the day. Do you hunt any big game? are you new to the Tacoma area? If you send me an e-mail i can give you some fishing and hunting tips for the area. Mellamobobo@hotmail.com
 
Thanks for resurrecting this trhead. This time next month my wife and I will be grouse hunting again in Northwestern Colorado with our Pointer. There is also the obligatory pronghorn hunting as well ;).

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It is far better to dare mighty things, though riddled with failure, than to live in the dull grey of mediocrity.
 
I'm resurrecting the thread again.

I've been really lucky to stir up the grouse from the treelines dotting the logging roads to get a nice flush and shot in.

But how do you hunt grouse? Work the edges off the treelines and look for openings?

Do you carefully walk where there is no trail over rocks/fallen trees through young tree stands and through dense cover to stir them?

I just want to get comfortable walking through the woods and right now I'm sticking too darn close to the logging roads. I'm a city boy.

What is your hunting plan like?

I know there are a lot more grouse hiding out there?

What do you do?

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The Seattle SharpShooter - TFL/GT/UGW/PCT/KTOG
 
If you have a dog you can bust brush, or push fields, but I don't, so I mostly hunt the logging' roads and such, they like to come down early in the morning to eat gravel, so we usually get some action. I take my single shot 12 gauge, and my .22 pistol. Who ever see's it get's the first shot, sitting with the pistol, when it fly's one of us'll back him, if it flies.
 
JT - Keep at it, you'll learn more every time you get out. Look for grouse near gravel roads early in the morning, then look for stands of young aspen and aspen mixed with spruce/hemlock/pine or whatever type of conifers you have in the area. You might try to find an experience grouse hunter with dog to take you out. Join the local chapter of the Ruffed Grouse Society and adopt an old grouse hunter. As for hunting away from logging roads, you can a good compass and handheld GPS and learn how to use them to avoid getting lost. I like to hunt under IFR conditions (I Follow Rivers)to help keep my bearings and avoid re-hunting areas. Usually the further from the roads and other hunters you get the better. Stay with it and you'll soon have your own hotspots you wouldn't tell your own mother about :)
 
Well, I've been hunting Weyerhauser land in south Snohomish county and Fort Lewis. Seen tons of rabbits but no grouse in the morning. help!

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The Seattle SharpShooter - TFL/GT/UGW/PCT/KTOG
 
I went moose hunting this weekend. We were also hunting for Grizzly bear, black bear, wolf, wolverines, coyote, and fox. Oh did I mention grouse an ptarmigan? Mainly we were after moose and we had our .22 pistols for birds, but all that above was in season so we were keeping our eyes peeled. Well we came into a flock of about 15 grouse, so taking turns with our pistols, 2 .22's and 3 hunters. We ended up getting 5. (No, 5 isn't divisible by 3, and yes, I was the person who only got one :() One was a sharptail, and the other 4 were spruce. We thought it was strange, that they were hanging together, but in that area there aren't very many sharp tail, and guess he just wanted some company. If we had shot guns we may have collected 10 or 12 of them. they were sitting on the road (4-wheeler trail) and in the trees, and flying, but all in all I think we did pretty good. shot mine at about 30 yrds. the others were 10-15 yrds. Gonna fry them up tomorrow, I love fried grouse. :)
 
Holy Shnikies!

I sure didn't expect this thread to still be alive! OK a question for all of you UP grouse hunters...I'm from northern Wisconsin and have hunted grouse down there since I was 12. Now I'm going to school at MTU in Houghton. Are there any grouse up here? I would think that the amount of snow might make it kind of hard for them in the winter. Any good hunting close to Hougton? I don't have a car up here since the freshman parking lot is 2 1/2 miles from campus (GGRRRRR!!) I'm going home the first weekend in October to go hunting with my dad, but I'd like to mess around other weekends up here too.

JT...Field Dressed nailed it on the head...young (about 1-3 inch diameter) aspen and hemlock stands. Walk the edges of aspen (popple) stands that are the result of logging. Always check pine/hemlock clumps in the middle of popples too. Riverbeds and swampy areas are always good too. Tag Alder swamps usually hold quite a few, but good luck getting a shot off in those messes. The hunting usually doesn't get good until the leaves are down either. When the leaves are still up you can't hear 'em, can't see em, can't shoot em. So wait a couple weeks and try again. Mid October through December is prime time.

Andy
 
Yep, almost a year old. Anyhow, we just fried up the grouse. Filleted them and rolled in italian bread crumbs, then fried. They are DELICIOUS. Just thought I'd share that, You can fillet the breast into two different layers, so it fries better. Lot's of meat :)
 
BadMedicine:

Liked hunting Fort Lewis. Saw more rabbits than I could shake a stick at. But no grouse down there.

Going to try some Weyerhauser logging roads off Cherry Valley Road on the edge of King and Snohomish Counties at daybreak.

Wish me luck!

Also thinking about getting a pheasant tag - 2000 pen-raised pheasants released at end of month by the $36 tag price makes me mad.

What do you folks think about getting a deer tag?

Got a 20 deer barrel with some fiber optic open sights? Should I go for a deer mid-October and where around within a (2) drive from Seattle?

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The Seattle SharpShooter - TFL/GT/UGW/PCT/KTOG
 
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