Blue (Dusky) Grouse Opener

[Sean Gadhar]

Well Blue Grouse opens tomorrow (9/1) I went over the .32 tonight and I am bringing her and my bag to work with me. If I can get off by 2 or so I'll sneak in a grouse hunt before getting home to get ready to head to WY early Saturday Morning.

 

[azmntman]

We got a few of them birds! They only live above 10K feet here, seen a few hiking and they didnt appear super spooked....but I will take my 20ga, too few opportunities and I wanna grouse tail feather under my turkey'! They taste good?

 

[Sean Gadhar]

Caught this one sneaking through the underbrush, neck shot at about 20 yards. 5 more flew up I reloaded and found one grouse high up in a tree. Tried another neck shot at about 40 yards. Clean miss :redface: Shouldn't have been so cocky taking a neck shot from that far.

 

[jrmflintlock]

You bet they taste good! I miss hunting grouse. We had good numbers in northern New Mexico where I used to live.

Give them a try! They make great green chili Enchiladas!!

 

[cynthialee]

Spiffy!

We have some grouse and I have seen a Partridge or two over the years. But they are so few and far between I wouldn't feel right hunting them.
2 years ago there were a lot of grouse in this one part of my forest but I didn't go after any in hopes they would increase numbers.
Every year I come across a bird or two.

 

[hanshi]

Nothing beats the sweet smell of BP success. :v

 

[Patocazador]

Most grouse species go through high and low cycles. When they are most numerous, the foxes and bobcats eat well and their litter sizes increase. The excess predators do a hurting on the grouse and their population drops. After that the predators usually crash thus bringing about another boom for grouse.

 

[Sean Gadhar]

Nothing beats the sweet smell of BP success. :v

A guy I hunt with said it so well, I was saying that my bear wasn't vary big "it's not a trophy bear" he replied "you shot it with a flintlock muzzle loader, whats more trophy then that?

 

[azmntman]

:thumbsup: :hatsoff:

 

[jrmflintlock]

My thoughts exactly!!

 

[rushlake1]

Nothing beats the sweet smell of BP success. :v

A guy I hunt with said it so well, I was saying that my bear wasn't vary big "it's not a trophy bear" he replied "you shot it with a flintlock muzzle loader, whats more trophy then that?

Words to live by!

 

[Vaino]

After much research as to why the 10 yr cycle for ruffed grouse, one possibility lies to the north of Wisconsin....in Canada.

It seems the lemming population in Canada also cycles at 10 yrs and in the low yrs many birds of prey migrate south into Wisconsin and other northern states and live on ruffed grouse and snowshoe hares...which also cycle. Mainly owls and some hawks.

In the many yrs of hunting ruffed grouse have scared off 3 goshawks from fresh grouse kills. One day my setter went on point and then moved and this happened a few times....normally grouse don't run like a pheasant. But got a glimpse of a goshawk circling above and then realized why the grouse wouldn't flush.

Have shot a whole lot ruffed grouse through the yrs and some yrs saw many grouse infested w/ round worms. Often wondered if that was the cause of the 10 yr cycle so wrote to the DNR and they said no it wasn't. But?

Of course the low low lemming populations theory doesn't explain the cycling of grouse in other states.....Fred

 

[Sean Gadhar]

I haven't paid attention enough to know :hmm: but here we have a cycle for rabbits. If a large predictor population faces hunger after a rabbit crash, I could see them turning to grouse before starving out. This would explain a lot.


Post Script: On my hunt,I found sign of two grouse kills by I think bobcat.

 

[Sean Gadhar]

predator

 

[BillinOregon]

Sean, I hope to hunt them when I resettle in New Mexico soon. We have both blues and ruffs here in Oregon.

 

[jrmflintlock]

Lots of blues on the Santa Fe and Carson National Forests.

I sure miss hunting grouse with my trade gun.

Working on a fowler now so I can maybe get up to Oregon and Idaho to chase them. We have a few in small parts of Nevada but I have not found them yet.

 

[cynthialee]

We ain't allowed to shoot birds with rifles around these parts. We must use shot.

 

[Sean Gadhar]

Today was my fist day out after bear, and the grouse where everywhere I wanted to be. :haha: Two busted up so close I could have taken a swat at them with my rifle. After about 5 hours, I gave the day up as too hot. It was in the low 80s where I was. What with hunting a good 45 minute walk from the truck, had I killed a good sized bear (with say 3 trips for meat & one for hide) the last of the bear wouldn't have gotten to the truck in under 5 hours in 80+ heat. The thought of meat going bad was just too much.

I have all month,and next weekend shows to be at least 10 degrees cooler.

I got some video of grouse, I'll try to get it up. My laptop crashed & I'm still working out the kinks on this new one.