16ga.com ~ View topic - 1st Month of Pa Grouse Season

Gentlemen,

Now that the Thanksgiving break is upon us, we look back on our Grouse contact numbers and thank God for his incredible wild bird population here on the Pa northern tier. The Grouse contact numbers have risen to almost 4 Grouse an hour. Now when I was a young man here in Potter County, Pa that was actually an off year. In modern times however it not bad, but I wish for an even better Grouse population.

We have had 25 actual Grouse points, 4 productive situations, taken 4 shots and killed all 4 Grouse. Four those sportsman who seldom hunt Grouse, these numbers for the 1st month of the season are very very good. During the 1st month of the Pa Grouse season the foliage is very dense in our Grouse woods, and most Grouse hunters are lucky to actually kill 1 out of 6 Grouse they are able to shoot at. Shadows our young Gordon Grouse Dog has been doing a great job learning to set Grouse for gunning, pointing Grouse around 25 yards back of where the Grouse are actually sitting, so the Grouse will not spook out of gun range. This makes for some seriously hard gunning for the human companion. For some reason the Grouse are very spooky this season, and either run or bust into flight very quickly as we set up to gun, putting many of them on the edge of gun range, due to the dense habitat. No doubt about it, God is safe guarding his king of wild birds this season.

One of the Grouse I took flew across West Branch stream and gave me a decent set up for a kill as it flew down stream, another one tried to fly across the road and I dropped the Grouse on the bank of the road, as it tried to escape. The other two birds were taken in heavy forest habitat, and done with some good shooting and lot of luck. You never know if the shot from your gun is going to penetrate far enough into the foliage to drop the Grouse, the #6's in the 16 gauge L.C. Smith did the job both times. We also took 2 homie Woodcock, in some seriously dense habitat, along the creek, with our newly acquired 20 gauge L.C. Smith with the 24" Barrels.

All in all I am satisfied with the bird contact of the 1st month of the Pa Grouse season in these modern times, here on our northern tier. Actually a little better than last season. We will see how the rest of the season goes after Thanksgiving. Because of our massive flying predator situation here in Pa, our Grouse numbers seem to fade in the modern post Thanksgiving hunts.

all the best,

Pine Creek/Dave
L.C. Smith Man

Happy Thanksgiving everybody!

Joined: 27 Sep 2020 Posts: 8 Location: Northcentral, Pa

4 for 4 on grouse is impressive. I have just over 34 hours grouse hunting this season and have 59 flushes. Some of these were birds pointed by my young Setter and some flushed by a Reteiver. I won't say how many I have hit, because I have been in the worst shooting slump on grouse ever.

grouse_fan,

One of the many lessons we teach young and some experienced Grouse hunters also, is that they are not the hunter, the Grouse dog is the hunter, the human is along as a companion to set up, and gun the Grouse. Many Grouse hunters do not understand that the dog is the hunter, you must learn to set up properly on your dogs Grouse point, to put the odds in your favor for gunning flying, as the Grouse flushes. Once the human learns not to play dog, he will start to make better decisions and his gunning percentage for taking Grouse will increase. Some Grouse hunters never learn that they are only along to pull the trigger when necessary, these hunters usually maintain a 1 out of 6 percentage for killing Grouse. Most of these gentlemen only make Grouse more spooky by putting abnormal pressure on a Grouse Covert. There are many things a human must learn if he wants to make little noise getting into position to gun the Grouse, his Grouse dog has worked so hard to set up for him. Most of the time the Grouse beats the sportsman because the gunner has not set himself up correctly for the shot. This includes a proper gun mount on ground that will probably not be level and many times slippery from being snow covered.
Being able to slip the safety off while raising the bird gun as the Grouse flushes needs to be practiced to the point where it becomes a reflex muscle action, if the sportsman tries to think as he does this, the Grouse most times beats him and flies away free. There are many other disciplines to Grouse gunning that we teach, however nothing beats experience, and working with a talented Grouse dog. George Ryman taught his clients that if they took one of his experienced talented Grouse dogs to the woods, the dog would eventually teach the man how to Grouse hunt. His words were absolutely true, I learned to Grouse hunt behind one of his Ryman Setter Grouse dogs as a young boy. When you and your companion dog learn to work together in the woods as a team, you will then begin to see you're Grouse killing percentage increase.

I highly recommend reading Dennis Walrods Grouse hunting book, a lot of actual Grouse hunting factual knowledge, for the Grouse hunter. A good Grouse hunter learns everything in Dennis's book and more, if he wants to become a serious Grouse hunter.

all the best,

Pine Creek/Dave
L.C. Smith Man