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Joined: 27 Nov 2020 Posts: 84 Location: mtns of central PA

Thanks Dave. Down in my area, these brisk, dry, windy November days under blue sky have made the birds very jumpy -- feels like late season already. But another bird fell to my Sweet 16, and it was a red letter day b/c my older dog (in his 4th season) handled the grouse nicely. He has been a late bloomer on wild birds so this was special. He still bumps his share, but he's been a little better every day this season.

Boon,
The Grouse and Woodcock are real spooky right now with all the dry weather, we need rain badly for about a week! Good to hear you're dog is starting to match wits with our spooky Grouse, real nice looking birds in your pictures!

all the best,

Pine Creek/Dave
L.C. Smith Man

Joined: 28 Mar 2010 Posts: 31

Boon, that Sweet 16 is a classic gun. What is she choked? I have one choked cylinder and it has killed many a bird.

Joined: 17 Jan 2014 Posts: 1381 Location: Denver, Colorado

[url=https://imgur.com/foYi5he]

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My last grouse of 2023. Hope to try this someday back in PA!

Joined: 27 Nov 2020 Posts: 84 Location: mtns of central PA

Joined: 27 Nov 2020 Posts: 84 Location: mtns of central PA

Boon,

Try not to take unrealistic Grouse shots, and you will work your way out of your slump. Set up properly and smooth mount your gun. Let your dog do his job setting up the Grouse, try to see the Grouses escape flight route and concentrate on the bird as it flies. Do not worry about the trees and gun the bird instinctively. Many times I see my clients try to shoot to fast and the pattern from their shotgun does not have enough time to open up correctly, I try to gun my Grouse at 28 to 35 yards so the pattern will open correctly. Using RST SpredR shells makes a big difference also. 7 1/2"s or 8's under the 1st trigger and 6"s unser the back trigger, get into action mounting your gun quickly, and slow down to shoot. Many experienced Grouse hunters after hunting for years make the mistake of gunning to quickly and the birds start beating them because they are gunning the birds to close up, inside 20 yards. You must be right on the bird iwhen gunning this close up, no pattern forms to down the bird and when you do connect at this range many time you damage the Grouse severely.

all the best working out of your slump.

Pine Creek/Dave
L.C. Smith Man

My brother Kurt and I have grown up gunning Grouse, our life time averages are 1 for 3, because of the way we were taught how to gun Grouse. Both of us had small slumps after Grouse hunting for 15 years, it seems to happen to many good Grouse hunters.

Joined: 27 Nov 2020 Posts: 84 Location: mtns of central PA

I think the dog was as shocked as I was when this one fell down. Moved 3 birds today -- my older dog pointed this one nicely. Finally had some late season success after a few tough Decembers.

boon,

Outstanding shooting buddy, Merry Christmas!

all the best,

Pine Creek/Dave
L.C. Smith Man

Joined: 17 Jan 2014 Posts: 1381 Location: Denver, Colorado

Beautiful bird.

Joined: 27 Nov 2020 Posts: 84 Location: mtns of central PA

We had to put in the miles today, but we got rewarded w/ a lovely bird... I'll keep the fan off this one.

boon,
Real nice bird, serious fan tail will be a nice tail mount, and even better eating!

all the best,

Pine Creek/Dave
L.C. Smith Man

Deleted

Joined: 17 Jan 2014 Posts: 1381 Location: Denver, Colorado

When does grouse season finally end in Pennsylvania? When I was much younger, we'd hunt grouse during Christmas break from school (both highschool & college) during the 70s and 80s. I had thought that the winter seasons for ruffed grouse were closed in December (& have been for some time now)? Heck, I think we even hunted them for a few years in January back then?

The late season closure was sold (then) as an attempt to protect the few birds remaining from the October and November seasons in order to provide more seed stock for an obviously declining population. It seems now that the effort was perhaps "too little, too late"? It's been a while since I've seen it discussed anywhere, but the general consensus (at least the last time I inquired) was that West Nile Virus was the primary reason for the decimation of the huntable grouse population in my old home state? Is that still the "learned" opinion of the powers that be there? If you ever happen to ask a state game employee or even one of their wildlife biologists about a possibility of turkey predation contributing to the problem, they universally recoil at the thought & immediately dismiss it (Hmmm....wonder why?).

Everybody seemingly has a "pet" theory about grouse populations and here's mine: wet & cool Spring weather means poor survival in brooding chicks. No or few "chicks of the year " means a bad Fall grouse season, period (& damn to that silly 10-year cycle thing, what a load of manure!). Wild turkeys are also a bigger contributing problem than most think, because if you've got plenty of turkeys, you have few or no ruffed grouse (turkeys are very effective opportunistic-omnivores and both grouse eggs and chicks are on their menu). I've seen it happen again and again over my lifetime (66-years this January). What used to be a "good grouse hunting location" became a "bad grouse hunting location" when the turkeys showed up. I experienced a "population high" for ruffed grouse for the first time in my now-long life this past season in Minnesota and I remain in awe of that reality (I'm not holding my breath to ever see another). I am also starting to see turkeys making inroads up there too so....I'm sadly now waiting for the bad news to follow. Clearly, continuing urbanization & industrial-scale farming causes habitat loss, and domestic predators probably take their toll as well (i.e. house cats - and BTW I like cats!) but in areas where habitat is still prime, it's hard to explain it any other way. The West Nile thing was a Black Swan event in my thinking and hopefully there will be no more of those for a while.

Joined: 17 Oct 2019 Posts: 456 Location: New Jersey

I’m with you on the turkey theory 100% and I also feel the lack of trappers. When trapping declined so did the grouse. Too many egg eaters. Tim Wells killed 30 something raccoons on the same farm in the same night.