Bullet proudly presents the bounty from our last hunt.
One of the joys of the fall season in the Great North Woods is hunting for grouse. These wily birds of the Galliforme Order inhabit the hills and forests of Northern Beartaria: Wisconsin, Minnesota, Michigan, parts of North Dakota, Montana, Idaho, and Washington state, as well as Alaska. All are replete with grouse, but do they taste good? Well, chickens are also from the order as grouse. As you can therefore imagine, they are quite tasty if properly prepared. Grouse have a wonderful flavor that will soon have your taste buds craving them each autumn.
The type of grouse that is most popular in much of Beartaria is the Ruffed Grouse, Bonasa Umbellus. Another tasty grouse is the Spruce Grouse, or Canada Grouse, Falcipennis Canadensis, which has a stronger, bawdier flavor that repels overly urbanized men. Such men, however, are better off going to the supermarket to purchase hormone-infused factory-farm-raised chicken, which will add to their feminine charms and their fat-to-body-weight ratio.
Both species of grouse live in the woods, although they prefer different types of habitat. Ruffed grouse prefer recently logged areas with young poplar trees, as they love to dine on the buds. Spruce grouse are denizens of coniferous forests, as their name suggests.
Grouse-hunting is a sport that doesn’t require much in the way of gear. In order to enjoy a good grouse hunt, you just put on your boots and perambulate with your gun down wooded country trails. The boots should preferably be vintage Red Wing Irish Setters made in the USA by hand before the year 1985, but any good hiking boot should suffice. A nice hunting jacket with built-in pouches to hold your game is a plus, but any old jacket will do. Just carry a backpack or shoulder-bag for your birds. Finally, a woolen hunting cap that is blaze orange for safety completes your hunting accoutrement. Check your local laws, as you may be required to wear blaze orange. Since grouse-hunting season can overlap deer hunting, it’s a good idea to avoid being mistaken for a deer.
Where to hunt?
It’s best to ask a local old-timer for the best areas for grouse hunting. Grouse go through multi-year cycles, and some years there will be large numbers of grouse. Other years, they can be hard to find. If you can’t find a local old-timer to interrogate (perhaps offer to take him out for coffee), just get a map of your county and find some old logging roads. Drive down a gravel road until you find a likely spot, or a side road that branches off from the main road. Park your car, get out, and load your shotgun. Amble down the road, enjoy the walk, and tune your senses to detect grouse that are standing on the road, or are sitting on the ground near the road. Here is what a ruffed grouse looks like:
Grouse have a big advantage over the hunter: their plumage has colors and patterns that enable them to blend into the foliage and leaf litter of the forest floors. If it snows, however, they can be easier to spot.
If you spot a grouse on the path ahead, you will have to make a few calculations and intuitive judgments on the spot. How close can you get to the grouse before it flushes and flies away? What is the maximum range of the shotgun and the type of load in your shotgun shells? Are you a competent enough shot to shoot a bird on the fly? One thing to note about grouse behavior: when flushed, they often settle back down just ten or twenty yards deeper into the woods. You can then make another attempt by stalking them stealthily, creeping towards the spot where you intuit they landed.
I personally use a 20 gauge with a modified choke, although a .410 would also be great for grouse. Twelve gauge shotguns are, in my opinion, just too much firepower. They are likely to maul the bird so badly that it will be unappetizing. As far as shot size, I would recommend #7 or #8. The higher the number, the smaller (and more numerous) the pellets. You will do less damage to the birds with the smaller shot sizes, and there are more pellets per load.
Try to get within at least thirty yards of the bird before taking a shot. Any further, and the pellets may just be too diffuse or lacking in power to kill the bird. You never want to wound a bird, and have it suffer or die unfound. If you do wound a bird, the best way to dispatch it quickly is by breaking its neck. This sounds a bit violent, but it is the quickest and most painless method.
Hunting Philosophy
I’ll end this article with a bit of hunting philosophy. It does not matter how many grouse you kill on your hunt. Form and technique are more important than numbers, and safety transcends all other concerns. Do not shoot the ear off your hunting party because you wildly shot at a bird (i.e. don’t pull a Dick Cheney).
Practice shooting clay pigeons in order to gain the skill necessary to shoot birds on the fly. Shoot cans or paper targets to gain accuracy with ground targets.
Hunting is a good excuse to hike and explore the territory in your neck of the woods. You’ll have fun no matter how many birds you get, as you explore old roads and trails. You may even encounter Bigfoot. I know someone who did.
Written By: Finnish Bear
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