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Pickerel Creek Camp Grouse Hunting
The practical grouse hunter
A compendium of advice to pursue
ruffed grouse and learn to love the chase.
Dave Crehore
The grouse: A quarry worth
your careful study.
© Ron Toel
![[grouse]](images/grouse.jpg) Grouse
hunting begins in the golden mornings of
mid-September and lasts until the snow is
deep enough to dust a bird dog's belly.
Grouse hunters call it "chasing birds," but
it's more than that. Grouse hunting is also
a search for what remains of the old, wild
Wisconsin. It's a blend of expectation and
memory, of sights, sounds and smells as
delicate as first ice on the creek, as loud
as a short-barreled shotgun and as pungent
as muck.
 Wisconsin
is probably the best place in the country to
chase birds. It's in the heart of the
country's grouse range, with huge areas of
public land open to hunting. Best of all,
the grouse season is more than three months
long across most of the state.
Ruffed
grouse (Bonasa umbellus) are native
birds of the young forest. They weigh in at
1 3/4 pounds, are about 19 inches long from
head to tail, and have a wingspan of 25
inches. Their broad, cupped wings power them
to speeds of 35 to 50 miles per hour during
their noisy escape flights. The trademark
"ruff" is an impressive collar of feathers
the male grouse erects around its neck
during courtship displays.
If
you don't hunt grouse, here's a primer on
how to do it, drawn from my four decades of
experience. If you are a grouse hunter of
long standing, read on anyway. You'll find
plenty to agree and argue with.
Recognizing
the practical grouse hunter
Practical
grouse hunters aren't road-hunting bums or
tweedy wannabes. While hunting, they walk a
couple of miles a day, sweat a lot and get
punctured by prickly ash. By late October,
they are frayed, leg-weary and easily
startled. Most of them can't afford
first-class guns, dogs and gear, but that's
no problem. All a grouse hunter really needs
is a suitable shotgun, a good pair of boots,
some blaze orange clothing, a sense of humor
and a lot of practice.
Grouse
hunting, condensed
Grouse hunting goes like this: You find a
grouse woods, make sure it's OK to hunt in
it, and then walk through it, with or
without a partner or a dog. You try to
figure out where the grouse are, so you can
walk close enough to make them fly.
The
exact moment of the flush will always be a
surprise, and the roar of wings will scare
the piedoodle out of you. Grouse twist, turn
and accelerate as they fly through the
trees; you have about two seconds to make
sure no one is in the way, point your gun
and get off a shot before the bird is out of
range.
Grouse
hunting burns more calories than it
produces. To find grouse you have to keep
pushing through dense woody cover, and if
you flush a couple of birds per hour over
the course of a day, you are doing fine.
You'll barely be able to see some of the
grouse you put up, and if you hit one out of
four or five, rejoice. You've earned it.
There
will be days -- lots of days -- when you
don't get a bird. But grouse hunting isn't
supposed to be easy, and anyway, no one is
keeping score. From time to time you'll
encounter an apparently "tame" grouse
trotting down a tote road or staring at you
from the branches of a tree. You'll be
tempted to shoot at it, but you won't.
Grouse hunting builds character, and tests
it, too. If you shoot sitting birds, you
flunk.
Finding
grouse habitat
You hunt grouse by hunting their habitat.
Start with places like these:
- Thick, young, woody cover
-- aspen, alders, honeysuckles, dogwoods
-- within or adjoining older forest
stands. If the walking is easy, you're
in the wrong place. If there's flowing
or standing water nearby, so much the
better.
- Edges, where
differing kinds of forest meet -- young
and old, deciduous and evergreen.
- Best of all, "jumbles,"
where water, openings, conifers and
deciduous growth of assorted ages are
all mixed up together.
Try
the young, thick, damp places first, then
move uphill to some of the others. When you
flush a grouse, identify the trees, shrubs
and herbs before you move on. Look for
similar plant communities elsewhere, and
you're likely to find more grouse. A
practical grouse hunter has to be a
practical botanist, too.
Picking
a grouse dog
After
40 years of experience with a variety of
dogs, I've learned that a grouse dog earns
his keep after the shot, not before it.
![[hunting dogs]](images/dogs.jpg)
His principal function is to fetch the
downed bird, or help you make sure a bird
isn't down. Most hunting breeds will learn
to warn you by pointing or acting "birdy,"
when
A
good grouse dog is a valuable hunting
companion. T/Maker, © 1997
there is a live grouse nearby, and that's
great. But fetching dead birds is still more
important than finding live ones.
No
matter what breed it is, a good grouse dog
-- one that understands grouse, retrieves
reliably, works within 25 yards of you at
all times, and warns you of an impending
flush -- is priceless. On the average, you
get one of these per lifetime.
At
first, hunt without a dog to develop some
bird sense of your own. You may prefer going
dogless; in fact, many good grouse hunters
feel that going one-on-one with a grouse is
the ultimate challenge. If you do decide to
get a dog, don't be in a hurry. Try to hunt
with various breeds, and talk to some dog
owners and professional dog trainers. Pick a
dog that suits your hunting style,
temperament, checkbook, available spare
time, habits and living quarters.
Finally,
remember that if you hunt without a dog, you
are the retriever. Expect to spend 15
minutes looking almost every time you shoot.
Ballistics
and the brush factor
An angler can let the big one go, but there
is no "shoot and release" in hunting. When
you shoot at a grouse, there are only two
acceptable outcomes: a clean miss, or a bird
that tumbles to the ground stone dead. A
grouse gun must be powerful enough to be
humane.
Not
that it takes a lot to bring down a grouse.
Three solid hits with #7 ½ shot, or two
solid hits with #6 pellets, will effect a
clean kill. But, the clutter of twigs and
branches between you and a flying grouse in
heavy cover will soak up roughly 20 percent
of the shot pellets that leave the barrel,
greatly reducing the effectiveness of any
shotgun you use. That's the brush factor.
Sparing
you the math, it boils down to this: To
reliably and humanely kill grouse flying
through thick cover, you must start with a
load of at least one ounce of shot no
smaller than #7 ½. As ranges increase late
in the season, switch to an ounce or more of
larger, heavier #6 shot.
Gun
weight, balance and length
After a grouse flushes, you've got about two
seconds to get off a shot, so your gun must
be at the ready all the time, with your
hands in shooting position and the muzzle at
eye level. Carrying a heavy gun in this
position all day is tiring, so a grouse
gun's ideal weight is between 6 1/4 and 7
1/4 pounds, and the closer to 6 1/4 the
better.
A
grouse gun should have about half its weight
between the shooter's hands, with the other
half more or less evenly divided between the
barrels and stock. The balance point of a
double-barreled gun should be right at the
knuckle or trunnions on which the barrels
turn; repeaters should balance at the
breech, or at most an inch ahead of it.
A
relatively short gun is easier to carry in
the ready position as you weave through the
popples. I recommend a maximum overall
length of 45 to 46 inches, approximately the
length of a double-barreled gun with 28"
barrels or a repeater with a 26" tube.
The
20-gauge shotgun meets the grouse hunter's
needs perfectly. It's ballistically
sufficient, yet light and trim enough to be
an easy carry. For reasons of balance,
weight and speed, a 20-gauge over-under is
the best gun overall, followed closely by a
20 pump, with autoloaders coming in third.
Of course, there's nothing wrong with a
lightweight 12-gauge, if that's what you
have. Early in the season, use skeet and
improved cylinder chokes in either the 12 or
20; later, use improved cylinder and
modified chokes.
How
about the "little guns" -- the 28-gauge and
.410 bore? When used in grouse woods, I
think the 28 is a crippler. It is simply
inhumane to fire the 28's petite 3/4-ounce
shot charge at ruffed grouse in heavy cover;
too often, only one pellet gets through to
the bird when two or three are necessary.
And as for the piddly little .410 bore --
hell's fiery pit awaits hunters who peck
away at ruffed grouse with the .410's
unpredictable patterns and miserable
11/16-ounce of shot.
How
to shoot a grouse
Grouse are hard to hit because they almost
always surprise you, because they are in
range for only a couple of seconds, and
because a shotgun doesn't point as naturally
as your finger. You can't do much about the
first two problems, so to improve your
grouse shooting, you have to make the
shotgun an extension of your pointing
instinct. Some practical suggestions:
- Focus: While
hunting, keep your eyes focused on the
middle distance. When a bird gets up,
watch it, not the gun. Use your
unfocused, almost subliminal view of the
barrel as a pointing aid while you
devote 98 percent of your attention to
the bird.
- Gently, gently:
Bring the gun to your face, not your
face to the gun. When you mount your
shotgun to shoot, push it slightly
forward, track the moving target with
the muzzle, and then bring the stock
gently up to your face and shoulder just
before you shoot.
- Get fit: A shotgun
"fits" fairly well when you bring it to
your shoulder and find that the eye on
that side is above the centerline of the
gun, with the barrel's top rib appearing
level and on the same plane as the eye.
![[hunter]](images/hunter.jpg)
The gun will then shoot where you look.
If the rib seems to be slanting uphill,
the top of the stock is lifting your
shooting eye too high and the gun will
shoot high. If the stock is too low, you
won't see the rib at all and your gun
will shoot low. It's OK if a grouse gun
shoots a little high, but a low-shooting
gun is a disaster. A low stock can be
built up with stick-on rubber pads.
Use
a shotgun with the proper "fit."
Dave Crehore, © 1997
- Be ready:In the
field, carry your gun with its muzzle at
eye level and hold the stock against
your right rib cage with your right
forearm (or vice-versa for
left-handers). The barrels should be
angled out about 45 degrees from the
front of your body, and at a 45 degree
upward angle.
- Be binocular:If
possible, learn to shoot with both eyes
open. To find out if you can be a
"two-eyed" shooter, make a half-inch
circle with your thumb and forefinger.
With both eyes open, concentrate on a
small object about 20 yards away.
Keeping both eyes open, extend your arm
to its full length and center the object
in the circle. Now move your hand slowly
back to your face, keeping both eyes
open and the object centered in the
circle. The eye that the circle
naturally comes to is your dominant eye,
the one your brain uses to point at
things.
If
your dominant eye is on the same side as
your shooting shoulder, you're in luck.
Two-eyed shooting should be fairly easy
for you. But if you shoot from the right
shoulder and have a left dominant eye,
you'll have to learn to close your left
eye as you mount the gun, letting your
right eye do all the work -- and
vice-versa for left-handers.
- Follow the leader:If
you are right-handed, your left hand
grips the forestock of the gun, and is
called the "leading hand." When a grouse
flushes, you'll hear it before you see
it. Your body will instinctively turn
toward the sound and, when you see the
bird, your leading hand will point the
gun near it, usually just behind it. As
you move the gun to the bird, the stock
will come up to your shoulder almost
automatically.
- Swing through:A
moving target must be shot with a moving
gun. Once you've learned to mount the
gun smoothly, instinct will bring it up
right behind the bird. Swing through the
bird, fire when the gun passes it, and
keep swinging along the bird's projected
line of flight. Keep your cheek firmly
on the stock until well after the shot
is fired.
This
"swing-through" method gets the gun moving
faster than the bird. Your eyes and hearing
find the bird in the air, your instinct
points the gun just behind it, and your
conscious mind sweeps the gun through the
bird to fire at the place where it is going
to be a fraction of a second later. Don't
worry about how far you have to "lead" the
bird. Just remember this sequence:
behind--beak--bang.
To
nonhunters who have read this far: I'll bet
a lot of you thought that shooting birds
with a shotgun was easy. Ho, ho. It ain't.
You have to learn to do all this stuff,
quickly and well. Otherwise you're just out
for a walk. A long sweaty walk with wood
ticks.
Practice,
practice
It takes practice on clay targets to make
you and your shotgun into a working team. I
think the best clay target games for grouse
practice are ones you invent for yourself
with an inexpensive ground-mounted target
thrower, an assistant and an empty field.
Obviously, make sure you have permission to
shoot and throw targets on the field first.
Tie
about 25 yards of heavy cord to the
thrower's release and stretch it out
directly behind the machine. Set the machine
to throw the targets at about a 45-degree
upward angle and not too fast. Simulate
hunting by walking slowly toward the rear of
the machine with your gun on safe and at the
ready position, and have your assistant pull
the cord from behind you when he or she
feels like it.
Work
on giving your full attention to the target,
stepping toward it with your left foot,
developing a smooth, gentle gun mount, and
swinging through with your head locked to
the stock. At first, concentrate on rising
targets flying away from you at gentle
angles; later, learn to hit targets flying
at right angles. A hundred bucks worth of
shells and targets invested in this kind of
practice will teach you more than years of
banging away in the woods.
Clay
target games
Skeet and trapshooting are fun and
challenging, but they don't provide much
meaningful grouse hunting practice. Skeet
shooting requires a "sustained lead"
shooting method that I find useless in
preparing for grouse hunting. Trap targets
are shot at ranges of 30 yards or more with
12- or 20-gauge guns that weigh eight or
nine pounds. And only a few of the targets
on a typical sporting clays course resemble
anything that ever flew, crawled or swam,
let alone a grouse. If you're just starting
out, skip the organized clay target games.
Instead, try to find an experienced
shotgunner to teach you the basics with your
own target thrower. Also, check out the
helpful books and videos advertised in
magazines like Shotgun Sports.
Safety
When I started grouse hunting, my dad made a
little speech that went something like this:
"It doesn't matter how well you shoot;
you'll learn to hit birds with experience.
The important thing is to be safe. Good
shooters are envied; safe shooters are
trusted."
Safe
gun handling
- Assume every gun is loaded
until you have personally opened the
action and checked the chambers and
magazine. Keep the action open until you
either load the gun or put it away.
- Never load a gun until you
are actually ready to use it.
When you are through using a gun, even
for just a minute or two, unload it.
Unload before crossing a creek or a
fence, while searching for a downed
bird, while taking a break, while
scrambling up or down a hill.
- Until a game bird or clay target is
in the air, keep your shotgun
pointed away from anything that could be
harmed. Safe shooters are
muzzle conscious.
Safe hunting
In grouse hunting, two is company and three
is definitely a crowd. It's difficult enough
for two hunters to stay organized in thick
cover; gang hunts involving three or more
hunters are dangerous. Hunt alone or with
one trusted partner and follow these rules:
- Communication:
Grouse cover is thick; sometimes you
will have trouble seeing a hunting
partner who is only 20 yards away. Make
a simple hunting plan and stick to it:
Determine who will be on the right and
left, which way you will go, and how far
you will go before stopping or turning.
- Cooperation: The
only safe and effective way for two
hunters to work grouse cover is to
advance together along parallel lines
about 20 yards apart. The hunter on the
left will shoot at birds flying ahead or
to his left, but will not shoot at birds
flying to his right, and vice versa for
the hunter on the right. When a shot is
fired, all hunting stops until the fate
of the bird is known.
Grouse
hunters should not engage in "drives,"
where one hunter walks toward the other,
or in "bird-dogging," where one hunter
plows through thick cover while the
other waits for a bird to burst out.
Both of these tactics are dangerous.
- Caution: "Be sure
of your target and what is beyond it
before you shoot" is the cardinal rule
of safe hunting. But being sure of
what's beyond a speeding grouse in the
thick cover they inhabit is practically
impossible. Safety under these
conditions requires rigid adherence to
two commandments:
- In heavy cover, grouse hunters
must shoot only at birds that are at
least eight feet above the ground. Don't
shoot at low birds that could have a
hunter or a dog behind them!
- Wear blaze orange clothing and
stay in visual contact with your partner
at all times. If you lose sight of your
partner, stop hunting, call and listen
until you locate each other.
Throughout
the season, keep your eyes peeled for bow
hunters in tree stands. Many of them wear
full camouflage and are darned near
invisible at a distance. Finally, don't
tempt fate by hunting grouse during the deer
gun season, especially with a dog.
Eye
protection
The branches and berry canes in grouse cover
whip back when pushed. Glasses with sturdy
lenses will keep these thorny hazards out of
your eyes. If you don't wear prescription
glasses, get a pair of good-quality shooting
glasses with clear or light orange lenses.
Avoid glasses with heavy or dark rims that
will distract you and block your view.
The
long season
Grouse grow on you. Their consistent ability
to make fools of men, women and dogs will
teach you humility if anything can. Put in
some time with grouse, pay your dues, and
you'll become hopelessly fond of them, their
haunts and their time of year.
About the author
DAVE CREHORE,
DNR's Public Affairs Manager in the Lake
Michigan Region, has enjoyed hunting and
shooting sports for more than 40 years. |
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