It's not a Grouse
 

Buts its size is close enough to get dialed in on!

Im going to take this out later today at 30 and 40 yards to make sure my load patterns ok and if it does, I'll call it good until Sept 12th when grouse season opens. Actually, I have to check the regulations booklet to make sure what grouse season opens for sure.


Using equal powder/shot volume this time.

70gr Pyrodex Select and 1oz #7 1/2 shot.

Heck MD, by the time you get that hammer cocked and the gun shouldered any sensible grouse will have put a tree between you and him!

oh we hunt an area that has old timber cuts, they love that grassy stuff with some hiding spots in it.

I'll get a pic of the area here in a bit.

Use to have Patridge / Grouse as we Sconnies call thim in my back yard have been gone for about 10 years. Too many fox and coyotes

This year, I lay out a smoke screen so my dad and brother have a harder time with their semi-autos LOL.

I shot a number of Ruffed Grouse with my T/C New Englander. But my ace in the hole was my black Labrador. When his tail started going in a big circle and he tensed up, I knew he had one in his sights so I would shoulder and cock the shotgun. Sometimes, before he'd flush (not always mind you) he'd look over his shoulder at me to check where I was. And as long as I could knock it down, he'd go find it. Sure miss that devil. I have not really grouse hunted seriously since he died.

I used to LOVE grouse hunting. We just don't have them here anymore. I'm lucky to see 1 or 2 in a whole season. I guess the coyote's have worked on em big time.

Time to take out some coyotes IMO! I know my hunting unit needs them thinned out. You'll be asleep and then you wake up in the dead of the night with your heart pounding and a dozen yotes calling back and forth.

We shoot every one we can, but it just doesn't seem to help much.
Our game bird population has dwindled to basically almost non-existent. In the past 15yrs I have not seen any quail, and exactly 2 woodcock. I miss the days when a few of us could go walk some woods and we always came home with some game.

wow thats a shame when it gets that bad. Do they allow fur trapping in WV or is it pretty regulated?

We have he same problem in PA with grouse numbers down. You got it made in that open coiuntry MD. Our grouse hang out in the thick woods/mountain laurel thickets. You may occasionally get one flushing down an old logging road or strip mine but not often.
Cayugad - I had a big chocolate male lab (110 lbs) that had that grouse thing figured out. We had a favorite spot with a long grassy road with briars on both sides. Grouse loved to hang out in the briars. After walking ahead of me and scenting one in the briars he would dive in after it and it would flush out the other side without me even seeing it. After a couple of times he got wise to them and when he smelled them he doubled back behind me, went on the other side of the briars and flushed them out so they flew right down the road giving me an easy going straight away shot. But alas, that big brute of a dog has passed on along with all my other labs. I have a black female now that's smart as a whip but for some reason she is gun shy and I have to try and break her of it. She's getting better but not quite there yet.

On our farm in WV we have trappers that take several dozen every year. One year they took over 50. Interesting thing, when you hunt you rarely see them, but they are obviously all over the place. We do hear them a good bit.

In VA, where I live... its the same. Yotes plentiful, game birds not. Maybe at some point the birds will come back, but I'm not holding my breath.