Sav .250
Member
Grouse tend to make all look stupid. You have to be cat-quick with your shotgun.
Not much aiming going on ...........................just point and pull.
Not much aiming going on ...........................just point and pull.
If it's tight cover, you can't worry about lead. Snap-shooting is the order of the day.Managed to take a shot at one the other day, missed though:banghead: did not have a big enough lead.
Nothing is guaranteed with grouse (or with anything else) and they can be found just about anywhere in the woods, however there's a few good places to look.
1) Edges. Grouse like edges such as hardwood meeting softwood, overgrown fields, stone walls, logging roads, and lightly traveled gravel roads.
2) Hunt early mornings and you will probably flush them from trees. If you flush one be ready, there is often more.
3) BE READY! This means at all times. Grouse have a nasty habit of flushing when you're bending over to climb under a log, or even when you're taking a leak. One flew in just as I was doing that one day and I got him.
4) On rainy days hunt the pines. Grouse don't care for getting soaked and prefer the shelter thick pines provide.
5) Learn to spot them on the ground or in trees. If you're hunting old apple trees don't go barging in. Scan the trees and the ground beneath them first. If you spot them first you have a huge advantage even if you don't shoot them sitting still. Often just before dark you can spot them feeding high up in birch trees or any other trees that produce catkins. They go to the very top and are pretty easy to spot against the sky.
That should be a good start for you. They aren't a complicated creature to hunt but they can be frustrating and you have to be persistant. It's also great exercise!
That should be a good start for you. They aren't a complicated creature to hunt but they can be frustrating and you have to be persistant. It's also great exercise!