Well I had a very nice couple hunts the last few weeks. I harvested my first animal, a spruce grouse, a few weeks back and had my first wild game meal. I ended up killing 2 of them a few weeks back and missing a few more in the excitement of the day. I left on a Wednesday night a week or so back and got to a campsite I wanted to stay at in 8-4 at around 5 or so. I decided I had a bit of time left to hunt around before starting to prepare camp so I took a little drive away from camp and started exploring a deactivated road on foot and around an old overgrown trail. It didn’t take too long before I spotted a big old blue grouse up in a tree. But it was a pretty long shot and I wasn’t sold that I could find the bird if I did hit it, I wanted to get closer. I tried to sneak in, but with my general hunting inexperience it was probably more of a stomp in. The bird disappeared but my confidence was up tenfold.
I came back to camp and was sad to see that the last people were there left it a complete mess. Paper plates scattered everywhere, amidst their other garbage. At first I tried to give them the benefit of the doubt. They didn’t want to burn their easily burnable garage due to the fact that our province was on fire over the summer. But the fact that I reused their fire pit to burn their own garbage probably craps on my generosity. Speaking of which, that’s the only thing I didn’t burn or haul out from these a******s. Their s**t bucket. That’s right, they left a 5 gallon bucket near camp to crap in. I refused to deal with that.
But I digress from my otherwise enjoyable time. I woke up the next morning to find a few birds, but just not get a shot off quick enough before they disappeared and I lost them in thick cover. I was out exploring one area when I found a dried up creek bed that I was compelled to climb. About ten minutes up I see a grouse hightailing it to the left into some brush. He’s really hard to see, I find him in my scope on my savage 17hmr and BLAUSCH! Then I see another grouse to my right, he’s running away into some brush as well. Blausch! Another shot, this bird has the kindness to roll and flap its way right down to me. This was my first animal that I had in my hands and the culmination of a ton of work and I let out a loud whoop! I was so damn proud of myself and so excited to know that I was going to be bringing something home to the family. Man that was a great feeling!
I got that bird cleaned up and went to look for the first one. It took me about 5 minutes or so but eventually I did find the bird, lodged close to a tree. I picked it up and was disappointed I had blown a pretty big hole in it. My second bird had fared much better with a nice head shot. I cleaned up what I could of it and got most of a breast plus some other pieces here and there.
I spent the rest of the day driving and hiking and got a swing and a miss at one more bird before calling it quits for the day and heading home.
I roasted it up, using a recipe from Hank Shaw. This being my first foray into wild game cooking and really my first wild game meal I didn’t really know what to expect.
I’m not going to lie, it wasn’t love at first taste. It was interesting. There’s a lot going on in every bite. It tasted to me like pork with the consistency of salmon with a bit of chicken in it. But I was determined to enjoy every bite and I did. My family gamely tried it. Their reaction was much the same but all smiles as they know how damn hard I had been working to get anything since getting my hunting licence at the beginning of last season. We polished off the bird and a half.
After that I was keen to get out again so I moved some appointments around so I could get out for a few days a week later. I drove up into a new area of 8-4 and drove for a while before coming to a deactivated road and feeling this would be a good one to hike. I started up and was scanning the treetops, moving slow, being in stealth mode. Then, I almost tripped over a grouse. I was so busy looking in the trees I almost didn’t notice the one about 30 yards up the road. I causally swung my rifle off my shoulder, took aim and Blaush!
But he’s still standing there! This is why they have the moniker fools hen. Now I get it! So I noisily slide my bolt back, chamber another round, and he’s still doing his best statue, remaining perfectly still for me to take aim again and make no mistake. Not 100 yards up the road from the truck, I walk him back down and into the cooler he goes. Back up the hill, bird flushes to a tree, bird in scope, bird down. 2 birds and I haven’t even had to walk more than 500 meters yet. A great day!
I spent the rest of the day hiking and driving around, much the same as the last week and managed to get 2 more birds in the cooler for a total of 4. I camped one more night and the next morning started up an old trail that was supposed to meet up with another trail, leading me on a long loop back to my vehicle. But the trail soon became overgrown and whatever path was once there had long been reclaimed. My GPS kept leading me uphill and I ended up in a hell of a climbing situation that I soon regretted. I’m sure all of you have done the same thing where you think just a little further and this will all work out. A little further through this ankle biting brush and I’ll meet up with a nice path. Shockingly, this time it didn’t work out! Well not in the way I wanted; a nice hike back to my truck.
Instead I found a beautiful 7 point moose shed! I was so damn excited and it is so awesome it made that hellacious hike well worth it. The only problem, on the steep slope, I slipped a little and my rifle took a pretty good knock. I didn’t think much of it until later. On my last hike, I saw a grouse down a trail and took aim, missed! Took aim, missed! Took aim, guess what….. Missed! This time he took off. I haven’t had the rifle out to the range yet to test it, but I’m blaming at least one of those misses on the rifle and not my marksmanship!
After having grouse a few times now the taste has really grown on me and I’m excited for more wild game meals. I’ve tried preparing it roasted and sautéed so far and have a grouse pate resting in the fridge as I type. Said appetizer is to be brought to a postposed thanksgiving dinner on Sunday at my vegetarian, somewhat anti-hunting mom’s house. As my late Nana always used to say “We’ll, That’ll be interesting!”
These 2 hunts were unbelievably fun and rewarding. Hopefully I can make the jump into a big game harvest this season!
I couldn't figure out how to embed images but if you're interested, theres a few shots here - https://photos.app.goo.gl/tdQa8Id7JVjnGeis1
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Their steaks, roasts and burger to me! Tom 
