Well I went hunting this past Sunday and saw one grouse and flew long before I really registered what it was. Saw a doe and did a bit of scouting but pretty much a bust for birds.
Monday morning Field Marshall and I hook up for a grouse hunt. We meet at his place for 7:00am, grab some gas and we're on our way.
The first bird of the morning to present itself was an old hooter.He's doing his statue impersonation at about 30 yards. I load up the new to me over and under with one #6 shell loaded. OK which trigger fires the shell? So a bit of calculation in my head, put the bead on the birds head and pull the trigger. Done deal right? Nope... the bird flies off never to be seen again.Well there goes the first try at a blue grouse.
We get to the top of a ridge and decide to see where the gun is shooting so we set up a sheet of paper at 30 yards and I aim for the top of the paper and I peppered the page pretty good. Hmm. Maybe I wasn't ligning up on the rib properly.
We hit several other ridges over the span of the day, it rained on and off pretty much all day. We took a break and tossed a wing that Field Marshall had removed from a previous bird he got this weekend to teach the dog what he's supposed to be looking for. He played and mangled the wing pretty much to death. He does the same with duck wings but he never mauls real birds for some reason.
We took a time out to enjoy the bounty of the land and picked some Chantrelles. We even found two stumps with the "chicken of the woods" on them.
At the end of the day we start heading out and decide to check one more spot where there was mushrooms to be had later in the season.We started down an alder tangled maze of a road, we turn a corner and there it is. Another statue but this time it's a ruffy. I load up take my time, and squeeze the trigger. Bird flops over, then gets up and tries to fly but hits the ground running. I send the dog and run up about 25 yards. Crap there is another one in the ditch not 10 feet from me and he hops up on a branch about two feet up. I point the barrel at his head and pull another off. This one didn't get away.Then all hell breaks loose and we have grouse flying from everywhere but no shots taken. We put the dog in where we think I hit the first one. He flushes 3 grouse one by one in about a 50 yard block, but we never do recover the bird I thought I hit. Could it be I miss the second birds as well?
Well it cost me about $80 in gas over the past two days running the ridges looking for an elusive blue grouse to shoot. I didn't get my wish but I still ended up with some great memories and laughs with Field Marshall and the dog. Marshall did quite good for his first time out for grouse. He stayed in fairly close and turned back right away if I called out to him when he was pushing to far out. I did manage a young ruffy that turned out to be one hell of a meal in the end.
Marc.
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Originally Posted by stoneslinger
