I generally believe that a couple of birds in the game bag is a perfect day hunting, but once in a while I think it would be fun to have catch and release hunting, like catch and release trout fishing. The closest thing to it that I know of is ruffed grouse hunting. I call it flush and release hunting. Most of the time I don't even see the grouse, who hides his thundering departure behind the cover between us. On the one out of eight flushes or so that I see the grouse, I often shoot and miss. Now that's flush and release hunting! It makes the occasional grouse in the bag extra special, even without the further challenge of using a hammer gun. So it went with the grouse which my son and I chased last month in New Hampshire.

Rich