Originally Posted by Jimmy W
Unfortunately, I will probably never experience grouse hunting because of the lack of them in my area. So I have to admire the guys who bring them down.

I've found that the easiest way to bring them down is to build a lakefront camp with a terrific view and wait until they fly into the picture window.

[Linked Image from i.postimg.cc]

This poor rascal made a thump like a thrown boiled ham, trying to fly into my cousin's camp late one May afternoon through a vast, invisible wall of congealed boiled silica. It was stunned for a few minutes, long enough for me to run for my iPad. When I came back with it, it was still lying on its side, and I thought it was a goner. No such luck. It quickly got up, shook itself, and flew away when I started tauntingly reciting traditional French recipes in a singsong manner. (I'm actually a fair singer; pretty sure it simply objected to the notion of being marinated in dry vermouth and herbes de Provence.)

I love it that my spring-summer-autumn vacation haunt is in moderately-decent grouse habitat. Ruffed grouse and spruce grouse, both. See some every year, some years few, other years in hordes. They are wonderful entertainment and better than television, as birds one encounters on the trails go. I've yet to shoot and eat one, but I'm arguably equipped for that now. On verra.

Sidebar: Will you just look at that camouflage compared to the ground cover? I admire these birds.