doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion DoubleGun BBS @ doublegunshop.com Second barrel on grouse

Blanket statements like this will get your chops busted every time .......... like Ted just did.

I've observed over the years that the taste is much the same, shot sitting, walking or flying. The memory is sweeter having the grouse shot flying, I'll admit. A high point for a young hunter, or old. No ground shots with the dog out though! I much agree with Ted. A long standing tradition to simply hunt grouse, by legal means, in MN. God's chickens.
Chief

Chops busted? I think not!

I grew up mentored by hunters other than my father who was deceased. Gun safety & hunting ethics were stressed & rigidly enforced. You did not shoot birds on the ground period! How you took game was considered more important than coming home with a full game bag. I lived in fear that I would commit a transgression that would result in my not being invited to hunt w/my mentors in the future.

When I went away to college & (in a state where a loaded gun in the vehicle & road hunting was legal) I discovered that the hunting ethics I grew up with were not universal. Ground swatting birds was considered normal & sensible if possible & a full limit or more if you could get away with it was considered the measurement of a successful hunt.

As much as I hate to admit it I participated in some of this due to peer pressure but I always felt guilty about it. It was harvesting, not hunting & not enjoyable to me.

If you are a subsistence hunter I guess anything goes but I don't think many posters here qualify as subsistence hunters & other than stopping a wounded bird that is running (assuming no dogs or people are in danger) I can't see any justification for ground swatting a game bird.


My mentors were correct in that the quality of the hunt was much more important than the weight of the game bag after the hunt & I wish that I had always remembered that.

When I was in college, I got laid-off from my job with the State Highway Department. I applied for unemployment compensation until I found a new job, but was denied because I was a full-time student. I subsequently won on appeal, because the law stated that because I was working full-time while attending school full-time, I had demonstrated a willingness to do both.

But prior to having my appeal hearing, and winning that appeal, I had just paid my September rent and security deposit, and Fall Term tuition and books, etc., and I was about as near broke as I have ever been in my life. After several weeks of eating nothing but dirt cheap food like macaroni and cheese or Hamburger Helper without the hamburger, I decided to go dove hunting to get some meat. As I was walking through a cornfield toward the tree line to set up for doves, I kicked out two ringneck pheasants. They flushed straight away, and being hungry for meat protein, I shot both of them almost without thinking... and pheasants were not in season.

That was the very first double I ever got on pheasants, and it was also the first and only time I ever poached. I stashed the birds in the weeds near the road, and picked them up when I left for the evening. It wasn't ethical, and it sure as hell wasn't legal. But those were absolutely the best tasting pheasants I ever ate.

It appears that the post I made in reply to nca225 a couple days ago was deemed inappropriate. That's a shame. I didn't think it was any more inappropriate or offensive than inferring that KenA is a "road hunting/ground sluicing slob." With only 21 posts here, KenA could become offended, and simply decide to leave. I hope he considers the source... one that should have been censored or "moderated" into oblivion years ago.

So would you ground swat a turkey?
How about shoot at a running deer?
How about shoot at a sitting squirrel?

just curious...

No problem with the above, BM. I much agree. But ......... you gave only two qualifications for shooting a grouse on the ground or off a limb, and then stated that otherwise it would not be necessary. That is cut and dried, but Ted told of a perfectly good reason. That negates your blanket statement. Your strict ethics would deny an old man, unable to swing a gun on a flushing bird, the right to harvest one more grouse for his table. Chops ........... busted.

Stan. your reply brings to mind one of the many great stories written by the late Gene Hill--"Old Tom".. RWTF

Assuming all game laws are obeyed, the game is respected and safety is set as the highest priority... the rest of hunting involves a lot of personal choices. Blanket statements to suggest one's own opinion is the only correct ethical standard should be avoided outside the circle of pre-screened supporters. Lest someone pick at the statement and start questioning things like shooting .22's into trees on public hunting grounds. Because then you're into qualifying and explaining statements that were supposed to end as a mic drop. lol

This is getting silly. I guess we all have are different standards & it is easy to justify some of the things we feel like doing at the time.

Where does it stop? Is ground swatting a covey of quail sitting huddled in the snow OK just because we have been hunting hard, have an empty game bag & a taste for quail & gravy? How about shooting ducks sitting on pond, yellow bottom ponds, bated dove fields & spottlighting deer. It's a slippery slope & all easy to justify in the effort to fill a limit or game bag.

Re. Ted's old man story, while I'm sympathetic & I'm aware of North country Grouse harvesting culture (that is why Savage made those .410 barrels for the takedown 99's I think) I sure as hell hope that the last grouse (or other game bird) I shoot is not ground swatted! What a legacy to leave!

& to the Barron: If you have concerns about shooting a grouse off a limb w/ a .22 hand gun I assume the .22 prohibition would mean squirrels must be shot with a shotgun. In my hunting culture only young children shoot squirrels w /a shotgun. Men shoot squirrels w/.22 rifles & I know a few who use .22 handguns. If the background is unsafe they don't shoot.