The pages of hunting magazines are filled with glossy images of deer, elk, and moose. However, the woods and plains are home to far more small critters than large ones. Often underappreciated, the grouse hunting is a common pursuit across North America as well as excellent tablefare. More attention is deserved by these delicious and beautiful animals.
Most grouse are harvested opportunistically during the pursuit of other species. But it doesn’t need to be that way. Focusing grouse hunting efforts on high opportunity spots significantly increases effectiveness. The tips and strategies below help hunters bag more birds.
Selecting Your Weapon
Where legal, many grouse are killed with deer hunting rifles. While the rifle you have is certainly better than one you don’t, this is obviously less than ideal. Most serious grouse hunters will opt for a rimfire rifle or a shotgun. The rimfire hunters will cite no meat loss and less noise while as the shotgun hunter favours the ability to wing shoot birds, increasing opportunities. I fall into the latter camp, although I have hunted grouse with a 22 in the past.
As far as shotshells go, it really doesn’t take much to knock down a grouse. My favorite shell for grouse is a 2 3/4″ heavy field load in #6 lead through an Improved Cylinder choke. I prefer lead for grouse hunting because of the higher pellet counts, which help to shoot through the dense thickets grouse love. Additionally, lead pellets cause fewer trips to the dentist than their hard steel counterparts. Either way, grouse aren’t particularly tenacious and everything from #8 up to #2 can be effective when paired with a quality choke.
Habitat
Next, finding optimal grouse habitat is essential. Grouse like thick bush with lots of deciduous trees and new growth and berries to eat. However, the typically pick a spot that also has coniferous trees nearby for shelter. Grouse will often spend time on the border where two different species of trees intersect.
Another important quirk of grouse behaviour is their affinity for pebbles. Like many birds, grouse do not have teeth well suited for grinding up their food. Instead, they have a gizzard, which is a stomach-like container that holds their food as well as some pebbles they have found and swallowed. The pebbles grind up the food before it makes its way down to the stomach. Grouse like to live near a source of small pebbles so they can replenish their gizzard easily.
Across much of the grouse’s range, overgrown logging roads offer ideal habitat. Gravel roads offer pebbles, alder trees grow back first on the edge of the roads, and evergreens are present slightly further back. Salmon berries, salal berries, and bunch berries will spring up, providing more food for the birds. This creates ideal grouse conditions, and walking these roads is an effective strategy.
Behaviour
Finally, once you have selected an appropriate firearm and hunting location, the last step is understanding the bird’s behaviour. One of the most common mistakes that I see beginner grouse hunters make is moving through country too quickly. Grouse are exceptionally well-camoflaged which they leverage to their advantage. They are also very adept at discerning one’s direction of travel. Because of this, if a grouse knows you are not walking directly toward them they may hold still while the hunter passes within feet of them.
For those hunting without a dog, the counter to this strategy is to pause periodically while moving through the terrain. When a hunter pauses, grouse holding still nearby believe themselves spotted and will flush. This creates wingshooting opportunities where otherwise the hunter would have wandered by unaware.
Another important aspect of grouse behaviour is that they live in groups called coveys. If one grouse flushes, there is a high likelihood that others are nearby. While it is easy to relax momentarily after downing a bird, staying alert and focused can lead to doubles and triples.
Using Dogs
While it takes more training, hunting with dogs can increase your effective harvest. This allows the hunter to move more quickly as the dog will detect birds holding tight in the brush near the pathway. Hunting over a flusher creats a fast paced exciting hunt, but also necessitates the use of a shotgun over a rimfire rifle. Surely, it is an incredibly rewarding experience the first time your dog flushes a bird and then gleefully retrieves it for you.
An additional benefit of hunting with a dog is a wounded bird rarely escapes. With a strong nose and quick speed a bird dog can track down an injured bird when it heads for the hills. This can help minimize the number of lost birds, guaranteeing all of your harvest makes it to the table.
Closing Thoughts
Upland grouse hunting receives much less attention than it ought to. Grouse aren’t as crepuscular as ungulates so you can hunt them on days where you can’t be out for first light. They provide more shot opportunities in a season. Also, hunting grouse allows you to spend time with your dog in the field . Finally, grouse meat is delectible and offers a welcome change from the principally red meat of most of North America’s wild game. With all this in mind, maybe its time grouse hunting becomes less of an afterthought and enjoys the focus it deserves.