I wish I had a huntable population of them on my land but I have very few.That's too bad because I think Grouse is the best tasting wild bird out there. Every spring I can hear one drumming across the field in my neighbors woods and then also in mine. When he's in my woods drumming I can hear it when I'm inside so I know he's close. I have only seen the grouse twice in 10 years when it flew into my yard before heading into my woods. I don't know why I didn't think of this before but I went and put a camera on a hollow log I think the Grouse may be using. It would be great to get a pic of it especially if it is drumming. I have seen one from my truck real close to my home every spring strutting in the road. I'm not sure if they get stupid during their mating season or not but this one takes his sweet time before moving out of the road way so I can get by. Pic in next post
I did not tell my dog to do that. They both try to photo bomb every pic I take Anyway here is my set up.
I love grouse probably my favorite bird to hunt. They are very difficult to raise in captivity, next to impossible. I live on the fringe of grouse range but their numbers have been down since the 90's they used to be cyclical but the population seems flat with an occasional slightly above average year.
We have quite a few of them around here, I usually get a couple while elk hunting. We always pack one blunt arrow in our quiver for them. The crop of them can really change between years. I've heard that they have a 7 year up/down cycle, but how many there are seems to be more impacted by what kind of Spring we have. A long rainy Spring isn't good for them, the chicks have a higher chance of not making it. They are nick-named "stupid chickens" because they let you get pretty close before they finally decide to make an exit. A blue grouse is much more spooky by comparison. I agree with you on eating them, I like them better than every other game bird except Huns. I love hearing them drumming in the Spring, I hear them quite a bit when turkey hunting and morel hunting.
I had never seen a grouse in my neck of the woods until last year. It would be really cool to see a healthy population show up. I’ve never hunted them before. Sent from my iPhone using Bowhunting.com Forums
Up until about 8 years ago I could waste a couple of boxes of # 8,s every fall, had a great time, lottsa exercise, but now I saw 2 birds all fall, that was including bird hunting, bow hunting and rile deer season, probably 25 days afield, maybe a little more ! Pretty sad !!! Don not know what happened to them, lotsa of various age forests, many different year class clear cuts, Coyotes ? Wolves ? Fisher ? disease ? Really do no know
