NH Grouse Hunting Update: 10/24
One thing about grouse hunting that we all can count on is that no two days are the same. There's always something different each time that we go out to hunt grouse and woodcock - whether it's the conditions, the reactions of the birds, or the efforts of the dogs themselves, every day presents different conditions and challenges for us hunters. That is one of the reasons why being successful while grouse hunting is so satisfying.
Under good scenting and weather conditions for the dogs, we had a good day today as my client Chris and I chased grouse and woodcock in northern New Hampshire. Jim sat this one out as he had taken a fall yesterday and didn't feel up to prowling the woods with us. It didn't take us long to find some birds, as Bode established point on a trio of grouse, and then later on, a string of woodcock. One of the woodcock held well for the point and Chris's approach and was taken over Bode's staunch point. Bode disappeared quickly and brought the bird back to us, and we had a bird in the vest within the first hour of our hunt.
A few others presented opportunities this morning, as Bode staunchly pointed a couple of single grouse and then had a nice point on another woodcock, but none fell to Chris's gun. Rosie got her turn in the afternoon, and was simply amazing. Lots of points and relocations on grouse, but the cover was often thick and the birds were moving like rockets for the majority of the afternoon. Still, Chris had a few opportunities to take birds, but they flew on to greener grouse woods. Chris will at least have some pleasant memories from his time watching some good dog work on grouse and woodcock. We moved a total of 18 grouse and 9 woodcock for the day.
While today turned out to be a great day of moving birds and observing great work from the dogs, yesterday's hunt provided yet another example of the need to grouse hunt with a good bird dog. Chris had taken a shot at one of a pair of fast flushing grouse from the snowmobile trail he was on. As I was off in the cover on the other side of the trail, I asked if he had hit it, and he said that he hadn't. Still, we decided to follow up on the bird he took a shot at in the hopes of flushing it again. Up ahead of us, in some tall spruces, Chris's Brittany Chotsie began yelping and jumping up at the base of one of the spruce trees. It didn't take us long to discover what had Chotsie all excited - a grouse, dead in the branches of the tree, about twenty feet up.
Lacking a suitable twenty foot long branch to try to get the bird down, Chris came over and shot the branch holding the grouse in place. It had been hit and tried to land in the security of a spruce tree that I'm sure it had gone to in the past. This time, that tree served as its final resting place, but I'm glad we had a good dog to find it for us. As usual, it was a lot of fun to be out in the woods again with Chris and Jim and we all look forward to doing it again next year ...
