Broken
It's the end of the line for the grouse hunting season for my pack and I, but to reinforce the point, it's also the end for my 20 gauge shotgun. You can never tell if there's ice under that snow ...
GROUSE HUNTING TRIPS SINCE 2008
Frost Fire's Grouse Hunting
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The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly ...
an account of grouse and woodcock hunting
in northern NH and the NEK of Vermont ...
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December Birds
Late season grouse hunting. It can be feast or, far more often, famine, for us late season grouse hunters. There are fewer birds at this time of the season, and those that we find seem to be well versed in the art of concealment and escape, but every now and then one goes up a little too close and becomes a much desired dinner guest. Bode admired this bird after first tracking it, and then retrieving it after it flushed beside me. A "reflex shot" later, it became another victim of the 28 gauge.
Wiped Out
Our final grouse hunting trips of the season concluded yesterday, barring a sudden warmup in December, and we're glad to be out of the woods for the time being. Myself and the dogs are physically spent, and the grouse hunting itself has been difficult lately. We just haven't been moving as many birds as we usually do, even though we were hunting prototypical "grouse cover" for the weather conditions that we had to deal with.
Boot Leather
One thing about ruffed grouse hunting: without a doubt, a comfortable pair of boots is perhaps the most important piece of apparel we go to the field with. Without good boots, our hours spent chasing birds would be for naught, as we would struggle mightily to navigate the rocky ridge tops and soggy lowlands that grouse prefer to call home. Fortunately, Jeanne and Harvey (above) had good boots, because we walked at least 14 miles in our two days of hunting together.
Heatwave
A rare image over the last few days of bird hunting: one of my clients with their hard-earned quarry, a beautiful male grouse. If my last post sounded dire in its description of how the hunting has been in the abnormally warm temperatures over the last week, it really took a turn for the worse over the weekend, as we had two of the warmest hunting days that we've experienced.
Tough Days
It's been a tough go of it lately for my clients and I in the grouse woods of New Hampshire and Vermont. After a great day of finding birds last Friday, we have had several tough days in a row, as we have struggled to move grouse and woodcock consistently. Yes, I said woodcock because there's still some of them around here in our northern coverts, due to the unusually warm weather we have experienced recently. How long they stay around, who knows, but there's still a few of them around at the moment.
A Tale of Two Days
How can two days of ruffed grouse hunting be so different? Great question, and it's one that I frequently ask myself when we have a great day of hunting, followed up by a slower day, or vice-a versa. That was the case yesterday, where we could seemingly do no wrong, to today, where the grouse were especially hard to find, even when we were hunting quintessential "grouse cover". As a now retired fishing guide friend of mine frequently mused, "Some days you're the windshield, some days you're the bug".
Transitions
The grouse and woodcock seasons are progressing through the month of October here in northern New Hampshire and Vermont, and this is the time of the season when we are noticing changes, almost daily. Not only have most of the leaves dropped, changing the cover habits of the grouse, but we are rapidly nearing the end of encountering woodcock on a consistent basis.
Grouse Hunting Season Stats
|
2024: 190.5 Hours |
2023: 222.5 Hours |
2022: 123.0 Hours |
|
2021: 193.5 Hours |
2020: 199.5 Hours |
2019: 184.5 Hours |
|
2018: 144.0 Hours |
2017: 180.5 Hours |
2016: 178 Hours |
|
2015: 202.0 Hours |
2014: 138.0 hours |
2013: 152 Hours |
|
2012: 114 Hours |
2011: 161 Hours |
2010: 139.5 Hours |
|
2009: 93.5 Hours |
2008: 82.5 Hours |
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