NH Grouse Hunting Update: 10/11
The beat goes on up here in northern New Hampshire with the grouse season. We've been moving plenty of birds the last couple of days (18 grouse and 12 woodcock Thursday morning, and 21 grouse and 5 woodcock on Friday), but the chances to actually take them have been, shall we say ... fleeting. Here today, gone tomorrow, especially with the grouse, or "gray ghosts", as I like to call them. They have offered precious few opportunities for my clients, which is why it is called "grouse hunting", and not "grouse shooting".
Yesterday was a rare chance for me to hunt behind my own dogs this season (that will be the last chance, until November ...), so Rosie and Bode got about three hours of woods time in with me. While we encountered a sizable number of birds yesterday morning, with Rosie managing to point a couple of broods (4 or so birds each), and then cleaning up on woodcock, there really weren't many shooting chances for me. The grouse woods are still incredibly thick and two of the usual excuses reared their ugly head for me. On one grouse, my attempt at swinging on the bird was ended prematurely by a tree, and the other time, a bird flushed just as I had one leg in the air, crossing a blow down. Classic grouse hunting ...
It gave me a new appreciation for what my clients go through day after day. It actually seems like a miracle at those times that the grouse give us makable shots. The woodcock were more accommodating however, as I connected on a point from Rosie and another one from Bode. Bode also had a great point on a pair of grouse along a snowmobile trail - they both escaped, but I gave the first one a salutation. No luck.
Today gave me a chance to take out a new client that has been upland bird hunting from a young age. We had a great time, and I relished the opportunity to get him in to all of those thick, dark places where grouse like to hide. In his late twenties, he was game for everything that I threw at him, and we spent most of the day wading through incredibly thick cover, most of the time going uphill. It is called "upland bird hunting" after all.
Yesterday was a rare chance for me to hunt behind my own dogs this season (that will be the last chance, until November ...), so Rosie and Bode got about three hours of woods time in with me. While we encountered a sizable number of birds yesterday morning, with Rosie managing to point a couple of broods (4 or so birds each), and then cleaning up on woodcock, there really weren't many shooting chances for me. The grouse woods are still incredibly thick and two of the usual excuses reared their ugly head for me. On one grouse, my attempt at swinging on the bird was ended prematurely by a tree, and the other time, a bird flushed just as I had one leg in the air, crossing a blow down. Classic grouse hunting ...
It gave me a new appreciation for what my clients go through day after day. It actually seems like a miracle at those times that the grouse give us makable shots. The woodcock were more accommodating however, as I connected on a point from Rosie and another one from Bode. Bode also had a great point on a pair of grouse along a snowmobile trail - they both escaped, but I gave the first one a salutation. No luck.
Today gave me a chance to take out a new client that has been upland bird hunting from a young age. We had a great time, and I relished the opportunity to get him in to all of those thick, dark places where grouse like to hide. In his late twenties, he was game for everything that I threw at him, and we spent most of the day wading through incredibly thick cover, most of the time going uphill. It is called "upland bird hunting" after all.
Monty was first out of the truck today, and it took a bit of time for him to find and point his birds, but then he started to get rolling. While he didn't point all of the birds that he encountered this morning (13 grouse and 4 woodcock), he locked down on quite a few of them. Still, most of the grouse only offered prayer shots through the thick cover for my client, and his young reflexes were more than willing to take a shot. No dice on the grouse, but he did connect on one of the four woodcock that Monty pointed.
Bode took to the woods in the afternoon, and performed admirably but didn't do much in the way of pointing. At this point, the temperature was near 60 degrees, and a swirling wind was playing games with the bird scent. Bode smelled them, but it was clear that he wasn't getting enough scent to lock down on his birds. The really frustrating thing for us was how the birds continually went up out of range, usually out of sight too.
The woods are growing dry again, and there was no secret to anything out in the woods that we were on the way - the crunchy leaves gave us away every time. Add to this the fact that there's still plenty of leaf cover on the trees and it all adds up to another bagel in the grouse department. Hopefully we can start evening out the numbers on the season tote board soon!
The woods are growing dry again, and there was no secret to anything out in the woods that we were on the way - the crunchy leaves gave us away every time. Add to this the fact that there's still plenty of leaf cover on the trees and it all adds up to another bagel in the grouse department. Hopefully we can start evening out the numbers on the season tote board soon!
