Cold Snap
Those were some mighty big snowflakes coming down yesterday in New Hampshire's uplands. What started as merely a cold morning of grouse hunting became a moderate snow event in the afternoon. Thankfully, the blustery conditions only lasted a short time before the wind and snow settled down after a couple of hours.
Chris, with a beautiful male ruffed grouse that he just harvested under Dixie's steady point. It was a two grouse, two woodcock day for him, as his 28 gauge was deadly.
Scott, with his fifth ruffed grouse that he took in two days of hunting. He has Dixie to thank for an excellent point, and his 28 gauge for a well timed shot.
It was a much colder start for us yesterday than on Saturday. With temps in the low 20's and a brisk wind from the north, we made sure to keep moving all morning, usually uphill, just to stay warm. It took a while, but we finally started moving a few grouse behind Chris's Weimaraner Teddy after a couple of hours - they were probably hunkered down, waiting to start moving around in their daily schedule of feeding and resting until the temp had risen a bit.
Late in the morning, Scott's setter Dixie made another appearance, and she picked up right where she left off the day before. She was dynamite, contacting approximately nine birds (5 grouse, 4 woodcock) in an hour and a half. She pointed the vast majority of them too, and provided Scott and Chris with many good opportunities. Both hunters scored on pointed grouse, and Chris also took two woodcock over her staunch points.
Here is where I need to interject a piece of information that may be relevant to some readers. Both Scott and Chris were using 28 gauge shotguns - Chris with his wonderful Fausti SxS and Scott with his O/U Rizzini. Both are light and easy to carry through a long day of grouse hunting and all that entails, and both hunters mounted them amazingly quickly when needed. They did manage to miss a few birds (I don't want them to feel too good about themselves and their abilities), but they made far more than they missed, for sure.
They reminded me of another group of grouse hunters that I used to go out with long ago, and I remember also marveling at their grouse shooting abilities with the 28 gauge. The name of the grouse hunting game is shooting a gun that you're comfortable with, but there's a lot to be said for a light, quick-mounting shotgun that you can carry all day through the grouse woods. And, yes, I carry one on the rare occasions I get to hunt.
Our day concluded in the now thickening snow squall that suddenly appeared (all of the images in this post are from the same day, believe it or not) with a run from Chris's Weimaraner "Monty". He did a good job for us, finding several grouse in his run, but his highlight was pointing a grouse in thick spruce cover with only one way to go. It had to fly downhill towards Chris, and apparently its acrobatics eluded Chris's attempt - a rare miss for his 28. We wrapped it up not long after that, cold, wet and tired.
This morning was even colder, with Chris and I leaving the trucks at a mere 18 degrees, and it took a couple of hours to warm up. Behind his dogs we managed to find a couple of woodcock and a grouse, so there are still a few timberdoodles around but we think this might be the stragglers of the annual migration. The majority have left our area, and we look forward to seeing them again next year. Even though there is a warming trend later this week, most of them have headed south and we'll be down to the nitty gritty of grouse only for the remainder of our season.
A few more days of hunting in New Hampshire (the muzzleloader deer hunt starts this coming Saturday) and then we shift our focus to Vermont.
More updates to come ...
Late in the morning, Scott's setter Dixie made another appearance, and she picked up right where she left off the day before. She was dynamite, contacting approximately nine birds (5 grouse, 4 woodcock) in an hour and a half. She pointed the vast majority of them too, and provided Scott and Chris with many good opportunities. Both hunters scored on pointed grouse, and Chris also took two woodcock over her staunch points.
Here is where I need to interject a piece of information that may be relevant to some readers. Both Scott and Chris were using 28 gauge shotguns - Chris with his wonderful Fausti SxS and Scott with his O/U Rizzini. Both are light and easy to carry through a long day of grouse hunting and all that entails, and both hunters mounted them amazingly quickly when needed. They did manage to miss a few birds (I don't want them to feel too good about themselves and their abilities), but they made far more than they missed, for sure.
They reminded me of another group of grouse hunters that I used to go out with long ago, and I remember also marveling at their grouse shooting abilities with the 28 gauge. The name of the grouse hunting game is shooting a gun that you're comfortable with, but there's a lot to be said for a light, quick-mounting shotgun that you can carry all day through the grouse woods. And, yes, I carry one on the rare occasions I get to hunt.
Our day concluded in the now thickening snow squall that suddenly appeared (all of the images in this post are from the same day, believe it or not) with a run from Chris's Weimaraner "Monty". He did a good job for us, finding several grouse in his run, but his highlight was pointing a grouse in thick spruce cover with only one way to go. It had to fly downhill towards Chris, and apparently its acrobatics eluded Chris's attempt - a rare miss for his 28. We wrapped it up not long after that, cold, wet and tired.
This morning was even colder, with Chris and I leaving the trucks at a mere 18 degrees, and it took a couple of hours to warm up. Behind his dogs we managed to find a couple of woodcock and a grouse, so there are still a few timberdoodles around but we think this might be the stragglers of the annual migration. The majority have left our area, and we look forward to seeing them again next year. Even though there is a warming trend later this week, most of them have headed south and we'll be down to the nitty gritty of grouse only for the remainder of our season.
A few more days of hunting in New Hampshire (the muzzleloader deer hunt starts this coming Saturday) and then we shift our focus to Vermont.
More updates to come ...
