We Shoot in the Direction of Grouse
The best summation of shooting at grouse was provided to me by a friend of mine, from a magazine article he had read:
“Everyone who has hunted ruffed grouse and doesn’t lie knows that hitting one on the wing
with a shotgun is by pure accident.” - Layne Simpson
It may not be quite as difficult as that, but when you miss that “going straight down the trail, away from you” shot, it certainly seems that hard.
While we had some of the best grouse hunting weather of the season this past weekend (sunny, 40s and 50s), the grouse were hard to come by, and the shooting chances were few. There were chances for sure though, as both Rudy and Monty hunted hard in Vermont, and we moved around 15 for the day on Saturday, and 5 more on Sunday morning. My clients were all new to grouse hunting, so they began their understanding of this crazy sport the hard way: several misses that seemingly were in the bag.
Their first grouse hunting trip is in the books, so we’ll see how they do on next year’s excursion ...
