not cast bullets but

[Kevin Stenberg]

Today was opening day of bow hunting in Minnesota. My evening stand. Last year I had a Partridge drumming on a log for a couple hours. Tonight another partridge was drumming on the same log as last year. But he was only there for an hour +. I saw 1 more fly buy.
I missed a chance at a small 6 point when he saw my head turn. Half an hour later a nice doe with her faun (almost full size) came buy, and I closed my season.

 

[CWLONGSHOT]

Friday ope ed our season here.

Good luck!

 

[L Ross]

Today was opening day of bow hunting in Minnesota. My evening stand. Last year I had a Partridge drumming on a log for a couple hours. Tonight another partridge was drumming on the same log as last year. But he was only there for an hour +. I saw 1 more fly buy.
I missed a chance at a small 6 point when he saw my head turn. Half an hour later a nice doe with her faun (almost full size) came buy, and I closed my season.

Excellent Kevin. I'm going to wait until colder nights for butchering.
I have had a lunatic grouse hanging around for 7 years. Drumming and drumming almost year around. Never saw a hen until this Summer when we spotted a hen and she appeared to have three chicks with her. The goofy male is attracted to the sound of an ATV engine and I can get him all riled up by mimicking his little noises. Finally I picked him up. When I put him back down he didn't leave. I have no idea how he survives the myriad predators we have here.

 

[Petrol & Powder]

That's clearly the Forest Gump of Grouse.

 

[david s]

Grouse just plain aren't the smartest of birds as a species. I've been hiking and had grouse chicks running around my feet eating whatever my feet were kicking up, mom off to the side doing her broken wing act trying to take my attention away from the chicks. If I'd have been a fox appetizers wound have been the chicks followed by mom as the entree. Only one I've seen just picked up was one that wouldn't get out of the way of a pickup truck. Just stood its ground as the two of us got out of the truck to try and run it off the road. No go finally my friend just bent over picked the bird up and tossed it into the air, saying "stupid bird", who was I to argue with him. Of course, during spring turkey season, we locate turkeys by blowing the truck horn and listening for the response. Turkeys are supposed to be smart birds, but I have my doubts here.

 

[CZ93X62]

I have never hunted grouse, bur have encountered them when hiking in the Sierra back country. They are not overburdened with intellect. California ran a short season on them in past years, but I never partook--it made little sense to me to drive 250 miles to shoot one bird per season when I could drive for 10-30 minutes and shoot 10 quail per day or go 80-100 miles and bring home 6 chukars.

I had the privilege of working with a guy at Cal-DOJ that was an absolute bird-hunting fanatic. He had been a DFW warden for about 8-10 years before transferring to Cal-DOJ/BNE, and he made a point of grouse hunting each year. He would travel to Bishop every opener and be back Monday--"I got my bird, Al!" He was a SUPERB turkey hunter, and we shared stands several times on Spring hunts--back before the Merriam's turkeys in the local mountains got whacked by the coyotes.

 

[Rick H]

I have a love/hate relationship with Ruffed Grouse. I love to eat them and hate them for being so damned hard to hit on the wing. That is Ruffed Grouse, it is the hunter who gets ruffled when the damned things explode and take wing through the trees.

 

[obssd1958]

"Feathered heart attacks" when you are sneaking through the woods, bow hunting for Deer or Elk.

 

[RBHarter]

Ate a blue once , it just sat there refused to flush , the morning deer hunt was behind us . We always had a shotgun for chucker and when the seasons aligned sage hen . I ate quite a few sage hen and chucker as well .

Chucker aka Hungarian Partridge they say you only hunt once in the west . After that it's revenge. Nobody cares that the gentlemans code of wing shooting isn't abided by after the 3rd hunt .
A California GW , Vern Brant that was believed to have once written his mother a ticket for over daily limit on carp , told my Dad if he caught a guy on Chucker on opening day at the end of shooting hours with 2 limits plus one he wouldn't know whether to write a ticket or give him a trophy . Turns out Vern was really just a outdoorsman that found a way to make it pay and held folks to the honor code .

 

[Tom]

Ate a blue once , it just sat there refused to flush , the morning deer hunt was behind us . We always had a shotgun for chucker and when the seasons aligned sage hen . I ate quite a few sage hen and chucker as well .

Chucker aka Hungarian Partridge they say you only hunt once in the west . After that it's revenge. Nobody cares that the gentlemans code of wing shooting isn't abided by after the 3rd hunt .
A California GW , Vern Brant that was believed to have once written his mother a ticket for over daily limit on carp , told my Dad if he caught a guy on Chucker on opening day at the end of shooting hours with 2 limits plus one he wouldn't know whether to write a ticket or give him a trophy . Turns out Vern was really just a outdoorsman that found a way to make it pay and held folks to the honor code .

Chuckars are the same bird as huns? I used to shoot a few huns when I lived in nc Montana and heard about chuckars when I moved west, never hunted them. I assumed they were different species.

 

[Tomme boy]

Chukers are not the same as Hungarian Partridge. I have not seen any Huns here in over 25 years. When we had all the CRP lands in the 80-90's we had all kinds of them. Now we barely have pheasants.

 

[L Ross]

Chukers are not the same as Hungarian Partridge. I have not seen any Huns here in over 25 years. When we had all the CRP lands in the 80-90's we had all kinds of them. Now we barely have pheasants.

I'll go you one memory better, "Soil Bank", a program from the 1960's that paid farmers not to produce food and fiber. Huns, pheasant, rabbits abounded. But what I really miss most from those days are the Bob 'O Links, and Yellow Headed Black Birds.
Plus there were fence lines! I shot my first pheasant when I was 9 with a .410 from a fence line.
The old neighbor farmers had their memories to enthrall a youngster too, prairie chickens.

 

[RBHarter]

They're not the same bird , the areas that my folks hunted on the 60-70s on the Whites and Sierras off the Owens Valley in California and the 4 ranges I hunted in Nevada the law made no distinction between them . Same habits , diet , and preferred habitation. The run up hill and fly down , will run 2 good dogs down to hamburger on a long day , and up/down/up/down .

 

[Winelover]

While porch sitting, late yesterday afternoon. Cindy heard some bird calls she didn't recognize. Little while later, three Bobwhites scurried through across the open area, between the heavily wooded east and west sides. Our acreage is far from ideal quail habitat........lack of underbrush.

 

[L Ross]

One of my favorite memories of my youth involved a Hungarian partridge as a supporting actor.

I think I was about 12 years old and Wisconsin's pheasant season opened at Noon the third Saturday in October. My Dad had to work until Noon and I already had taken Hunter Safety but was not allowed to hunt alone until I turned 14. We owned a measly 10 acre parcel, and except for the acre where the 103 year old farm house sat, Dad had painstakingly planted it with Northrup King 75 day maturing corn with a two row McCormick corn planter pulled by a 1947 FarmAll Model A he bought at an auction from Seymour Canning for 150 bucks.

That little corn field had a good fence line as did all fields in the 60's as the huge machinery we know today simply did not exist. The field and fence row held a few ringnecks, a couple of rabbits, maybe a Hun or two, but most importantly, it was ours!

As I kept looking out the window hoping to see Dad's 1955 buckskin and white Ford Fairlane, instead I see a pea soup green station wagon pull up on the shoulder of County Hwy. P, adjacent to our corn field. Two men and a boy get out and start uncasing guns. What the heck? They had parked next to a power pole that Dad had nailed a yellow and black NO TRESPASSING sign on, no more than the width of the road ditch from the passenger side of the big Plymouth wagon.

I yelled to Mom that I was going out to confront the trespassers and grabbed my trusty Climax 20 gauge single shot from the corner where it resided next to the screen door. I had recently graduated to the 20 gauge so I could hunt ducks with Dad as my Savage .410 single was illegal for waterfowl.

I hustled my young ass down the corn rows until I intercepted the interlopers. I explained to them that my Dad was due home any minute and we were going to hunt this very field. The driver of the Plymouth, a big florid faced fellow wearing a stiff looking canvas hunting coat said, "Well we saw a big rooster pheasant run across the road into this corn." I told him he parked right next to a NO TRESPASSING sign and he said, "Well we never saw it." That right there was great preparation for my future career as an LEO as I could see the lying sack of, oh never mind.

With some bluster but no apology the trio turned to leave the field and in doing so jumped a Hungarian partridge which whirred past me on my right away from the road and all of us. I thumbed the hammer, mounted the old single barrel, and smoked that Hun with a low brass Federal 6 about 25 yards out. As the feathers drifted off down wind one of the adults behind me said, "Boy did you see that kid shoot?" I still think fondly of that poor old Hun giving its life for that memory.

 

[todd]

i used to love grouse huntin. i put it at the top, including pheasant hunting. well, i used too (i had a stroke) but it sure was fun. i remember when i was young, it was a bird or two equals a box of shells (25 shells). when i quit hunting for the ruffed grouse, my average went up, a bird is equal to 2 or 3 shells. a couple of times it was 1 bird to 1 shell.

my best memory was a grouse that tagged along archery and rifle season. one day, when my dad (RIP) shows up to hunt rifle, he's usually late, so i am just waiting there at my house. he comes around 7:30am and we take off in the Polaris UTV. we are going thru the backyard when the grouse shows up. he usually waits for me at around 6:45 - 7:00am. he looks at us and he cocks his head, which is "why are you late?" i slow down and put 3 or 4 kernals of corn in front of him. "Sorry" i say "Dad is always late." my dad is stunned. "i can't believe that bird?" he says. i say "wait" and go to my spot. while going there, i say "look out back" and my dad's turns around and he says "that grouse is chasing us". i say "wait." we get to my spot and begin to hunt. we are about 10 minutes in, when the grouse shows up. my dad goes "how does the grouse show up to your spot?" i hobble over to the bird and give him a pile of corn (in my pocket). i hobble back and say "Dad meet my buddy, Gary". take

in archery season, it took me about 3 times to take something for the grouse to eat. after that, Gary the Grouse was my constant companion. after muzzleloader season was done, i said goodbye to gary, i'll see you next season. but Gary either died of old age or a fox/coyote got him.

 

[Kevin Stenberg]

Rick I was in the same boat as you with partridge. I loved to eat them and very seldom got more than 1 or 2.
I totally agree that they scare the tar out of you when they flush unexpectedly.
Fortunately I have a fair amount of them on my land this year.

 

[L Ross]

Rick I was in the same boat as you with partridge. I loved to eat them and very seldom got more than 1 or 2.
I totally agree that they scare the tar out of you when they flush unexpectedly.
Fortunately I have a fair amount of them on my land this year.

Grouse casserole with long grain and wold rice.
Once, and once only, I hunted grouse with a Beretta Golden Snipe that fit me like a glove. Jumped 10 shot at 7, got my limit of 5, no dog.
Darn I miss grouse hunting. The smell of fallen popple leaves on a dew damp but sunny logging road. Ferns dying back, and the red leaves of black berry brush. A ham sammich and an apple in your game bag and a canteen of water and nuthin' else to do but hunt. No wonder my Dad's three favorite outdoors things were trout fishin', grouse huntin', and traditional bow hunting.

 

[Kevin Stenberg]

Mr. Ross You also have to add the occasional timberdoodle That throughs your timing off. Or the pond that is your secret that always holds a few woodies. One time I snuck up on my pond (that couldn't have been bigger than a normal kitchen) There must have been 75 woodies that exploded off of the water. Somehow I kept my cool and I got 3 drake woodies intentionally leaving the hens. Aaaa the good old days.

 

[L Ross]

Mr. Ross You also have to add the occasional timberdoodle That throughs your timing off. Or the pond that is your secret that always holds a few woodies. One time I snuck up on my pond (that couldn't have been bigger than a normal kitchen) There must have been 75 woodies that exploded off of the water. Somehow I kept my cool and I got 3 drake woodies intentionally leaving the hens. Aaaa the good old days.

Yessir! Oh golly, and Woodies that have been eatin' little acorns are delicious.