grouse

[SledNeck]

"valley" quail and Mountain quail

[cribbageboy]

Oh come on now....Comparing Valley and Mountain Quail hunting to Ruffed Grouse hunting in MN is apples to oranges. That would be like me saying ptarmigan are harder to shoot on the wing than grouse. Might be true, might not. IDK. Has nothing to do with the original statement though.

[SledNeck]

Oh come on now....Comparing Valley and Mountain Quail hunting to Ruffed Grouse hunting in MN is apples to oranges. That would be like me saying ptarmigan are harder to shoot on the wing than grouse. Might be true, might not. IDK. Has nothing to do with the original statement though.

The point is.

Grouse are by far the slowest flying upland game bird and easiest game bird Ive ever hunted, by far. They arent even close to the degree of difficulty of a quail.

[cribbageboy]

My point is that what you're saying has nothing to do with the original post. The question was why are they so stupid. My point is that they aren't, because of their flight. The question wasn't comparing upland game birds, but since you went there.....I can drop 3 pheasants for every 1 grouse. IMO grouse are NOT the easiest upland game bird to hunt. Everybody has a right to their opinion though. I'm just trying to stay on topic here.

[srfishin15]

I second the pheasant to grouse ratio.. too many trees to make hitting them easy. not that pheasants are EASY by any mean. But there usually arent huge 40 ft trees to block my shot. NOT SAYING IM A GREAT SHOT EITHER WHATSOEVER.

[Koepper08]

Problem with grouse is one year they have an extremely high population and one may think they are easy to come by. The next they are non-existent. Fun bird to hunt and will humble any hunter that has hunted them long enough...

[Shack]

why are they so stupid

Depends on the age of the grouse. I feel younger birds are less adaptive to the sudden surge of hunters come fall time and tend to seem "stupid". You get an older grouse, they are not stupid. In fact they are very smart. Its been awhile since I have encountered this question, so my mind is not up to par at the moment.

With out doing proper aging tests on the grouse, I feel I have a good idea of the differences between young grouse and an older grouse. Hard to explain, but if you hold a young grouse in one hand and an older grouse in your other, at least for me I can tell a difference.

I might throw up some aging and sexing info on grouse!

[Matt Breuer]

This is the dumbest thread ever. From the original question, the comparing valley quail to ruffies, to explaining how you can tell the difference between an adult and juvenile if you hold them in opposite hands...

Grouse are harder to hit on the wing than pheasants. Fin.

Telling a juvenile and adult ruffie apart while holding them is like telling the difference between a 2 and 5 year old.

[Tim_Anderson]

To answer the question, I think it's just the way of living things. People. Deer. Grouse. We all act stupid at times. We are all careless at times. Other times, we are alert and on our game.

I have been all over this great country shooting all of the great game birds that it has to offer. My personal opinion is that the ruffed grouse is the greatest challenge. Pheasants tend to be pretty easy. Woodcock slow and predictable. Quail are fast and fly crazy, but they are primarily in the open. Keep your cool and you should be able to kill them. Same with huns, sharpies and chickens. Chukar's are an incredible challenge, but primarily because of the terrain they live in. I lost 10 toe nails one day from chasing them up and down the Snake River Valley. Steep stuff.

But grouse? Sometimes I am amazed too at how stupid they can be. I won't shoot them on the ground, so I walk toward them until they flush. But most of the time, they surprise me when they flush, and I am left scrambling to get a good shot off before they are out of range. I shoot at just about every grouse that gets up, and I am amazed to see how many times I shoot trees just as they go behind it. I also get really perturbed when they flush out of range over and over... definitely not dumb. What can I say. I'm addicted to hunting these birds. Will walk all day with knees that need to be replaced just to have some good shooting opportunity. I won't do that with the other game birds.

Not only that but they are beautiful, and the greatest table fare. JMO.

[BOUNCED]

why are they so stupid

Says the guy who hunts Grouse with a wiener dog?

http://www.hotspotoutdoors.com/forum/ubb...pac#Post2320582

[humen007]

Nothing satisfies like ground swatting a grouse or knocking one out of a tree. Just sayin!!

[wdgold]

The absolute dumbest grouse species there is has got to be the Spruce grouse. We were coming out of this old abandoned forestry area, where a logging road ran through the entire thing with trails everywhere into the woods. And on the way out, on the gravel logging road, we passed 2 spruce grouse going 50 mph. We stopped and got out, walked back about 30 ft, and shot them in the trees. They were both sitting up high in the tree and the first one to get shot at just continued to sit there, even after being shot once. So it was shot a second time and fell from about 30 ft up and was still partly alive. The second stayed up there the entire time, despite all of the gunfire. We were able to shoot it as well.

The next year (2009 season) we went back to the same area and pretty much the same thing happened. I fired 3 shells at one and it just sat there. I am not sure if it was even hit by any of the BBs.. but I went back to the truck and grabbed another 3 shells and fired them all of and it finally came down.

I look down the road and there is another, pecking at the gravel on the logging road. I took a shot at it, then my brother shot twice, I think we both missed.. lol. But even though it was just being shot at, it continued to just sit there! Of course as we approach it a little closer, it flies into a tree. Missed that one.

The ruffed grouse definitely seem a lot smarter than the spruce grouse though, that's for sure.

Well, that's my 2 cents.

I have to agree, my dad when in the BWCA said you could almost hit em with a canoe paddle on the tree branch.