Partridge...

[mascad]

Anyone been seeing a lot of partridge around this year? I've seen about 25 in the last two weeks alone, which is more than I normally see in a year. Just wondering if anyone else has been seeing any.

[muc33]

I used to see quite a few, haven't seen many in the last couple years. I would love to find a couple mature hunnies for a mount from here around home. Pretty little birds when mature.

[tybo]

A friend of mine shot one last year up by Roseau. That was the only bird we saw, he was a loner.

[charliepete2]

Do you mean Hungarian Partridge or Ruffed Grouse?

[koonie]

I miss the days of seeing ten or twelve flocks of Huns every day while out hunting.

[Shack]

Sounds like it should be good year!

Last year I only took a couple (Ruffed Grouse) Partridge, but let many others fly.

[mascad]

Haven't seen any since I posted this thread. Are these things even huntable, or do you just have to get lucky while pheasant hunting?

[123fish]

In most cases get lucky while pheasant hunting.

[riverrat56]

Get lucky while pheasant hunting or see some fly acrossed the road and go after them.

I wouldn't say you could go out and just target them, unless you know of a covey of them someplace.

[123fish]

That's just what my brother did Saturday evening. Knew where a covey had been hanging out and road hunted the area. Lucked out and spotted them made a stalk and dropped a double in a waist high bean field. Couldn't find either one so he came to town and we went out with my dog and she found the first one pretty quick and then did a real nice job trailing down the second one which only had a broken wing. Never saw her the whole while I was in the bean field as they were that thick. When she came out of the field with the second one the only thing my brother said was " I've got to get a dog." Yes he does. There were about ten birds in that covey.

[Matt Breuer]

I love it when people refer to grouse as partridge... it's a standing joke in our family because my dad has always called all of them (huns, sharps, ruffs) partridge!

We saw two huns on opener, I was taking a leak and one of them popped up from the ditch and soared into the beans across the road, the other followed suit seconds later.

As a kid I saw them all of the time around Thief River and Roseau, now it's a covey here and a covey there. In SW MN where my relatives live we see them every trip, but they're nearly all while driving around from pheasant haunt to pheasant haunt, or we'll kick up a covey while walking for roosters.

To the poster from Worthington, nearly all of my relatives live down your way, and they see/shoot quite a few every year, so they're out there!

Beautiful birds, I've got some for the wall that were shot late season last year... Here's a male and a female, both nice big adult birds...

[Shack]

I think the term “partridge” is a general term used to describe a sport hunting bird. My grandfather also used this term for ruffed grouse and everything between. I checked into it and your father and my grandfather where correct in using this term:

Quote:

Definitions of partridge on the Web:

1)flesh of either quail or grouse

2)tinamou: heavy-bodied small-winged South American game bird resembling a gallinaceous bird but related to the ratite birds

3)small Old World gallinaceous game birds

4)bobwhite: a popular North American game bird; named for its call

5)ruffed grouse: valued as a game bird in eastern United States and Canada

Wikipedia:

Quote:

Partridges are birds in the pheasant family, Phasianidae. They are a non-migratory Old World group.

These are medium-sized birds intermediate between the larger pheasants and the smaller quails. The Partridges are native to Europe, Asia, North Africa, and the Middle East. The partridges are ground-nesting seed-eaters.

Nice birds by the way!

[Matt Breuer]

Never said the term was wrong, it was always funny is all. My dad would yell, "Partridge!" and we'd all look to the woods edge, the ditch, then the gravel, because we never knew which he was talking about...