Starting Cold

A couple of weeks ago I received an email from someone wanting to know where to locate good grouse cover. They had recently acquired a German shorthair pointer and thought grouse hunting sounded like fun. That certainly sounded like a backward way to come at the sport. On the plus side, they had joined local chapters of the North American Versatile Hunting Dog Association and Ruffed Grouse Society, both excellent organizations.

Typical old cutting in the Northeast.

There probably is no better way to start than joining the Ruffed Grouse Society and a hunting dog group. At least then you will meet likeminded people who are bound to share some of their bird hunting knowledge. Whether you can get them to open up and share their favorite coverts may be another matter though. Grouse coverts are hard earned and shared sparingly.

State fish and game departments usually have experts that can point you in the right direction. When you are up in bird country, if you should happen upon any fishermen, hikers, and loggers, it doesn’t hurt to ask if they’ve seen any grouse. Most aren’t bird hunters and will gladly share what they know. And it doesn’t hurt to talk to sales people in local sporting goods stores, although dyed in wood grouse hunters aren’t all that common and salespeople are…well, salespeople, and likely to tell you what they think you want to hear.

The nearby softwoods provide shelter.

Other than that, I would pick a part of the country where there is still an abundance of timber harvesting and study it on Google Earth. Logging roads and activity such as clear cuts show up readily. Soft woods are easy to see, which provide shelter. An hour spent studying the images on Google Earth and the topographical maps of the area can save you days of walking.

The next step is to go to the locations that you’ve picked and to start walking. You are looking for shelter for the birds and a food source. Remember that available food changes with the seasons and what you see in the summer may not be there in the fall. A nearby stream is a plus. Logging roads can provide grit for the birds. Maybe you’ll be lucky enough to find a drumming log. Maybe you’ll even bust a large covey of grouse.

And then plan to come back in the fall with your dog. If you’ve done your homework and hit pay dirt, you’ve found your first grouse covert. It is up to you whether you want to share it or not.

So You Want to Hunt Ruffed Grouse

Where do you start?  The best place would be to find an old partridge hunter who would let you tag along.  That could prove mighty hard to do though, because grouse hunters seem to be somewhat scarce and a pretty secretive lot, and most will only share coverts with the closest and most trusted friends.  Still, it might be something to strive for.

Without a mentor, the next best bet would be to read everything that you can find on hunting ruffed grouse.  Most of what is in the old classics, like New England Grouse Shooting, by William Harnden Foster, still holds true today, and it is well worth trying to find a copy even though it is out of print.  L. L. Bean published a book on upland hunting, written by Tom Huggler, and the chapter on ruffed grouse was one of the best I’ve ever read.  And even if you can’t get the old grouse hunters to take you along, try to get them talking.  A bottle of single malt scotch or aged bourbon might loosen their tongues a bit.  And then pay attention.

Next, stretch your legs and see if you can find some grouse.  When you do find one, look around and see what the cover looks like.  Bird hunters with a lot of experience often refer to a place as looking birdy, even though they might be hard pressed to describe exactly what makes it look that way.  Try to guess the food source and where the shelter is, both are never too far away, and then look for more of the same sort of country.  Along the way you’ll probably find more grouse in cover that is slightly different, but try to notice similarities. 

When you are home again, try to locate where you found the grouse on Google Earth.  Notice what the forest looks like, stream locations and proximity of softwood trees.   Try to find more of the same and mark the spots. 

Then start walking again and keep going until your legs hurt, it will only get you in shape for the upcoming season and you are bound to find cover to hunt.  Finding anything more than one ruffed grouse per hour is doing better than average, so some days are going to be bust, but others are bound to be bounty.  You hunt grouse with your feet.