Grouse (2024)

FAQs

What is the best number shot for grouse? ›

When it comes to choosing shot sizes, most ruffed grouse hunters would probably tell you that any shell from size 1 to 9 will kill a grouse. A lot of people don't understand the makeup of a shotshell or what the numbers represent. It breaks down like this: the higher the number, the smaller the diameter of the pellets.

Grouse shooting situations will come with a lot of disadvantages. Poor foot placement, obstacles, unpredictable birds, probably some lousy dog work, lots of trees to shoot, no room to swing a gun, and other versions of chaos are things you'll experience as a courtesy of the grouse woods.

The Columbian sharp-tailed grouse, which reside in the Western United States and British Columbia, are the rarest subspecies of “sharp-tails”. Known for their extravagant mating rituals, these birds are the smaller cousins of the greater sage-grouse, and rely on a variety of healthy, intact shrub-steppe habitat.

The male, known as blackco*ck, may be 55 cm (22 inches) long and weigh almost 2 kg (about 4 pounds). He is iridescent blue-black, with white wing bars and undertail coverts; his tail curls outward like a lyre. The female, known as gray hen, is mottled brown, barred with black; she is smaller than the male.

When you think of a typical grouse gun you likely think about a 20 gauge over/under that's light as a feather. While that's definitely a solid option to tote around in the woods with you, there isn't any reason you shouldn't consider a 12 gauge for grouse hunting.

The loads are available in 12, 20, and 28 gauge in several shot sizes. Most grouse hunters prefer 6 or 7 ½ shot. If shooting a two barrel gun, some use 7 ½ in the first barrel with 6s in the second. Early in the season when birds may flush a little closer and cover is thicker your best choice may be 7 ½ all around.

Because ruffed and dusky grouse spend most of the day on the ground, you can find birds any time of the day. However, if you want to hunt grouse when the birds are most active and accessible, hunt early in the morning when the birds are feeding.

“In simple terms, it is possible for humans to get sick from eating grouse that have been consuming certain evergreen shrubs," Herrera wrote. "Fortunately, these are not the preferred diet and are typically consumed only when other food sources have diminished.

If you're asking our opinion on the best gauge for grouse hunting, we think it is the 20 gauge. The 20 gauge is kind of a sweet spot of performance and compromise that makes it great for a beginner grouse hunter.

Misleading vernacular names abound, however, and it is often called partridge (sometimes rendered pa'tridge, or shortened to pat), pheasant, or prairie chicken, all of which are properly applied to other birds. Other nicknames for ruffed grouse include drummer or thunder-chicken.

What is the lifespan of a grouse? ›

LIFE CYCLE: Greater sage grouse generally live from 1 to 1.5 years, but some have been known to live up to 10 years in the wild.

Ruffed grouse offer white meat, and even the legs and thighs are light in color. A plucked bird is loaded with flavor. Early trappers and settlers considered the bush partridge a medicine bird due to their varied diet.

They do not develop a pair-bond between males and females, although there is usually at least one hen in the woods for every male. Young birds, especially, collect in temporary, loose flocks in the fall and winter, but this is not equivalent to the covey organization of the quails and partridges.

Chicken hybrids

Domestic fowl can be crossed, and produce fertile offspring, with silver pheasants, red junglefowl and green junglefowl. They have also produced hybrids with peafowl, chachalacas, capercaillie, grouse, quail, curassows, pheasants and guans.

Populations. A ruffed grouse in Canada. Grouse make up a considerable part of the vertebrate biomass in the Arctic and Subarctic. Their numbers may fall sharply in years of bad weather or high predator populations—significant grouse populations are a major food source for lynx, foxes, martens, and birds of prey.

Today, #3 steel shot is commonly found in duck blinds, and with the advances in shotshell technology, these specialty loads for duck hunters are comparable to lead shot. Due to their thickness and size, large geese and ducks are often primary targets of the #3 shot, but deer can be taken down just as well.

One of my hunting mentors used to hunt ruffed grouse in the Appalachian Mountains when the birds were still common, and his gun of choice was an SKB . 410 over/under. He killed a boatload of grouse with that gun, so there's no disputing the . 410's effectiveness.

The 12-, 16-, 20-, and 28-gauge are acceptable gauges for ethically killing a bird, considering shots occur almost entirely under 35 yards.

6 shot is necessary to cleanly kill a grouse at up to 40/45 yards. This type of cartridge produces an excellent pattern and is a good balance of shot size and 'punch' for the maimum effect.