Do You Value Hunting By Your Kills?
We don’t – probably because we’re mostly grouse hunters….
But seriously – do you keep score? We’re talking dead birds here, not flushes, and then using that bird count as the ultimate value of your experience and your (alleged!) proficiency.
We’re asking because of two things. One is that we got a note from a reader the other day who couldn’t understand that we enjoy being out in the woods and walking all day (we might walk all night too if that was legal and productive). To him, his idea of being a “serious” grouse hunter was to get behind a dog and limit-out as quickly as possible. Any other approach was being a “rookie.”
Uh-huh.
Whatever floats your boat, but not what it’s about for us – though the idea is attractive…(hah!).
Then we read an article in the Duluth (MN) News Tribune about two women who late-season pheasant-hunt – which is tough. Wily, running birds, crisp air that conveys the slightest noise, noisy (snow, ice) conditions: Obviously you’re not doing it to bang out a limit. You’re doing it because you love being out there.
Couple excerpts:
> Julie O’Connor: “I don’t think they know how hard it is to get a rooster in late season. I’m out there sweating, trying to get around on my stumpy little legs.”
> The odds are with the birds. “Most of the time, they win,” O’Connor said. “This is not like going through a cornfield and shooting a limit.”
> “I’ve gotten two in a day but never limited out,” [Debbie Waters] said.
> They accept conditions as they get them, and they come to hunt. So, they hunt. “One year, we went out when it was 10 or 15 below one morning,” O’Connor said. “Someone said, ‘You’re going hunting?'”
> Comparing notes later, we figured we had seen at least 30 pheasants in that two-hour walk. We shot one. In a day and a half of hunting, Waters had yet to fire her gun.
Welcome to late-season pheasant hunting.
To us, that is Serious.
Category: Pheasants, Rants, Ruffed Grouse
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If you keep score, take up a game like golf or tennis. Fair chase and the enjoyment of being out with friends and a good dog is what it’s all about. I have had the best days afield when I help others get a shot. It’s great to have a youngster get his/her first bird.
If you are keeping score I don’t want to hunt or fish with you…that is not what it is about…that was market hunting, not what I call hunting. I count grouse hunting in numbers of flushes and in some years that can be low or high. For me grouse hunting is about me and the dog and turkey hunting is about the calling in of the gobbler. I don’t shoot turkeys off the roost and I won’t shoot a grouse on the ground. If it is about numbers to someone then I suspect they would do both!