Ontario Grousin’: Season’s End (Part 1)

Jeff, Ruby and a well-earned bird. (Jeff Laberge photo)

[This is contributed by Jeff Laberge, a Serious grouse hunter from Sudbury, Ontario – an area known for hard rock mining, a big nickel, and Saturday Nights (search Sudbury
Saturday Night). He hunts along the North Shore of Lake Huron, apparently one of the best-kept secrets of Serious grousers.]

In my book, Dec. 15 is the saddest day of the year: The last day of grouse hunting in our little corner of the world.

Normally the north shore area of Lake Huron is covered in snow at this time of year. It was for the past 2 weeks, but we hit a warm spell which melted the snow and makes it feel like early October, not mid-December. Doesn’t help with the end-of-season funk the dog and I are both experiencing.

I like to look back on the season at this time of year, and this year we had a good one. I didn’t get out as much as I would have liked to (as if that happens any season), but the times we did get out there, it was a grouse bonanza.

I think this season was the peak of the grouse cycle. And Ruby and I definitely benefited from the bounty. Some stats from the season:

> Days Grouse Hunting: 6 (3 of which, the woodcock were here)
> Total Grouse Flushes: 79+
> Total Grouse Taken: 11 (2 limits on 2 different days, with some poor shooting on the others)
> Total Woodcock Flushes: 78+
> Total Woodcock Taken: 14 (one limit on one day and good numbers on the other two)

Ruby, the Irish Setter extraordinaire (that’s right…you read correctly!) pointed virtually every bird at least once. She really has become a grouse huntin’ fool. I’ve got lots of room in my heart for that little red b*tch.

Lesson 1: Woodies Distract

Now that's a good-looking dog.... (Jeff Laberge photo)

I learned two big things this season (and probably a hundred other things that nobody would care to read about). The first thing is that I no longer find woodcock as much of a challenge. After one day of shooting those little birds, I could do without seeing them for another season.

My Dad’s head probably exploded reading that last sentence. He and his crew chase woodcock for about 3 weeks straight in mid-October. They can’t get enough of the little buggers.

My biggest problem with woodcock is that I’ve been hooked on grouse hunting. So I now find that woodcock distract me and the dog from hunting grouse.

It can become a serious distraction because when the woodcock are piled up in our area, they can be as thick as mosquitoes.

One day this fall, I missed on 11 grouse flushes but collected a limit (8 birds in our area) of woodcock. When Ruby and I reached our limit, we had flushed 16 birds. We continued looking for grouse, and flushed another 15 woodcock. Ruby couldn’t move 10 yards without slamming into another point.

Lesson 2: How To Hunt Snowy Grouse

The second big thing I learned about this season is how to hunt grouse in snow.

I went out twice this season with snow on the ground, about 8 inches the first time and about 4 the second. The first day was a complete bust. I trudged around for 5 miles in areas that would have held tons of birds three days prior (before the snow storm). We only cut one track and flushed a single bird.

The bird offered no shot. It flew a long way through very thick evergreen cover so that we couldn’t follow it up. For the first time in a while, I went home empty handed. Tough on the ego.

The next week I decided to give it another try. But first I did as much reading on winter grouse hunting as I could dig up.

I discovered there’s a lot of fluff out there written by armchair bird hunters. Some said the birds would flush wild so use a full choke. Some said they’ll flush close so use a skeet choke.

Some said the birds would pop out of the snow like feathered popcorn. Some said to approach thick evergreens and wait like you’re stalking deer: The bird won’t be able to stand it and it’ll flush.

A lot of authors said to find thick evergreen bush. In my part of the world, 98% of the cover is thick evergreen bush.

But I did glean a few bits of good information, tucked them away in the memory bank and hit the woods.

One of the bits of good info was that birds like the sun in the wintertime, which I’d noticed in past years. I could often find lone birds on the sunny side of slopes throughout the fall.

– End of part 1 of 2 –

Tags: Featured

Category: 2011-12 reports, Canada, Hunt reports, ON, Ruffed Grouse, Woodcock