Grouse Hunting Tips You Cannot Ignore

By Author: Bill Williams
Total Articles: 5
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Grouse are unpredictable, they will be there one minute and disappear the next. Years of hunting have given these birds the skills to evade all your tactics. There are some useful tips you can take into consideration to improve your success when grouse hunting.

The first useful tip in grouse hunting is to use a lighter shotgun, twelve, sixteen, or twenty gauges will work and should weigh no more than seven pounds. Heavier guns will tire your arms, making you slow to the target. Long barrels can get tangled in vegetation when you swing. You need to be able to be fast, that is what will help with your successful grouse hunt.

Grouse tend to hide in thick cover and can vanish from sight in seconds.
Skeet chokes or cylinders are an excellent option as the majority of shots will be less than twenty-five yards. Chokes provide a pattern for grouse of up to thirty yards. Once your pattern expands, the better your close-range shooting experience.

Grouse roost in conifers at night, so you want to be on the edge of pine or spruce woods early or late in the day for your grouse hunt to be successful. They fly ...
... down at first light, feeding on the edge of forests. They do tend to travel quite a distance while they travel. They return to their roosting area in the early evening, filling their crops for the night.

In heavy cover, it will require fast shooting to take down a grouse. This is due to the bird being out of sight for a few seconds. Fast shooting requires you to be on guard and ready at all times, holding the gun in both hands with the muzzle at eye level and the stock by your waist. You should be ready to snap off the safety in a second. Always look ahead at eye level when walking and don't look down, as these birds can fly up into your vision in a split second.

For successful grouse hunting, you want to stay on the forest edge, a habitat these birds prefer. In the mid-morning and late afternoon, you will find them where forests meet swamps, fields, or logging roads. The forest edges provide food sources that are not found in open or mature forests.

The best place to find grouse is where there is ground cover including seeds, mushrooms, long grass, and small leafy plants. If you find you can walk easily and the brush is not tearing at your legs, then you are not in the right place to have a successful grouse hunt.

In the winter months, grouse stay close to conifers, which provide them with shelter and north, along with breaking the cold wind. This helps these birds conserve their body heat. On a sunny afternoon, the bird will venture out to feed. In these months, they will feed on willow, birch, and poplar trees, along with spruce needles.

Grouse can escape through surprise. Sometimes they do give themselves away for only a few seconds being they fly. As you approach the birds scatter making peeping noises, which are used to locate each other. If you hear the peeping, be prepared. You may also hear rustling noises, as the grouse often runs for a few steps to find a path to fly. The slightest noise, the smallest flash of movement under the bush and you need to be ready to take your shot.

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