# Grouse opens tomorrow



## fakebait (Jun 18, 2006)

Remember the days when most of us looked more forward to this date then any other date. Pheasants were stocked and allot wildlife areas you were allowed either sex. But to most of us then, squirrel was the starting point of the hunting season. There was no dove hunting then. The ruff was what everyone was waiting for if you were a upland hunter. Everyone I grew up with would use the squirrel season to locate where the birds were hanging out so we knew right where to start on opening morning.
Everyone gathered as though it was the opening of rabbit and pheasant season. We would meet early for breakfast then hunt until noon. Go somewhere and have lunch and laugh about how foolish the birds made us act at their sudden flushes after a year gone by. 
Deer hunting and turkey was just for people who went to Pa. or WV. You would walk all day and not freeze your butt off sitting on a stand all morning. You went after the birds they didn't come to you. The thickest and nastiest locations was their home and you would be all cut and scratched up when the day was over.
Well so much for days gone by. I just hope someday our grandkids may have the same opportunity to experience the ruff as we knew and treasured it.


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## longhaulpointer (Mar 12, 2009)

i still look forward to it, just don't like to hunt them in ohio till the leaves fall.


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## steelmagoo (Apr 13, 2004)

The ruffed grouse IS the king of North American game birds. Sad that there is only a smattering of them here and there in Ohio. By this time next week I'll be in Chippewa National Forest with a good dog, a good gun, and hopefully a grouse-eatin grin.


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## ezbite (May 25, 2006)

i still remember flushing them many, many moons ago. only bird i remember hitting was trying to hide on the ground in the snow.. come to think of it, i havent flushed one, let alone seen a grouse in 3 or 4 years now. they sure did get the heart pounding when they busted cover.


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## bobk (Apr 30, 2004)

My german shorthairs sure miss the grouse. I have not seen or heard one on my property in too many years to count. Very sad. I love to hunt them.


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## Mushijobah (May 4, 2004)

Still have a few at our place, bob. What once was clearcut and hemlocks is becoming bigger trees and hemlocks. Luckily the guy across the hollow select cut almost all of his 90 acres...should give them a little bit of cover for the next 10-15 years at least. I'll still remember the only one I've ever shot...Scioto County along Scioto Brush Creek. It was in the bottomland for some reason?


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## longhaulpointer (Mar 12, 2009)

first time i ever went for grouse i was 21. I had, still have, an english pointer that could run for days. All i heard was how hard it was to get them and how there wasn't any around. That day we put up 15 birds in scioto in about 4 solid hours of hunting. The last bird of the day, my pup held that bird from a hundred or more yrds out till i got there. It got 5 feet off the ground and i shot it. I had missed the rest and didn't let that one get away. I have been hooked ever since. Have gone to MI and Wisc several times along with several trips every year to scioto. The 1st trip out there was still the best. I usually see them but rarely have good days of 7 or more flushes. Hell, usually if i get a good shot at one in ohio i consider it a good day. I can't help it though, grouse are by far the most addicting of the upland birds. They sure can humble a young man full of piss and vinegar.


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## 21938 (Feb 17, 2010)

They're still out there Fakebait, just fewer and farther between. May have to drive a bit farther also. You're right about stories, my buddies and I can still recall and do often, most of the birds that made fools of us over many years and most likely made our dogs wonder why we we're carrying guns. Still the best and most challenging game bird out there. Heading to Mi. next weekend, 4 Grouse nuts and 4 Grouse nut dogs. I can't wait!


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## Rec (Mar 27, 2006)

I've managed to jump a few birds the past few years, especially on deer drives during gun season. The grouse sure get the heart pumping when I'm thinking deer and one takes off from under my feet. I'm lucky to have some private property to hunt adjacent to reclaimed coal land that is still in the brushy stages. We got a couple last year throughout the season. I've noticed that most of the flushes have been in the vicinity of pine trees, both on the edges of 10 year-old plots planted as part of the reclamation efforts and near mature pines on the edges of fields/shrub areas. I'm headed out this weekend for an overnight and will take a few hours from sitting for deer to get all scraped up going after some grouse/woodcock. Grouse sure are a beautiful bird, fun to hunt, and wonderful to eat.
If I was able to upload the picture, it's of my lucky brother who got one last year the Saturday before deer gun season. Unfortunately, I was playing dog for him, so I didn't get a shot off...


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## ironman172 (Apr 12, 2009)

I see and hear them every now and then on my property....watched one for a long time while in the stand....but have never hunted them there....they come and go just like the turkey do


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## c. j. stone (Sep 24, 2006)

Memories are for us old-timers! Our proginy will never know those "good old days" when the poor dirt farmers could not make a living farming steep hillsides and the farms were reverting back to forest. I still hunt an area for deer where grouse were nearly as common as chipmunks. 40 flush days were the norm!! Of course, the woods maturing have hurt a lot but I maintain the turkey reintroduction has had a lot to do with it also! They are higher on the food chain and eat what was formerly available to the grouse. I usually still flush one while going to, or leaving, the deer stand. It still gets the juices flowing.
One of our group "back in the day" would bring deer burgers along and cook them up for lunch. Nothing tasted as good as those cooked on a small portable grill while the temps hovered in the teens in Jan. or Feb.(All while you were standing around freezing in flannel shirt sleeves because your undershirt was soaked with sweat from climbing those unfarmable hillsides!) Ahh, the good old days!


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