Fall for the Beat of Wings
Fall for the Beat of Wings
Breakaway Classic Adventures: The Art of Grouse Hunting
Winter grouse feed on the cranberry bush viburnum. This plant has a twofold benefit for the grouse. One, the red berries are an important food source and once covered with snow, the heavily laden branches droop to the ground and create a sort of an igloo for the birds. Photo / John Ester
The explosive takeoff and departure of a Ruffed Grouse always gets my heart racing and makes my knees wobble, never quick enough to react I’m left muttering s**t to myself more often than not. Being in the woods in the fall is always a joy. Soaking in that smell of freshly fallen leaves carried to me by the cooling autumn breeze signals the end of summer and the start of something truly special, grouse hunting!
My introduction to upland game happened when I was young - really young, 9 or 10 I think - while visiting my grandfather in northern Ontario near Parry Sound. It was March break and the family had all gathered to welcome spring. The sap from the maple trees was just starting to flow and the three feet of snow still left on the ground was slowly melting. While searching for trees to tap my grandfather always carried his trusty Savage 24. The model 24 was an over and under rifle and shotgun combination, chambered in a .22 rimfire rifle cartridge over a .410 gauge shotgun. At that time the grouse season ran until March 31 and you never knew what you might run into.
Grouse of today are sporting birds and unless you shoot one in flight, it is considered unsporting. That wasn’t always the case, especially in northern Ontario. Grouse was food and there was no sport in going hungry so the best time to shoot a bird was before it flew away while still on the ground or perched in a tree. The weapon of choice was the .22 and not the shotgun… too many teeth broken biting into a pellet, too few dentists around to fix them.
It was a beautiful spring day, warm enough for just a sweater and slightly overcast. We were down by the lake on his 100 acre woods when he spotted a bird out for a stroll. I’m sure the bird spotted us, too, but wasn’t alarmed… (not enough hunting pressure to spook it in those days). My grandfather handed me the gun still broken open and I placed a small .22 cartridge into the chamber before snapping it shut. I lined up the open sights and took careful aim at the bird’s head. The summer before I was taught how to hold and fire a rifle, hold your breath and squeeze the trigger gently. My aim was true but the bullet had a mind of its own and decided to dive into the snow with a little poof! I’m sure the grouse smiled as it thundered off!
Needless to say that first hunt was a learning experience for me and the lesson learned was, ‘use the shotgun barrel’! When I turned 13 my grandfather bought me a beautiful Laurona side by side 20 ga manufactured in Eibar, Spain. After my grandfather passed away, my hunting partner became that Laurona.
Grouse hunting exploded for me when my parents bought some property on Georgian Bay just south of Parry Sound. Throughout my teens and twenties I spent almost every weekend in the woods behind our family cottage hunting not just grouse but also woodcock and occasionally jump shooting ducks in beaver ponds that seemed to be everywhere. Although I became quicker on the draw, I still gave the birds more than a sporting chance to get away.
I even recruited my family golden retriever to help flush out the birds that I couldn’t see but suspected they were there just the same. The drumming and the beat of their wings are the ghostly sounds one’s ear gets trained to hone in on. Unfortunately the brush is so thick in the boreal forests of the Canadian Shield that even when you flush a bird, the chances of getting a clear shot off are slim to none.
The dog proved to be more effective in getting covered in burrs than in uncovering birds. The best solution was to walk fast along game trails and startle a bird and then carefully watch in which direction it flew. Grouse never fly far and will usually land in an evergreen tree about half way up and a few feet from the trunk. Spooked once you now have to be very stealthy not to spook them a second time. Walk slowly and quietly with your head up, straining your eyes to distinguish clumps of branches from the silhouette of a bird. Shoot quickly and ask questions later because as soon as you see him he’ll see you and take flight!
Nowadays I still hunt with my trusty Laurona but have recruited a well trained yellow lab named Frenchie to keep me company and help in flushing and retrieving birds. I have long since left the dense woods of Ontario and now stomp through the numerous state lands of WNY surrounding Ellicottville. The Ruffed Grouse season started October 1 and will run to the end of February, making for a nice long season. I have spotted at least one grouse in almost every state land that I have visited from the Zoar Valley, throughout Allegany State Park and all the way across Allegany County past the Genesee River. Unfortunately, flushing a bird in WNY is still few and far between but the leaves still smell the same and the autumn breeze feels just as good.
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Indrek Kongats is an artist, traveler, outdoorsman, and business owner residing in Ellicottville. He operates River Dog Art Gallery in Houghton, NY, and his Breakaway Classic Adventures specializes in adventure travel destinations. Learn more about him at breakawayclassicadventures.com.