First Montana Grouse

[texwest44]

Gotta love opening day success! I went out this morning around 10am following a lot of advice I've gotten from HuntTalk members, and I was able to snag a grouse from some USFS land right just outside of Helena, MT where I live. All the stuff about finding the right elevation band was on point; I started coming across them around 5600', and worked my way up to about 6000' and didn't see another one for over an hour. Started working my way back down towards 5600' and boom, every spot where there was water, ground cover vegetation, and bare-branched trees within a 50-diameter had at least 2-3 grouse in it. I forgot my glasses, so I had to flush them to really see them, but I finally got one near the end of the afternoon. I probably flushed 15-20, but only managed to get a shot off at this one, which perfectly connected across the head and neck.

All in all it was a lot of fun, I'll definitely be going right back out again to get more if I find it to be a tasty enough bird, I've never had one. My plan is to piece it out and fry it up like we chicken back in TX. Potato salad and grilled veg on the side.

Thanks for all the info, y'all! It beats walking around logging roads and creek bottoms hoping to stumble across em.

 

[Don Fischer]

I lived in Lakeside in the early 70's and hunted grouse a lot there and all the way up to Polebridge and found lots of them. They became my favorite bird to hunt and eat. Been a long time!