Wind River Range or Big Horns Blue Grouse

[NR_Hunter]

people tell me blue grouse are dumb and just jump into a tree and let you shoot them, but they sure as hell didn’t do that for me! Maybe my out of control dog had something to do with it

 

[Birdbander]

That's been my experience too @NR_Hunter

 

[El Jason]

people tell me blue grouse are dumb and just jump into a tree and let you shoot them, but they sure as hell didn’t do that for me! Maybe my out of control dog had something to do with it

Without a dog around, they truly are dumb as a post. With a dog, I’d put them on par with a late season rooster pheasant in terms of skittishness.

 

[Wyoming270]

I call them Blue Grouse also. I have been hunting Blue Grouse in the high country of Eastern Washington for the last 30 years. My go-to 12-gauge round is a Remington 3 1/4 - 1 1/4 - 6 shot. I aim for the head at close range. When those big birds get up and start locking their wings down the mountain, this round has what is needed to drop them at a reasonable distance. Just as deadly is my Ruger 10-22. If they are out of shotgun range (or really close), my 10-22 is called the (Grouse Slayer) for a reason. I switch to 7 1/2 rounds when I drop into Ruff Grouse Country.

Half ounce of #9 shot in a .410 shotgun is over kill ....

 

[Blue Steel]

In certain areas blues get wiped out by good ol boys driving on closed USFS roads while crushing Keystone light. Or by lsheepherders on National Forest opening season up a little early for their camp meat.

In other areas blues I bump are fairly spooky -- flush 50+ yards out, maybe more jittery due to larger number of predators. Same with ruffed in the same and adjacent areas. Or sometimes I'm the dumb one, walking past a large tamarack or big pine that has some blues higher up in it, and they wait until I pass by to fly out the opposite direction. Good for them I guess, makes things more challengling.