My Fall so Far....(Grouse Hunting)

[VA_Birdhunter]

I gave up deer hunting many years ago....I absolutely have no desire what so ever to kill a deer anymore...even though I love seeing the pictures of the big bucks others have taken.  My passion is spring gobbler hunting and grouse hunting.  I have been doing both for over 25 yrs now.  I've been raising training and breeding english setters for the past 10 yrs and really enjoy it and helps keep me busy when I'm waiting for spring gobbler to come back in  !   My hunting buddy and I started our season off in the Northwoods as we have for several years now then head back to the Appalachian mountains for the rest of our season.  The season has been great so far and we have got to see alot of great dog work with several of our young dogs really improving this year.  The turkey hunting fever never leaves me and this is the only thing that helps....considering I've already started watching my turkey hunting DVD's  which never help and only makes it worse!  I though I would share some of my grouse hunting pics...hope you all enjoy them!

God Bless


Seth


Patches


Sadie












Our bag after one days hunt in the Northwoods...Great day that day I actually limited for the first time up north that day.








Appalachian Mountains


Appalachian Mountains


A Couple of Mountain grouse.


Last point of the day in the mountains this past Saturday...with seth and patches teaming up to pin down a covey of 5 grouse.


A little illustration of the above pic


Another mountain grouse.

Sorry for so many pictures...I have a bunch more but forced myself to stop posting them!! 

[fallhnt]

I had a English Setter colored close to Seth. Great dog. He never held his tail up on point so the guy I got him from didn't want him. I wasn't going to field trials so I was all in. Great story.

[mgm1955]

Looks like a lot of fun. Congrats!

[chadly]

Thanks for sharing.  I really enjoyed the pictures.  I've not grouse hunted in forever other than the occasional one that pops up while pheasant hunting in SD.  Those grouse are quick to get out of gun range and experts at being in spot where a guy can hardly swing a gun. 

[Spring Creek Calls]

Looks like you have a good grasp of what grouse hunting is all about, the dogs. Our group has become long in the tooth and our dogs have either expired or too old to take the pounding. We still hunt but on a limited basis compared to our younger years. Great picture of the red phase bird.

[rem 300]

Beautiful dogs!! Thanks for sharing!

[1tiogabowhunter]

Awesome pics and great looking dogs.  I am getting ready to get my first pointer a wire haired pointing griffon.  The grouse hunting really appeals to me since they are totally wild birds and we have a decent population on our property.  How do they hold for the dogs?

[jonhaga]

Awesome pics!!!! I'm planning a grouse hunt in about 2 weeks I don't have a dog just planned to get out and try to walk some up. I was wondering if anyone had any experience in the Clinch Mtn. WMA here in VA

[Snoodsniper]

Awesome pics! I love to hunt grouse but our population is not high enough to warrant having a dog. I run beagles and go up north to hunt snowshoes. There seems to be a good population of grouse there as well. If you get a chance to hunt the Adirondacks I highly recommend it.

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[VA_Birdhunter]

Looks like you have a good grasp of what grouse hunting is all about, the dogs. Our group has become long in the tooth and our dogs have either expired or too old to take the pounding. We still hunt but on a limited basis compared to our younger years. Great picture of the red phase bird.

Spring Creek...that's it buddy...it's all about the dogs!!

[VA_Birdhunter]

Awesome pics and great looking dogs.  I am getting ready to get my first pointer a wire haired pointing griffon.  The grouse hunting really appeals to me since they are totally wild birds and we have a decent population on our property.  How do they hold for the dogs?

Some times they hold great and at other times they won't hold for anything.  From my observation the weather can really affect that as well as pressure.   Grouse at times also love to run...there not as bad down here in the mountains to run but up in the northwoods they run a lot!  Takes experience for the dog to learn to handle a running bird.  But exposure can fix that over time. 

[VA_Birdhunter]

Awesome pics!!!! I'm planning a grouse hunt in about 2 weeks I don't have a dog just planned to get out and try to walk some up. I was wondering if anyone had any experience in the Clinch Mtn. WMA here in VA

Jonhaga...I've never hunted that WMA but have seen others talk about hunting it with good results at times.  VA is my home state in the coal fields near KY and I still hunt VA.  VA's # are down but put in the time and you can find some pockets of them!   Hope you have a great hunt buddy!

[jonhaga]

VA Birdhunter.... Thanks for the reply buddy I'm going to go try it soon I'll let you know what happens