Part VI. THE GAME

Chapter 17. Hunting Ruffed Grouse

What is ruffed grouse cover? By that I mean ruffed grouse cover which produces more than an occa­sional bird—cover which has so many natural attractions that ruffed grouse naturally gravitate there. Something of the re­quirements were touched upon in Chapter 2, Basic Hunting. But that was merely relating these favored game hot spots for all hunting from cottontail, squirrel and ruffed grouse to deer. Here we are concerned with the requirements of ruffed grouse cover alone.

A successful ruffed grouse hunter must be able to pin-point cover preferences within the over all favored sections. He must be able to recognize the happenstance of taking occasional birds outside these preferred spots for what it is, ruffed grouse actually outside their favored normal cover.

Breaking food requirements down into detail, here is what you come up with: wild grape; huckleberry; clover; tree buds; apples from abandoned apple orchards; wild fruit of oppor­tunity, depending on the section; and abundance of worms and insects. You must consider these food requirements in rela­tion to warmth, for the two are inseparable.

This warmth is found most constantly on the southern slopes, swales and valleys. Here the sun touches the cover constantly from early spring to late autumn. The wild harvest is always the heaviest here.

One section along a western river, where I fish steelhead during the summer, and hunt ruffed grouse in autumn, has wild grapes literally covering the maples and other trees, where the vines have reached up to the sun on these natural arbors. In late autumn, when the grapes are sun cured, ruffed grouse move in for the feasting. Other types of food which are abundant in this section, such as salmon berry seeds and salal berries, are but little used during the grape harvest.

When one eases along the banks of this beautiful river, which snakes its way through the coastal hills, the ruffed grouse concentrations are easily pin-pointed. It is not difficult to tell which section of river bank will afford shooting, and which section is scarcely worth hunting.

Where the river makes a turn, cutting off the southern ex­posure along a bank, the wild grape is less lush. It produces but little food, and that which it does produce is not the golden, dead-ripe grape like that of the side where the sun has had an opportunity to work its magic during a full growing season.

Just as my best shooting always occurred on those southern exposures of that winding river, it also occurs on the southern exposures of all hills in ruffed grouse territory, whether you are hunting in New England or on the West Coast.

Occasionally you will get a day's gunning which seemingly contradicts this. When you do, look for some reason why these birds have moved out of their favored cover. If you build a ruffed grouse finding philosophy on a few such instances, you are letting yourself in for a lot of fruitless tramping. The most deceptive occurrence is in finding ruffed grouse on low, cold damp ground, such as swamps.

Hunting such territory one day, I turned up an even half dozen birds. The trees were dripping with the condensation of late autumn; the ground was cold and damp underfoot. Grouse cover? No. Those birds had been pushed out of their natural environment along the foothills by an army of hunters on open­ing day. The swampy section of their range was less hunted and they, like any other game, gravitated toward the security of this ill-favored section.

A good grouse woods is a mixed woods, with plenty of maples, beech, alder and such, but fairly well sprinkled with evergreens, too.

Evergreens are the shelter trees. Ruffed grouse use them for roosting, and for waiting out rough weather, except the severest storms. When a heavy blizzard occurs, ruffed grouse have the clever habit of flying directly into a snowdrift, sheltering snugly below the surface of the snow until the weather moderates.

But to get back to the texture of a ruffed grouse forest. Notice how, as the leaves fall along those south trending slopes, it becomes more open, letting in the late autumn sun? Notice, too, the dark leaf loam under the trees of a mixed forest? The hickory, hazel bushes, birch, beech, maple and alder produce a treasure of autumn leaves which is the delight of ruffed grouse and other leaf turning birds.

Al Wyman, hunter and philosopher, once remarked that you could tell good grouse territory by the feel of the soil. And that isn't as far down the ridge from the truth as it might first appear. When you add up the factors of good grouse cover: food and shelter, soil texture ties directly in with these two items.

Fallen leaves and the warmth of a south slope or swale combine to make a perfect environment for insects and worms which are a stable item of diet of ruffed grouse. Ever notice the leaf turning proclivities of birds in such places? Kick the leaves aside and you will see that the rich dark loam beneath carries a heavy complement of insect life. There is a seasonal cycle of activity here which not only makes such territory beau­tiful ruffed grouse habitat, but is also a wonderful environment for all wildlife.

Find any woods favored by other birds and you are touching upon potential ruffed grouse cover. Find any cover which doesn't carry its complement of other wildlife and you are hunting ruffed grouse in territory scarcely worth the effort.

Ruffed grouse is a creature of habit. When a hunter knows something of the reason behind his comings and goings, his hunting is much more interesting and productive. During the warm autumn days when the sun touches the south slopes with a mid-season warmth, he is very apt to be found dust bathing. Favored spots for this are old logging roads which have smoothed off the top soil leaving a spot of subsoil exposed to the sun. Such places are easily pin-pointed by the casual feathers found scattered about and the depressions in the dirt where ruffed grouse have lain.

These old roads are excellent places to hunt when working ruffed grouse cover. One such road which swings around a south facing hill near my cabin always produces a grouse or two when the autumn sun is shining. I often hunt along this road, without a dog, knowing just about the places which those ruffed grouse will use. Each season they will be found in these same places when conditions are right.

Habit also pin-points their roosting trees. One hemlock, within a half a mile of where this is written, shows the drop­pings of about three birds which use it constantly—even the same limbs are used for perching, as the droppings show. This roosting tree is one hundred yards down the slope from the top of a ridge. It is sheltered from the north winds here. In addition, its closely woven lattice of drooping limbs affords plenty of shelter in its own right by shedding water, sleet and snow.

It is no happenstance that those ruffed grouse use the south side of the tree for their roosting. They are interposing the bulk of that hemlock against the cold drag of air current which is always down slope during the night. See how it all adds up? From beginning to end the keys to the comings and goings of ruffed grouse are those primary ones of food, warmth and shelter.

Ruffed grouse, being lazy by nature, likes his home territory, too. He seldom roams much beyond the confines of his home thickets. Given plenty of foods, a few spots for dust bathing, proper shelter trees, and there is no incentive for him to abandon such cover. Once you find territory which has those requirements, cherish the knowledge and keep it secret, for you are sure of good ruffed grouse hunting in such cover, autumn after autumn.

There are two methods of hunting ruffed grouse—with a dog and without one. The latter method is more in keeping with still hunting deer, though it does have a few twists individual to ruffed grouse hunting alone.

I love to hunt ruffed grouse without a dog—walking them up, as it is often called. Such hunting must be directly pred­icated on an intimate knowledge of grouse habit. You must know your game's reaction to your efforts to be at all successful.

Just recently I spent a full day still hunting grouse in the cover where I normally prowl when looking for a big buck. The similarity of such hunting is very apparent, though you may be armed with a shotgun for grouse or a rifle for deer.

This day it was cold and blustery, with the ruffed grouse holding close to the thickets. I eased along convenient deer trails, watching the cover ahead for some movement of my quarry, listening for the small talk which ruffed grouse usually make before flushing. Once I touched off a big five point buck in a clump of laurel. Again, it was a doe I jumped instead of grouse. Eventually, after an hour of careful hunting, I touched cover which held ruffed grouse.

First ruffed grouse I flushed spiraled out of the alders with­out giving me a chance for a shot. I marked the direction it took when it leveled off, confident that I could again walk it up within shotgun range.

It is characteristic of ruffed grouse to continue on in the direction they flush without any great amount of deviation. Once you put one up, it is very apt to be found in the cover some hundred yards or so in the general direction it was taking when you first marked it. This one angled along the ridge, keeping just enough below the top to stay within the sheltering belt of those southern slopes and away from the bite of the bitter north wind.

I worked down-slope a bit in order to be slightly below my game when I flushed it. I eased through a thimbleberry thicket, pausing frequently to watch the cover ahead. I walked up two more ruffed grouse, getting one as it crossed a small opening in the alders, missing the other on a quartering shot which appeared deceptively easy. Afterwards, I flushed a lone ruffed grouse in the cover where my first bird disappeared, and took it with a snapshot on a straight away try.

I like to hear ruffed grouse talk, the nervous chatter they make before flushing, but quite often in hunting them by walk­ing, the first intimation you have of their presence is the heart stopping thunder of wings as they explode out of the autumn leaves which blend so beautifully with their own rich coloring.

Working ruffed grouse with a dog has an attraction for upland gunners seldom found in any other type of shotgunning. Even quail are unable to hold hunters like ruffed grouse. One such hunter once told me, "Gimme a week in ruffed grouse cover with a good Irish Setter, and I can get by the rest of the year.'

An Irish Setter and ruffed grouse are unbeatable, it seems to me. Many experienced gunners say that there is no other ruffed grouse dog quite like an Irish Setter. In fact those truly great ruffed grouse dogs I have known have all been Irishers. Yet when I say that, I must make room for a Springer Spaniel with which I hunted everything from duck to ruffed grouse. Bob was that kind of dog. He had the knack of anticipating your own hunting strategy, as well as just about knowing what your game would do.

It seemed to me he patterned his hunting according to the game reaction to the weather. On those cold, clear days, when the cover was noisy, the grouse flushing wild, he hunted care­fully, slowly, touching the cover with a delicacy which put the birds up within range. On those blustery days, when they held close to the thickets, he ranged faster, crashed the thickets to send them thundering out to your gun.

Characteristics of this nature in a hunting dog are not exactly brought about by training. They are more the results of letting a good intelligent dog develop his own natural peculiarities of hunting—within reason. Training which fosters such character­istics has as its basis a very close relationship between the hunter and his dog. When your dog shows by his action that he has the mark of a truly great ruffed grouse dog, encourage it by praise for his good work afield.

Many grouse hunters swear by a good pointer as being the ultimate in ruffed grouse dogs. And such dogs are beautiful to see, working the cover with a very light touch, when properly trained to this king of all game birds.

Again, it simmers down to the individual dog. My first choice is a setter. But thousands of hunters would disagree with me. In fact the trend is toward pointers. Probably more pointers are used on ruffed grouse now than any other breed of dog.

Any breed, however, can be trained to hunt ruffed grouse— if the dog has it in him, and this is complemented by careful, understanding and training. As he progresses, he will learn to love ruffed grouse hunting above all else. He will develop peculiarities of hunting, which, as I have said, must be fostered.

It might be said, and I believe truthfully, that ruffed grouse also develop certain peculiarities in hunters. You either love ruffed grouse or you are not a ruffed grouse hunter.