Got my first ruffed grouse...

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1KPerDay

1KPerDay

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The kids loved it. Very good. Sauteed the legs in olive oil with salt and pepper and a little dried sage and lemon pepper, same seasonings on the the breasts (sliced thin) and then dusted in flour and pan fried in olive oil. Served with roasted asparagus.

First one I've seen ever... I've been out with my friend (that's him holding the bird) 3 times and he's been out a bunch more. He's gotten a few and some blues also, but ruffed grouse are smart and flighty little buggers. I wonder how many I've walked by and not even known it.

Crop was full of aspen leaves, berries (juniper, maybe? They were purple/blue and a bit wilted) and rosehips.
 
I used to hunt them a lot. We rarely hunted them exclusively. Rather we usually mixed the ruffed grouse hunt in with portions of rabbit hunts. They are challenging when you flush them.
 
very seldom seen a grouse breast without a shot trail or two going thru it.

pretty sight.

I usually hammer the breast out with a meat mallet till it's a bout a quarter inch thick and a little bigger than my hand. That way you can find all the shot without using your teeth, and you can easily remove any of those nasty shot trails. Pan fry with butter, onions and garlic till just done..............


Congrats on your first grouse.
 
my first grouse

I remember getting my first grouse. I was about 12, hunting with my dad. I had a single shot 20, he a pump. I got lucky and wounded one that flushed. It was flopping around, getting a couple feet up and then back down. I was so excited that I couldn't reload my 20. So I get my dad's pump and proceed to put another 3 shots into it. Didn't move much after that :). Learning how to clean it is another story.
 
The king of upland game birds! When I lived in Central NY, they were almost weekly dinner fare. Beautiful birds, awesome eating!
 
I love hunting grouse, I got one yesterday in fact. Now days I exclusively use my .22 pistol and normally take them by a head shot so as not to ruin the meat.

Yesterday however I kept missing a grouse that was up in a tree, so I decided what the heck and went for a body shot. It dropped instantly, and luckily the round went in, in the lower back, then traveled up the body cavity and out the neck...no ruined meat :D
 
Nice pictures... the dinner looks delicious. Where are you located? ...state I mean. I may have overlooked it in the postings...

I remember when I was younger (teenager) we had grouse coming out of our ears hear in the northern panhandle of West Virginia, at least where I grew up and hunted. Then it seems as if one year, they just all disappeared. As I grew a little older, I realized that so did the forest, which grew from a recently logged tract to mature hardwoods, which drives the grouse out. I havent seen a grouse around these parts in a few years. This spring and summer, the owners of the 4,000 some acres decided to selective harvest again. Of course I was sick... but then I noticed that while riding my four wheeler this summer, I seen a few tucked here and there. Two days ago, I flushed one up while squirrel hunting. Scared the living &#$)# out of me. Hopefully, they start to return; those pictures stirred me up for grouse again! Thanks for posting them.
 
Here in south east idaho ruffed grouse are easy pickins. I personally prefer the blue grouse simply because they are bigger but the ruffed grouse are still pretty good eatin. Blue grouse are much harder to come by but this year has actually been really good for them. We hunt them with .22s so as not to ruin any meat and it makes it more challenging. Also, you can hunt them with .22's in Idaho in case you are wondering.
 
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