Hunting for grouse the last two years has been a bust. I don’t remember seeing one last year and only two so far this year. In past years I could get a couple or even limit for the day. Granted, grouse are cyclical on about a ten year rise and fall. Weather plays a big part in infant mortality along with a bunch of predators. The environment around the ranch has changed drastically, Mt. Hull has gone through a timber sale masked as a “restoration” project. Most of my favorite coverts have been dozed over and roosting trees fallen. The landscape is littered with slash piles. It’s not the forest I used to hunt by a long shot. There are some areas that are still untouched and those will be my go to spots.
I was introduced to grouse by the Enoch brothers, workmates at Boeing 35 years ago. We hunted the are east of Wauconda and south of Hwy 20 around Mt Annie. We would camp in a meadow and walk the old logging spurs looking for birds, and there were a lot of them back then. When we bought the ranch property I found birds around there. So the days of sleeping on the ground and cooking on the Coleman morphed into a turnkey house and shop. On the four wheeler I could run up the hill open the gate to DNR land and hunt to my hearts content. Harvest rates were decent with a few stellar hunts. But it has really tapered off. There little game that tastes as nice as grouse, simple or spiced up in curry. Good clean, lean protein. The fun of the hunt, the game, the food was a driver for many years. But that has changed.
So why do I keep hunting? I’ve had to ask myself that question this last trip to the ranch. It turns out I simply like the hunt. Why else would I walk over four or five miles carrying a shotgun?
I was introduced to grouse by the Enoch brothers, workmates at Boeing 35 years ago. We hunted the are east of Wauconda and south of Hwy 20 around Mt Annie. We would camp in a meadow and walk the old logging spurs looking for birds, and there were a lot of them back then. When we bought the ranch property I found birds around there. So the days of sleeping on the ground and cooking on the Coleman morphed into a turnkey house and shop. On the four wheeler I could run up the hill open the gate to DNR land and hunt to my hearts content. Harvest rates were decent with a few stellar hunts. But it has really tapered off. There little game that tastes as nice as grouse, simple or spiced up in curry. Good clean, lean protein. The fun of the hunt, the game, the food was a driver for many years. But that has changed.
So why do I keep hunting? I’ve had to ask myself that question this last trip to the ranch. It turns out I simply like the hunt. Why else would I walk over four or five miles carrying a shotgun?
