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I actually don't really like them that much. We eat them as appetizers and usually Asian style with garlic. I do kind of like that but I can tell ya I wouldn't want to make a meal out of them.


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I wondered; probably very dark meat. I’m spoiled; we just had a Mother’s’ Day dinner of my favorite pheasant recipe. Exquisite.

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They are one of the best options available if you desire to hunt wild birds and not go to a preserve. If you know where they should be your chances are usually pretty good during the migration if you know how to pattern the weather.

[Linked Image from live.staticflickr.com]


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That's sure a pretty shotgun, Romac. Sure would like some details. Your pictures are top notch, too.

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That gun is a 16 gauge Fox. I bought it as is and it was custom upgraded to an XE and restocked by someone else. It fits me perfectly and is one of my favorite upland guns.

I'm particular to Foxes and I also like LC Smith's. Originals are so expensive that these custom upgrades are considered "bargains" if you can find one on the used market. There can be a lot of variation in quality however, so buyer beware.


[Linked Image from live.staticflickr.com]

Last edited by ROMAC; 05/13/20.

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Very nice box lock!

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Very nice! Thanks for the info.

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Originally Posted by ROMAC
They are one of the best options available if you desire to hunt wild birds and not go to a preserve. If you know where they should be your chances are usually pretty good during the migration if you know how to pattern the weather.

[Linked Image from live.staticflickr.com]


We have been going to Michigan for the last three years, and luckily each time have hit the flight. Last year just the tail end, however in 5 or 6 days the Dogs had a couple hundred contacts. We shoot only a few for the Dogs. In previous years when in the middle of the flight, 50-60 flushes a day was the average. Excellent opportunities to start a young Dog and tune up an older one for the season.


Add in the Ruffed Grouse, which we do shoot, and it is a great trip.

ROMAC: In addition to the pics, nice shotguns....

Last edited by battue; 05/13/20.

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Are woodcock and ruffed grouse found, generally, in the same locale? I think of wood’s being generally in damp bottoms, while grouse are a bit higher and drier?

Also, I’ve heard/read that ruffed grouse on the table of all upland birds are le meilleur de tous.

Is that correct?

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Woodcock in their migration crossover and stop to rest in a variety of covers, some of which do not have Ruffed Grouse...

https://ruffedgrousesociety.org/migration-map/


Since I've only hunted them in Michigan my experience is limited...Combined with the fact, I've only hunted them when they sit down in considerable numbers in that area.. With that, we seemed to find the most in relatively young Aspen cuts, We often found Grouse in the same areas, but for the most part the Grouse were normally in cuts a little older, with a wider variety of food sources. Although when the Woodcock were in, you could cross paths with at least some in most covers....This would be my experience in Michigan...

We found the most Woodcock in this type of cover: However, some Grouse would usually be hanging around the outside edges of cuts like this....

[Linked Image from live.staticflickr.com]

While Ruffed Grouse in were we hunted were more frequently found in covers that had matured a little more....

[Linked Image from live.staticflickr.com]

As far as eating, I find little difference between Ruffed Grouse and Pheasants....In fact I just had a smoked Wild Turkey breast sandwich, and if I didn't know, I would not have been able to tell which one of the three it was....


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Thanks Battue..Having hunted pheasants my whole life in the Great Open of the heartland and the prairies, I don’t know how you’d get a shot off in those dog-hair aspen cuts.

I’m sure you appreciated the vast differences having been to SD last fall.

Beautiful pic’s.

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More than a few you don’t shoot at....more than a few you shoot the flash before they are completely out of sight, and great ears are a bonus.


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Where I hunt them mostly in southern NJ, there are no grouse. This a picture of prime woodcock cover in the areas I hunt.

[Linked Image from live.staticflickr.com]


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battue and ROMAC, are the birds holding for the dog and you walk up and flush them? That cover looks impossible to get any kind of shot off.

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Bud hunts with Setters and Pointers and it is not rare to have Woodcock hold. I hunt with English Cockers and they are flushers. So you have to learn to read the Dog’s body language of when they are on scent and how hot it is and get ready.

Even when they hold for a point, often all you get is to hear the flush. Sometimes with the flushers, you just see the Dog bore in and then hear the flush. In both cases, sometimes the Bird makes an error and shows itself for a shot.

In that first pic, one of his Setters took a moving Grouse for over 100 yards. Locking up and then moving on. The Grouse finally flushed at the end of the cut and escaped. Also the first time we were in that cover, the Woodcock were home....probably flushed 40 plus in perhaps 1.5 hours. The next year there were few in the same cover.

Last edited by battue; 05/13/20.

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Sure looks like fun, have never hunted woodcock. Maybe someday, with that cover I’m afraid all I would get to say is “there goes another one” blush grin

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Those covers also show the fallacy of some wanting only short barrels..makes little difference if they are 26 or 30 inch, you mostly point straight in those covers....26inches won’t save you when swinging in there...odds are something will tangle up the receiver just as often as the end of the barrel....good balance is the key...

But old myths die hard....😀

Last edited by battue; 05/13/20.

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George,

If you were lucky and timed it right, you could find a woodcock or two along the Missouri or Big Sioux Rivers. I found a couple on the Winnebago Reservation back in the 1990s and a buddy ran across one east of Yankton, SD a decade ago. It was the only time I saw any in Nebraska and I hunted the eastern part an awful lot for close to 20 years. You would have to hope for some steady winds from the east and northeast for a few days in late October or early November for the best chance at them and even then odds would be slim.

Better odds would be to head east for the Mississippi but even then it could be spotty. I've seen woodcock while duck hunting near Clinton but that was hit or miss. I think the birds move a little further east for migration plus do not linger but there should be decent numbers in the northeast part of Iowa.

ROMAC's picture of woodcock habitat is classic in MN and WI where I hunt providing the soil is just a little bit moist to spongy. The drier side is good for raising woodcock broods and is where we look for chicks if the is a singing ground close. Plus, it is also good brood cover for ruffed grouse. That makes it good grouse cover early in the season too. Battue's picture of woodcock cover is more in line of grouse cover here. 30+ years ago I hunted much the same cover in NJ. I bagged 2 woodcock and a grouse in 2 days hunting. The hunt ended the second day when I shot the grouse. My host was upset I shot one of "his" grouse even though that is what the purpose of the trip was.

Battue's picture of woodcock cover is very good ruffed grouse cover in northern MN and WI. The grouse cover shot would be marked for clearcutting in the very near future if not being left for other purposes at the old family homestead. In the central hardwood area where I live, that would be typical cover though getting a little long in the tooth. The woods behind my house looks like that and it should have been logged when I moved in 25 years ago. There are grouse back there but the numbers dwindle every year. In the Mississippi River bluffs that would be a grouse hunter's dream. It just goes to show how many different cover types ruffed grouse can utilize and how they vary from region to region.

I agree on barrel length too, I don't recall ever catching the end of any barrel on brush or branches but I have scars from getting rapped across the knuckles. In 1987 I bought my dream grouse gun, a 16 ga Browning Citori Upland Special with 24" barrels. It carries well but it is my sentimental favorite and not the one I carry when I want to kill birds. For the latter it has been some O/U with 30" barrels or a semiauto with 28" barrel. Balance is better than with the shorter barrels and the extra length lets me move prickly ash and buckthorn further out of the way with the barrels making it less likely to get scratched unnecessarily. That stuff can tear up clothes and skin something fierce.

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Woodmaster,

Agree with your evaluation of the Grouse cover pic on only that part...Perhaps 100 yards away was this cut.....

[Linked Image from live.staticflickr.com]

We found Grouse in the pine area in the early morning.... we guessed they were using the pines to roost....down below me in the pic was a really nice small stream.... they had pretty much every thing they needed right there.

In fact killed this young Bird as it tried to cross over into that new cut....Someone was looking for a rest stop.


[Linked Image from live.staticflickr.com]

Here is another pic of a cut that was loaded with Woodcock for two years in a row....Last year we missed the better part of the flight in that particular area...Had some Birds, but nothing like previously....One of us would stay on the outside edge and would often get shooting if they crossed...



[Linked Image from live.staticflickr.com]


One thing that was interesting was that if we found Gray Dogwood trees with berries hanging Grouse were usually close by....On place was back in perhaps 3/4 of a mile and the cover was older and fairly open with fields and old pines, but more than a few Gray Dogwood trees.....7 Grouse came out from under one pine out in the middle of an open wild grass field....

Last edited by battue; 05/15/20.

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WM81, thanks for the info on woodcock environments and their geographical spread. i’ve never seen one, or a ruffed grouse for that matter though I know the ruffies can be found in the rougher country in NE Iowa.

Believe it or not, I’ve seen one bobwhite quail in my life and it was in the edge of a grove — about the only cover, and brush in NW Iowa — in an area, NW Iowa, that one MN DNR official (a high school friend and originally from NW Iowa) has called a biological dessert. 😳 🙂

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