Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire Idaho sage grouse seasons set

We all hear about the endangered sage grouse but Idaho still has a hunting season, with a limit of 1. I really think the only reason they do it is to convince the feds that we have enough so they they don't get on the endangered list. Getting listed has lots of dire consequences for hunting, ranching, oil, and many other things.

SAGE GROUSE SEASONS

Ill be heading down with the dog.

Go get some

I never hunted them but often ran into birds while deer hunting. Hardly worth the trouble though it’s a nice time to be in the hills

A s an upland hunter its not the birds but the experience with your dog and discovering new gorgeous country with your dog, the perfect point and meeting new folks.

That's at least part of it, but it's not to convince the feds....if anything the feds are convincing the states to continue to have a season.
USFWS upper management wants nothing to do with listing that bird for various reasons, both legit and political.

How do they eat? Tasty?

Would love to join a hunt.

I’d be interested to hear those reasons. If you’d be willing to expound in that.

Used to be, sage grouse was one of those traditions that pulled in a lot of occasional, casual hunters that would cause quite a few families to go up and do a camp / hunt and thus create quite a bit of extra license sales.

Since the new trespass law was passed, I haven’t bothered. Not worth getting written up for a bird.

They smell pretty strong when you gut one but I never had the smell pass on to the meat. They taste pretty good.

Honestly they are not very good. You about need to take them to a Chinese restaurant and have them hide the taste. I have not shot one for years. We used to hunt them and have a good time but its kind of like killing a Pheasant around here - you almost feel like you killed the last one.

Uuhhhh.....no.

They are dumb as schit too.

Used to kill em with a stick out here.

Nice thing about that is you can eat the stick afterwards.

If you would let folks blast some hawks and seagulls in the spring..........you would be covered up in sage grouse.

They're well worth the effort it takes to hunt them. We always bbq'd their breasts and ate them as an appetizer. Making a meal of them wouldn't be my first choice. FUN hunts and wish we had a season for them again in this state.

If properly prepared they are good to eat.

DO NOT OVER COOK!!!

Lots of onions and garlic small cubes of sage chicken breast and alfredo sauce served over egg noodles al dente.

I miss hunting sage hens. Once they lowered the limit from three birds i decided to give them a break.

They sure are exciting to see them flush and go thundering off. Lots of good memories hunting the Medicine Lodge area!

One time years ago I was hunting them with my BIL. At the time, the limit was 2. We jumped one and he winged it but not enough go bring it down. It had it's wings set as it disappeared over the side of the ridge. Another 100 yds and we walked into a covey of young ones and limited out. 1/2 mile later as we hiked down off the ridge, darned if we didn't step on the wounded one, quite dead. What are the odds of that in 500 square miles of sagebrush hills. We took a chance and took it home. That was kind of dumb but we knew there weren't any check stations on the way. We just didn't want to let it go to waste.

Yep, bird hunting is mostly for the dog.

With current low bird numbers, hunting without a dog would be like training for a marathon - lots of miles between birds.