Home Forums Birds & Dogs Waterfowl Pot shooting (sitting ducks)

Grouse north of the Golden Road don't seem to have much experience with humans. They behave nothing like ruffed grouse in the Allegheny Mountains, where flushes are explosive. Northern ME's partridge have much more lack luster flushes and are more likely to hop a perch before gliding off into the jack firs.

“ 1885 Forest & Stream 25.306 CA, That they [=valley quail] can be shot in vast numbers by the “ground-sluicing” process is true . . ; but our valley bird really lies well to the dog when found where the brush or timber is not too dense. 1899 Pall Mall Mag. 17.116 sCA, Often a stranger would join us, generally a pot-hunter, a ground-sluicer, whom we held in contempt and derision. 1906 Twin Falls News (ID) 26 Oct 4/1, The quail season does not open until November 1, nevertheless the birds have been “ground sluiced” with persistent regularity for weeks. 1929 Billings Gaz. (MT) 8 Oct 11/1, This particular nimrod had the choice of “ground sluicing” several ducks in the water . . or of following the safer and sportier method of inducing the game birds to “flush.” 1953 Reno Eve. Gaz. (NV) 21 Apr 6/2, Usually, the illegal hunter is pictured as ground-sluicing birds with a punt gun like a 37-mm cannon. 1968 DARE FW Addit swNV, Ground-sleuthing—shooting a game bird while it is on the ground or on water. Considered very poor sportsmanship and hated by people who consider themselves real hunters. . . A person who ground-sleuths is a ground-sleuther or, more commonly, a ground-sleuthing son-of-a-bitch. One ground-sleuths and one never talks of a ground sleuth. 1980 Field & Stream Aug 96, One suggestion is that you put a decoy out at 50 yards, so as to tell if ducks are in range. Whoever said that must have been ground-sluicing swimming birds. 2002 DARE File—Internet CA,”

“ Shooting ducks on the water is one of the true faux pas in the hunting world, joining the shooting of roosted turkeys and the swatting of grouse in separating the sportsmen from the savages.”

We used to spotlight jack rabbits when I lived in AZ.
Am I going to hell?

The true measure of a hunter is the ability to sneak within shotgun range of a duck sitting on the water, and shoot it without causing it to flee in terror.

Probably not a question for the waterfowl forum.

🤣

I would love to watch your dogs flush that grouse out of the tree for Shrap to shoot.

I guess it depends on whether one sees the hunt as a sporting activity or a food gathering process. I’m a wing shooter, but I’d shoot a grouse with a handgun or rifle under some circumstances.

Now that’s funny. Bit of a cheap shot perhaps, but still funny.

That bird was up there pretty high. I’m not sure either one would have been up to the task. 🙄

Doubt that bird would fly unless you climbed up there.
Though I have hunted with a particular Britt that would make it farther up that tree than most anyone would believe..

I just can’t imagine being a grown man and being so puzzy hurt that other hunters do things differently, even if completely legal. I’d be embarrassed to be such a whiney [bleep]. It’s fuggin hilarious! Of course YMMV, but it’s the truth.

So…because some are willing to elevate their personal requirement of how they kill game, in this case they don’t care to shoot fish in the barrel as an analogy, and are willing to voice their thoughts during open discussion, in your opinion they are “pussy” hurt? I also don't recall any saying the swatters are doing anything illegal.

Rational thought is frequently not on display at the fire. My suggestion would be for you to get some additional mileage.

Are the dedicated archers, who say they have left rifle hunting because it has become too easy “pussy” hurt?

You reply will most likely be “fuggin hilarious.”🤣

This really has gone far enough, but the high and mighty that are so critical of anything they don’t see as fair chase, have elevated themselves to a marginal standard that they consider best. The OP was about shooting ducks on the water, I posted a video that upset some, but is not immoral and certainly not illegal.

I would never shoot a duck on the water, not because of some legality, but because a duck really isn’t worth shooting anywhere they are. Grouse are the best eating meat of any source you can get hunting, and I don’t leave any that I could take home to cook. Unseen are the ones that are shot on the wing, but I just found out that the Ruffed Grouse I shoot are not as cagey as battue’s, but it’s all we have around here. Blue Grouse, however are a better eating bird and they are my primary target and I will shoot them when they land in a tree.

So we get down to the unwritten standard that a couple guys find necessary to enjoy their day afield, and I say, “go ahead and do it your way” but leave your condemnation at the door. This is a site that started out as a hunting/shooting/outdoor site and has turned into a Facebook page with all the drama of teenage girls.

I doubt that the vitriol that is displayed here would ever exist if people were standing face to face in these discussions…

IIRC, these guys kept their fish. They’d be pariahs today.

Do they taste better if shot from the air vs sitting on the water?

I have been condemned from other turkey hunters for rolling a bird or 2 out of their roost. They still taste the same.

Valid points, I just don’t like a duck no matter where you shoot them. As far as a turkey shot out of the roost or on the ground, really doesn’t matter, he isn’t going to roost again either way…

Yup, maybe you could save a shell by hitting a flock with your car. Even more efficient.