Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Ask The Gunwriters Grouse Load and Choke ?

Speaking as an old Eastern ruffed grouse hunter, the tool of choice for me was always an open choked double. Wide patterns delivered by an ergonomic fast handling gun. Two all time favorites were an LC Smith 20 gauge, 28" barrels, chokes opened up to IC/light modified, and a 28 gauge Miroku O/U (one of the rare ones built on a true 28 gauge-size frame), 26" barrels, choked Skeet1/Skeet2. Minimalist loads of 7 1/2's or 8's in both. Not a formula for long-ish shots but deadly in the tight thickets where grouse hang out and split seconds mean the difference between a nice grouse dinner or a baloney sandwich.

An anecdote I've related before: 50-odd years ago I had fallen in with a cabal of dedicated grouse hunters, one of whom was named Terry who was a likeable fella but a lousy wing shot - he had yet to kill his first grouse. Instead of honing his shooting skills he opted to substitute technology to conquer his ineptness - gun after different gun was bought in that effort. One frosty morning he showed up with the latest iteration of "the perfect grouse gun", an original World War One Winchester Model 97 Trench Gun complete with ventilated handguard and bayonet lug. As we pushed line abreast through a thick stand of white pines to get to a covert on the far side a grouse rocketed straight up from literally between Terry's feet. He shot from the hip and bagged it at a range of about 10 feet, taking its head completely off. He was cock-a-hoop and bragged about his finally having found the perfect grouse gun. For years after, whenever Terry showed up for grousing he always had that trench gun in hand, but never did he ever kill another grouse with it despite slinging copious quantities of lead at them. Last I heard he had switched to fishing in the Gulf of Mexico.

WITH A 12, AN I/C CHOKEWITH 5'S OR 6'S WORKS WELL ON GROUSE , RABBITS AND COLLARED DOVES. 7.5'S ALSOWORK WELL EARLY SEASON.

i DOUBT i KILL MORE THAN 5 GROUSE A YEAR WITH A SHOTGUN UNLEESS SLUG HUNTING WITH A SMOOTHBORE. i USE A RIMFIRE PISTOL MOST OF THETIME. USUALLY A .22 WMR WITH SOLIDS.

Improved cylinder with 7 1/2’s

I spent my entire childhood hunting Ruffed Grouse and Woodcock over our amazing English Setters from a bloodline my father personally developed.

Hunted them with 410, 28, 20 and 12 gauges, the go-to shot was either #9 or 7/2, with Modified or Improved Cylinder.

I have an old Browing 12 gauge Doubie Auto "Twenty Weight" with a cylinder choke which I think is perfect for most mountain grouse, I use either 1 or 1 1/8 oz reloads (trap data) of #6 nickel plated lead shot. When specifically hunting spruce grouse I started using a 22 pistol. The dogs can find and point the birds that are 30-40 feet up in the trees; although they are usually about 8-10 feet off the ground. Blues and Ruffled grouse are too skittish for me to use a pistol.

tops411,

Interesting!

I was born and raised in Montana, but may be a little older than you. Have killed all three species of Montana "forest grouse" with handguns--or shot their heads off with big game rifles, another old Montana traditions. (Have also used shotguns quite a bit....)

You are also the first person from Montana I've seen use "ruffled" when referring to ruffed grouse--though some hunters I knew who were originally from the Northeast called them ruffled. Are you a native Montanan, or originally from somewhere else? Or did spell-check change it?

For grouse, I have always used a 20 ga and no 6 shot. It takes other game as well without the need to carry different shells. No 6 works well on bunnies too.

I don’t reload shot shells. I just buy whatever is the cheapest and run with it. Cdn Tire used to have sales just before Christmas. Every few years I bought a case.

I used an old i/c-mod o/u for years until Remingron came out with their econo 870.

410 or 20/28 , with 7 1/2 , IM or open would be my choice for situation described, assuming incidental take while hunting, or a side-bar to the main event. 2nd choice if side bar. I'm assuming timbered country.

Ruger .22 with bull barrel would be my first choice if only incidental while hunting in timber. 30 ft-shot, max...

I don't happen to own one, but I like them!

Or my own owned Hi-Standard, quite rust pitted one side exterior, which I prefer to my Mark II , standard bbl. It was brought in for bead and blue 30 years ago by a guy who lost it snowmachining, found it in the spring, never came back for it

I love free guns, and that thing has really nice balance!

That all said,- and I've considered it- when I'm moose hunting, I'm moose hunting...no distractions, tho some years, I'm really tempted!

In a high year, I'll be back out there after moose season with my 20 guage pump, or if I'm feeling masochistic, my heavier Savage-Fox double SXS 12 with 30 inch M/F barrels. Foggers don't stand a chance.

Well, except maybe if they flush...

I have wondered about the effect of the sound of gun shots, even 22, on game.

In northern BC, the locals called them chick'ns, slightly slurred. I've seen the remains of where small campfires had been on logging landings with feathers around them.

I hunted with a fellow from Ontario , he called them partridge.

Where I spent my youth, everyone around Sudbury called them partridges. I was a teenager before I discovered that they were a bird called a grouse. Shotguns used to bother them, but I don't know if it was the noise, concussion or the vegetation moving around. With a 22, you could shoot one and the ones nearby just sat there. There was zero hunting pressure where we went after grouse.

Often, we took 22s just in case we came across a fox or a rabbit warren.

Dunno about elk. Problematic about moose maybe.

I've had moose come in to the sounds of snapping branches and poly tarp sounds while setting up or breaking down camps.
They will alert to any "unusual" sound, and pay attention for long after. 22 gunshot isn't going to upset them muchly, especially if widely spaced, I think, but it will get their attention as to presence, but I just don't know. I think shotgun noise might be too much.

Once I was setting up a tree stand in a spruce, and had to lop some branches with my hand saw, which branches fell to the gound with a thump, in addition to the hand-saw sound. A half hour or so later, a cow moose came in to the base of the tree, investigating.i They like to know whats going on in their environs.
.

On the other hand, a "warning shot" on bear is a waste of ammo and time. You might need both....BTDT.

But no one died anyway.

In northern BC, bears were considered vermin. One of the guys I worked with would shoot an ear of a bear if it was around his place. If he saw a bear with a mangled ear, it was dead.

Most of my grouse hunting has been in either Montana, a bit south of Kalispell and Alaska up around Wasilla. Lover my old Browning double auto 12gs. Used skeet loads with #7 1/2 shot and an Imp cyl barrel. Up in Alaska I got my hands on a Rem 870 special field, terrible gun for open field shooting but deadly on the forest. Just throw it up and shoot! Used 7/8th oz, think it was 7 1/2 oz target loads. 20 ga. came with a 23" barrel I think it was, lighting fast but lousy in the open field! Did learn to throw it up and shoot and it was a really good grouse gun. Today I use sxs's for all birds. Have two 28's, AyA and CZ Bobwhite. CZ has a 26" barrel's and choke tubes. Put open chokes in it right away. AyA had Mod/full chokes and had a gunsmith open them. He did imp cyl and skeet three he called it, just a bit under mod. 30" barrel gun I used mostly for training with the dogs, really nice handling gun. If I ever find any grouse again in Oregon I'm gonna be shooting 5/8th oz #7 1/2 shot. Also have an AyA in 410 that has been really nice in the training fields with the dog's on pigeons and chukar, 3" shells with 9/16 oz of #5 shot. My 28's are on 28 frames and the 410on a 410 frame, joy to use all tree of them. They make my 20ga CZ, I don't use it, feel like a log! I think before I cash it in I need to get back to Montana and Alaska to hunt for grouse. They actually had them up there. Oregon is hurting for game birds of any kind within reasonable distance of home!

Mule Deer, I was a Soldier for 31 years and lived all over the place and retired in Montana in 2017. I guess I claim to have grown up in Colorado. I have lived in Montana now longer than any place in my adult life.

I hunted grouse and woodcock heavily in Wisconsin when I was way younger than I am now. My favorite was an Ithaca SKB 20 gauge IC/Modified side-by-side with 8 shot, which was fine for both birds, both easy to kill.

Thanks for the info!

So was "ruffled" grouse something you'd heard somewhere along the line, or a typo--or a spell-check deal?

As I mentioned, the only people I've heard call ruffed grouse "ruffled" were from somewhere in rural New England.

Mule Deer I guess I probably heard it somewhere, My first duty station was Ft Drum New York back in the mid to late 1980s. As long as I can remember I've called ruffled grouse- ruffled grouse. Buy I've hit my head many times so my memory is not so good these days, LOL

Ah, the New York connection make sense....

I also know about memory not being so good these days!

Grew up in New Brunswick we called them partridge or Ruffled Grouse or at least that was the pronunciation in the local vernacular 50 years ago. I have a N.B.hunting regulation summary (one folded page printed both sides) from 1943. They spell it correct "Ruffed Grouse" accompanied with the taxonomic italics (Birch partridge) of which I never heard anybody call them that.

I've heard old timers around here call them "pat'idges". Of course those same guys talked about the "cat'idges" they fired in their guns too. They were folks who stubbornly clung to their Southern accents when the rest of Maryland had segued into the flat Mid-Atlantic accent.