Number 10 birdshot

[Gary Laudermilch]

This has been an interesting thread and will continue to be so.

I've been hunting grouse for 50 years or more and have taken my share. To this day I examine every bird harvested for pellet performance as I have for years been somewhat of a student of shotgun terminal ballistics. I have my opinions on shot size, choke, and shot payload that I feel is appropriate for grouse.

I have heard numerous times over the years that grouse are easy to bring down. I could recount many, many events over the years that refute this claim. I'll cite but one illustrious example. I hunt a cover we now call the "headless grouse". Before it received this moniker my son and I were hunting it with my two setters. Dogs on point and son walks in for the flush. Bird gets up and I see it heading my way so I turn around to take it going away but my son shoots before it gets to me. Bird passes overhead but is flying oddly and making a get away but I did not shoot. Bird flies about 50-60 yards and comes to ground. It is completely missing it's head, the result of my son's 10 yd. shot. This is a weird example of grouse tenacity and is extreme, I admit. However, I could spend a day relating less dramatic examples of grouse that should have come down and did not.

So, my one word of wisdom is "Respect the Bird" as they are too precious to loose and worth far more alive than lost.