Grouse Opener in Vermont

[Dean Romig]

Nine flushes - all from trees because it was still wet in the underbrush and grown up orchards.

Jamie was able to take 1 shot but didn’t connect. I got no shots and Grace only made 3 points... probably mice or something like that.

We heard one grouse drumming way uphill from us just before we were going back to camp for lunch, but we were pretty exhausted and decided not chase him uphill.





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[JACK MURPHY JR]

I’d say that 9 flushes is pretty promising. Thank you for the update Dean.

[chris dawe]

Any day outside with a gun and a dog is better than one in the house Dean ....you know this !

[Jay Gardner]

Pictures! Would love to see some photos.

[Dean Romig]

Nine flushes is a bit on the skimpy side for where we hunt but we’ll see what happens today. Very windy right now but we’ll get out there soon.

A few short years back we could always expect upwards of 20 flushes in the same amount of time, but it’s early in the season and conditions are not right just yet. Best year for wild apples I’ve seen in decades though and the bears are into them pretty good.

As you can see, the fall colors are only about halfway to peak and no leaves have started to fall yet.

I’m sorry about the orientation of the pictures - I’m doing this from my cell phone.

Wind has about abated so we’re heading out to hunt the “Scrubapple Hillside” one of my favorite spots.

It was one of my Dad’s favorite places too and that’s where I cast his ashes to the wind at sunrise of opening morning of deer season 2003.

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[Dean Romig]

Second morning was a disappointment with only 4 grouse flushes... again, out of trees.

Grace slammed into a classic point on the Scrubapple Hillside and I walked around a big scrubapple and in toward her. Up goes a bird and was immediately screened behind foliage. It appeared for 1 second before it tucked up in behind a spruce top. That’s when I fired at where it should have been and I didn’t see it come out the other side so Gracie and I searched for a good while and never even found a feather... aren't grouse the only game birds that can do that...?





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[Jim McKee]

To hear a Grouse flush again
Maybe some day in eastern Ohio
Hoping, Hoping!!
Jim

[Garry L Gordon]

To hear a Grouse flush again
Maybe some day in eastern Ohio
Hoping, Hoping!!
Jim

Gosh, Jim, if it could only be like it was...

[Garry L Gordon]

Second morning was a disappointment with only 4 grouse flushes... again, out of trees.

Grace slammed into a classic point on the Scrubapple Hillside and I walked around a big scrubapple and in toward her. Up gous a woodcock and was immediately screened behind foliage. It appeared for 1 second before it tucked up in behind a spruce top. That’s when I fired at where it should have been and I didn’t see it come out the other side so Gracie and I searched for a good while and never even found abfeather... and I thought grouse were the only game birds that could do that...
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Ok, for a Southern boy who's been transplanted to the remnant prairies of North Missouri, what is a Scrubapple? A hawthorne? Crabapple? Abandoned orchard apple tree? Whatever, it sounds like it makes for a nice place to follow a bird dog.

Keep those pictures and reports coming!

[Dean Romig]

A scrubapple, in our jargon, is a wild apple tree that has never been pruned or trimmed. I remember when that hillside was only a pasture with cows grazing and a massive bull in a separate fenced smaller pasture. At the top of the hill next to the remains of a fieldstone foundation are two ancient apple trees. When the hillside is covered in snow and a freezing rain covered it all several decades (at least 5 decades) the trees dropped the remaining withered apples and they skittered downhill and stopped in small depressions. This was the beginning of the scrubapples on that hillside.

Five grouse flushes this afternoon. None pointed. First grouse was a fast left to right crosser but a dead pine jumped in front of my well-directed shot string. The other 4 were only heard but Jamie saw two of them but no shot was offered.

Headed home....




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[Garry L Gordon]

Thanks, Dean. So, I've hunted in Scrubapple coverts in SE MN and NE Iowa and never knew it! Some day I may hunt some New England grouse...some day...

'Til then, I'll watch posts like yours and keep wishing.

[Brett Hoop]

Dean

Thanks for taking us along!! It's got to be special to have grown old, I mean up, with that land and those trees. I am sure you feel a bond to that land having shared the lure of it with your father and now with a granddaughter. I think that's heady stuff.

[Chris Robenalt]

Dean, I agree with Chris. I was always told, "a bad day of hunting is better than a good day at work". I agree!

[Dean Romig]

Thanks for those thoughts Brett.
It’s hard to put into words about my relationship with the land and the trees but I guess they know me sometimes better than I know myself. They’ve been quietly watching me all these years loving the land and watching the ever so gradual changes... the births of some of the trees and the subsequent harvest of them for lumber... and now the new growth where they were that will soon become bedding areas for deer and nesting places for the grouse. It’s been a richly rewarding relationship we’ve had, and now my grandkids will know of my love and respect for my old friends.

Sorry to get sappy but it all runs pretty deep.





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[Brett Hoop]

Dean

I know it because I’ve lived it. And that time spent with the young of you will live on. It’s a great gift that can’t be lost or sold.

I don’t have grandkids yet, but Grandpa did for me just the same as you. I am still here 50 years down the glide of time walking the same property . All but the ground has changed berry bushes to scrub thickets to stout girthed cherry. The grouse are long gone, but every so often I find a hull and I know it is very likely I know who left it.

[CraigThompson]

Dean, I agree with Chris. I was always told, "a bad day of hunting is better than a good day at work". I agree!

I used to agree with that as well ! Now I figure if I wake up and am breathing it’s a good day :rotf:

[Kenny Graft]

I enjoyed your post Dean.....As a kid and young person I never had to drive to go hunting. We walked out the back door or couple miles at most to do all our hunting. In 1965 I was 10, hunted with a home made sling shot and killed way too many birds with it. I lived on a dead end road with overgrown farms, new homes started to pop up and new developments too. We had wild quail and roosters too, I would see them getting gravel on our road edge. I remember in 1966 they brought in the big dozers and pans and ended all of that...)-: They built the southern park mall and the quail were gone forever. Now you cannot shoot a gun in that township! It all SUCKS.....Now to do any wild bird hunting it requires long drives, motels and week long stays. These are not the good old days but good hunting does happen from time to time and there are some bright spots. I am thankful for that. Wisconsin grouse counts are up they say. I hope you get to go Brett....(-: I head to the U.P. on the 19th.....SXS Ohio

[Dean Romig]

Kenny - that sounds just like the “progress” that happened to the “out the back door” hunting areas of my youth and I do agree... it SUCKS.





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[Dean Romig]

Late yesterday we hit the upper edge of the Scrubapple Hillside and flushed three woodcock and 7 grouse. We only took three shots... foliage is still thick on the trees yet. Nothing in the bag but a good hunt none the less.
This morning the meadow below camp is covered in white frost. 29 degrees right now at 7:25 a.m.





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[Kenny Graft]

Yip-eee Dean! You have fun doing what we love! SXS

[Garry L Gordon]

Nothing in the bag but a good hunt none the less.
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The way you've described your coverts and the obvious reverence you have for both the land and the birds (not to mention that fine pup of yours), I'm guessing you "bagged" quite a bit on this hunt.

I'm sitting at home tending my to cancer patients and would rather be hunting, so keep your posts coming. A vicarious hunt is better than no hunt at all. Thanks for taking the time to share your hunts.

[Dean Romig]

Grace just stirred up a ground yellow jacket nest. We both got stung a lot...

I need to go back there and fetch my little 28 ga. Skeet gun... after that area cools down a bit.





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[Kevin McCormack]

I ran over one in my backyard onetime on my lawn tractor - killed the blades, throttled to the max and popped the clutch - and still got the h**l stung out of me!

[Richard Flanders]

Go back and hose those yellerjackets down with dish soap in water. Very effective at killing them. Faster than Raid. Glad you're getting out Dean. I've only seen one ruffie in our neighborhood this summer... and that was yesterday. It's also 29deg with a hvy frost and some dusting snow on the ground. My roof water tanks will get emptied today after one last binge of laundry.

[Dean Romig]

I went back and got my gun...

This hurts a LOT more than all the stings I got all over my forearms.


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[Richard Flanders]

I'm sure it did! Oh my! That pic didn't come up when I first looked at your post. Damn. Painful for sure.

I got into a nest like that here in my woods while cutting firewood. Those bad boys got all over my back and head and chased me 150ft back to the house and stung me up pretty good. I sprayed the nest down so I could get in and get my chainsaw, which was sitting on the ground running for half an hour. Then I got my weed burner out and as the foragers came back looking for the nest I wing shot them with the weed burner. Talk about satisfying! I kept it up until there wasn't a single one left.

[Brett Hoop]

OH NO!!! Scotch lots of Scotch!

Is Grace OK?

[scott kittredge]

Now i see how stocks get broken. That is hard to even look at. Sorry about the gun. You guys are all wright i hope ?
Scott

[Dean Romig]

Hurt pride and burning stings but we’re both okay.





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[Reggie Bishop]

Sorry to see this! I am hurting for you Dean!

[Dean Romig]

I’ll be feeling better this evening at dinner with Legh and Jenn Higgins and Phil Carr and his better half, and my BIL Jamie at a nice place in Hardwick, VT.
I’ve never met Phil and have always wanted to. Phil hunted with Legh today and he’ll be hunting with Jamie and me tomorrow in Tampico. Should be a lot of fun.





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[Daniel Carter]

If that is the gun you had at Addieville in April it breaks my heart, looks like it is fixable but damn that it's Oct. Glad you and Grace are OK. Hope it repairs easy.

[Dean Romig]

That’s the one Dan. It breaks my heart too.
But I have another VHE 28 I can shoot in the interim.

Easily repairable - I’ll be shipping it out next week.






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[Phillip Carr]

Dang Dean I will need to buy you a scotch after seeing the stock. Legh and I got out today 1 grouse flush and 2 Woodcock. Legh connected one woodcock.
To add a little insult I just grabbed a shower and looked out the window. I could not believe it a grouse feeding across the back yard. Pat watched the grouse while I assembled the Parker which I had put away. Unfortunately the grouse made it into the trees before I got down there. Would have went in after him but hard place to hunt with no clothes on.....that part is not true but the part about the grouse is.
Now I can’t relax I keep looking out the window.

[Chris Robenalt]

Phil, tell Dean I can fix that. I've fixed the same kind of damage by a pierced primer on that 28.