Grouse hunter where in northern Mich are you?

John, after reading your post and Harold's reference to Ohio grouse, I couldn't help responding, even though my comments are off the original topic. I went to school in Athens (many, many years ago) and continued to go back to hunt grouse for years around Nelsonville/Athens until the bird numbers dropped too much to justify the drive from Missouri. I miss so much my Ohio grouse coverts. I remember 25 flush days and lots of places to hunt with decent grouse habitat. Like so many other things related to hunting, "those were the days..."

Thanks to both of you gentlemen for bringing this up.

From 1978 to 1985, we lived in Southern Ohio (Minford) about fifteen miles north of Portsmouth. Had a nice dutch colonial with five acres on top of Rases Mountain. I could literally walk out the back door and hunt grouse and woodcock all day long with my setter. Had some of the best grouse hunting in those years while there on a project with S&W Eng'rg Corp. Best years for my wife and two daughters. Great environment

If it were my gun, I would try having it blended.
No added wood will ever match the original grain flow.
The right person can make that look nice.

Before blending and shaping.

http://www.jpgbox.com/jpg/53204_600x400.jpg[/URL][


After blending

http://www.jpgbox.com/jpg/53205_600x400.jpg[/URL][/IMG]

I would cut it off and put on, or have someone put on a piece of wood that matches it much more closely. There are people who have a selection of wood that would come real close.

As I suggested early on, you might want to consider the talents of Mark Larson. He has become the premiere stock grainer of the US trade.

https://www.marklarsongunart.com

Below are before-and-after photos of a Churchill buttstock that Mark recently completed for me. Judge for yourself:

Stock bending works but you have to take your chances. I have had it done a few times, but one of those times the stock cracked through the grip. I'd be careful with very old guns. The gun that cracked was a high condition early DH that had about 98% original color. A real rarity. Cracked stocks can be fixed but it is better to leave very old guns alone, in my opinion.

We lived in southern ohio for 7 yrs while i was on a project for Stone & Webster. The grouse and woodcock hunting just north of Portsmouth, around Minford and in Pike County was terrific. As good in my opinion as maine, NH and Mich/Minn.

Good grouse cover usually has about a 20 year life and then the second growth grows into trees and the grouse numbers diminish in most areas. Many of those old great grouse coverts were the result of overgrown orchards, farms and areas that had been logged in the past. If the area is selectively logged, the grouse cover remains. If not, it goes to forest. The key is to find areas with a lot of second growth, thick cover and most importantly, vegetation that provides a lot of food such as bayberries and fox grapes in the east.

Grouse congregate in these areas and you don't have to walk a mile for a shot such as you have to in less viable areas.

Allen,

I hunted those same areas for years, but, alas, the "environmentalists" have long since put an end to tree cutting. I quit hunting Southern and Southeastern Ohio some years back. It's really sad what "loving trees to death" can do to grouse habitat.