Russ I've known the locals to use a 22LR.

Harold thanks for reminding me, now that you mention it I do remember that hunt. It has to be the ONLY grouse I ever got from a tree flush. It's hard to say just what 20 I had but the odds favor a Parker.

You guys have a lot more experience with grouse than me, but what I have seen and experience they are pretty smart-instinctive and innovative birds when evading predators. They are also dang good about keeping cover on their 6's as they make a break, especially out of a tree. Tree flushes are definitely tough sometimes if you can even get them to come out. We hunted em in an area that had a lot of old big and tall cedar trees. More than once on a flush I saw bird(s) fly straight into them like a missile. Even getting them out of that trees much less a shot was pretty low percentage. I did mark one flying into a tree and then worked my way around and could actually see it. Did everything I could to try and flush him to get a shot and when he finally made a break flew to another one 30 yards away.

I've managed a number of successful kills from a ruffie tree flush, but I make a point to search them out in trees when I've flushed one that went up into a tree and I've become very good at finding them if I look long enough. Trigg will back me up on that one I can tell you. We each managed a tree flush kill on the same day when we hunted ruffies north of Fairbanks last fall.

It's a really tough shot for sure!

It's like shooting a quickly dropping target at SC but with low gun...





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I agree, on the cardio-shock that a grouse flush can cause. Especially, when you don't know he's there.
The worst scenario, for me at least, is when I'm out still-hunting for deer, and while my gaze is fixed on distant scenery, an unseen grouse busts out from under my feet.
It's what I imagine defibrillation feels like!

Every grouse flush does that to me!! I think i read that the origin of skeet was attributed to grouse hunters and high 1 was to replicate that shot, have had a number of them, some i hit some i missed.