Grouse hunting is tough at this time of year and especially so here in northern PA. We had some snows last week, next a quick warmup and heavy rains, and then a drop of about 25-degrees over a few hours. That left a crust on the snow and iced-over dirt roads on the mountains where I like to hunt grouse. On Wednesday we had a morning low of 9-degrees but a friend and I went out later and tried some areas we could get to. Not much fun hunting with ice creepers on and it was noisy breaking through the crust. Yesterday I got out again solo; it was a little warmer and at least the snow was soft but roads still bad as they melted some during the day and froze again overnight. Ice is heavy in the ground. I had two far out/wild flushes on grouse. Anyway, here’s a small collage of yesterday taken with my cell camera.
MERRY CHRISTMAS EVERYONE!
Old RR bed, a long hunt and then double back on an old road that parallels it.
Here’s a spot where I was daydreaming two years ago while coming back to the truck with gun resting upside down over my shoulder. Jumped 7 or 8 grouse that were congregated along this spring run and finally got to fire both barrels and didn’t get a bird.
Another good spot with plenty of green munchies a little down this crick in the hemlocks.
Last place I hunted along that old skid road with hemlocks on the right. I know there's a big patch of Christmas Fern along a small side hill there. One of my favorite covers at this time of year.
This big cock bird busted out and cackling while hunting there in the last pic. The place is about 2 miles from where our GC puts out birds every October for a youth hunt and judging by the tail this guy escaped from there last year. I surely didn't expect to see a pheasant while grouse hunting in the deep woods, basically a bird of opportunity. The cell camera doesn't do justice to the nice colors! That's a 16 bore Fox Sterlingworth Ejector gun. Peters Victor # 6 in the left barrel.
Nice colors yesterday
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