New Jersey Grouse season

[Garth Gustafson]

My moms property in northwestern Connecticut abuts 700+ acres of hilly, rocky woods and I’ve been hunting that area all my life. Most of it was never suitable for farming or even dairy but it was cleared and extensively quarried up to about 100 years ago. Very few open meadows and the partridges were never very numerous in my lifetime. But selective logging of the large trees has allowed in more light and opened the way for young saplings and brambles to establish. Partridge numbers improved. But when the forest canopy returned it choked off this food source and numbers declined -at least until the next round of logging. But it’s interesting to see the huge increase in turkeys. I had never seen one until about 10 years ago and now they’re about as common as squirrels.

[Dean Romig]

About 600 acres of the land I hunt in Vermont is old grown-over hardscrabble farms, some dating back to the late 1790's and early 1800's. This 600 or so acres are all owned by one person - a very good boyhood friend of mine - and there are fieldstone foundations scattered here and there in the woods, on the edges of meadows and a few along the gravel roads in the area... but he's gotta pay his taxes so some of his land is for sale. But several years before he put it up for sale he sold off a lot of stumpage that was cut and chipped into bio-mass. Year after year I told him he was cutting all the spruce and fir roosting areas that the grouse need just as badly as they need food, water and oxygen to breathe. He simply said "It'll grow back..." I said "Not in our lifetime it won't." Yeah, it will grow back someday but I've already noticed a decline in grouse numbers. But there are many more factors that contribute to the decline in grouse numbers that we are witnessing everywhere in their range - it's not just the loss of roosting trees... and it's not just the predators... and it's not just WNV... and it's not just over-hunting... and it's not just mature dense canopy forests... it's all of these things combined. What can we possibly do to slow this (these) processes?





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[Dean Romig]

Oh, I know. Same in the NEK.





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[Harold Pickens]

I like to carry a Parker while grouse hunting, but agree with Steve it is "legs that kill the birds"

[charlie cleveland]

i have never even seen a live grouse but enjoy listenings to the tails of the hunt you guys do....charlie

[Gary Laudermilch]

I hunted the Pittsburg area for quite a few years. It always amazed me that most folks seemed to just walk the roads/trails. That never suited my style and we trekked cross country seeing lots of birds and very, very rarely another hunter.

[Louis Rotelli]

I'll put in my two cents on this subject. I've hunted grouse more than 40 years now. I've hunted in north west CT. through the 80's and 90's when it was typical to flush a dozen birds per day. Since the introduction of the turkeys the grouse have virtually disappeared. Same goes now, for the Catskills. A lot of the killing in northern New England come from the locals that just shoot them off the road and then complain that there aren't as many as there used to be.
CT performed a study a few years back and counted only 17 birds in the entire state. Their answer is clear cutting, but that wont bring birds if there aren't any around. when asked if they would bring in birds form another state the answer was no.

[Steve Hodges]

Louis, I know to a lot of folks "road hunting" for grouse in New England is not to there liking. But please keep in mind local tradition is important and criticizing the practice does nothing but divide the hunting community. I was raised "road hunting" and although I not longer hunt that way I have no problem with others doing so. Grouse have a very high mortality rate and you cannot "stockpile" them. Most biologists will tell you that hunting has very little, if any effects on the overall grouse population. Good habitat and conducive spring weather is what dictates a healthy grouse population. I know I will get the ire of members here for my comments, but this is what I believe.

[Dean Romig]

I agree with you Steve. There’s nothing wrong with road hunting - as long as it’s done on foot. Another New England tradition in certain ‘off the beaten path’ localities is shooting grouse from the open window of a car or truck. And though acceptable in some remote circles, it is a highly illegal, not to mention unethical, practice. In the enthusiasm of one guy I met several years ago in northern VT, he told me where I could go to shoot a lot of birds this way without getting caught. I simply told him that I have too much respect for the law, the grouse, and myself to ever consider doing it.

Road hunting and “ground swatting” are legal methods of putting birds in the bag.... if that’s all you want...





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[CSL]

In earlier times, with a Parker, with a Dog, on Foot, in the Grouse woods. The way it should be.

Best, Chris
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