New Jersey Grouse season

[Kevin McCormack]

A most interesting thread! In the late 1990's, I purchased a VHS tape of the American Sportsman's 'Bird Hunting' episodes. (As I recall, there were two other tapes in the series; Big Game Hunting (Jimmy Dean killing a huge Alaskan bull moose, etc.), and Game Fishing (Ted Williams fly fishing for tarpon; Lee Wulff fishing for cutthroat trout, etc.).
Much to my disgust, the "Bird Hunting" VHS did not contain the episode Dave refers to, of Robert Stack and Jackie Stewart shooting driven grouse in Scotland.

Years later I was introduced to a woman at a wedding rehearsal dinner in Allentown PA who had worked for years directly with Roone Arledge of ABC. I posed the question directly to her as to why this and a few other great segments had not been included on that particular tape. She said probably due to segment space and duration, but that she didn't really know but would check with Arledge and get back to me. A few weeks after the wedding I got a call from her saying that was exactly the case.

I even offered to pay within reason for a broadcast quality edit of the episode, but they declined; by that time Ameican Sportsman was featuring things like John Denver hang gliding in the Swiss Alps and Chery Tiegs para-sailing in Aruba.

In a phone conversation about a year before he died, Robert Stack told me that particular assignment made him feeling 'giddy and guilty' at the same time: "No one should have been paid for having that much fun!, he said. He and Stewart shot days-on / days-off, alternating some of the best grouse moors in Scotland for 10 days.

[stumpstalker]

There are differing definitions of “road hunting”. Here are a few:

1) drive dirt roads, see a Ruffed Grouse, stop, stick the barrel of the gun out the window and shoot the stationary bird while it is on the ground or in a tree. (illegal in the States I am familiar with.)

2) drive the dirt roads, see a Ruffed Grouse, stop, get out and stalk the bird with or without a dog and shoot at it flying.

3) employ practice #2, but do so when in the process of traveling to covers where the vehicle will be parked and hunters with or without a dog will get out and walk trails to find and put up birds to shoot.

4) The following one I learned about recently:

Guide drives dirt roads with client too disabled to withstand the rigors of continuous walking, and has highly-trained dogs work ahead of his truck. When a dog locates a bird, the truck is stopped and guide and client get out and stalk the bird to put it up and shoot at it.

[stumpstalker]

Oh, well.

The “road hunting” phrase when I hear it used, with few exceptions, is a pejorative term. But it seems unwarranted in every case, as there are differing interpretations of the practice, some egregious, others not.

The Innuits supposedly have over 100 words for “sea ice”, presumably each one reflecting slight variations that have significance for those outdoor people. Our hunting vocabulary is not so advanced.

Just musing here. Probably should have just gone shooting.