G R O U S E

[firstcoueswas80]

ol' red, the west texan and the young buck who needs a g/f ( doug, scott, and i) have been up in the kiabab chasine blue grouse this weekend. it was tough we hiked our BUTS off but we did manage to get one down. i will let scot tell the story but him and i killed one with a beautiful point by penny. doug will post the pics to prove it to yall none believers and scot can tell the story!

[stanley]

Cool deal Casey. Glad you guys got a little action. Awesome country up there with or without lots of animals killed.....

 

How were the deer hunter crowds?

 

S.

[Red Rabbit]

From what I saw, deer hunter numbers were about normal or slightly less. I figure that $3+ gas and deisel would keep some at home. About half of the plate I noticed were from California. The wind up there was attrocious. A friend from Prescott called last night to saw he got 130" 4x4.

 

I will try to post pics tonight if/when I set up a Photobucket account.

 

Doug~RR

[111]

Sounds like a good time..that wind was horrible this past weekend, glad to hear your friend got a 4 point.

[Kilimanjaro]

Well boys, I had a really good time on the hunt with Doug, Casey and one of my buddys who recently moved here to AZ from TX. We all hunted pretty hard and I think between all of us, we saw around a dozen grouse. The country was THICK to say the least. Aspen stands, and the undergrowth and the downfalls made it quite the rodeo just to get around. Not to mention the 9000 ft. elevation!! And the wind really blew ( pun intended! ) !!! We were camped just around the bend from the north rim of that big ol hole that all of us love. Made for one beautiful sight while hunting.

 

We just ended up with one bird between all of us, but that didn't make the hunt any less enjoyable. Craig, missed 2, I shot one that flopped over and then as I went towards it, the danged thing flew off!! Then I missed another one one the last 15 minutes of the hunt. Casey saw a few but only got the one with me. And Doug saw a few as well, but never got to pull the trigger.

 

The bird we did get was great. Casey and I were driving around during luch break looking at new potential areas and we saw a deer hunter on a quad that was just putting him bow up. We asked him if he had seen any birds and he said that 7 or 8 had just walked in front of him on the road and that he had tried to shoot one with his bow but they spooked. He said that they had just flushed off the road into a dense stand of timber. We bailed out of the truck and grabbed Penny and went in there and right off the bat, one flushed out of a Douglas fir out of range for either of us. We made several large passes through the area and we couldn't find any of them. After a few miles of walking we decided to give up and head back to the truck. When we were about 50 yards off the road from the truck I reached down and turned off Penny's beeper collar and we were standing there BSing and not really paying attention when I noticed that Penny had run about 30 feet from us and was on full point. Right when we took about 2 or 3 steps towards Penny, one Blue Grouse rocketed out of the grass!! But, unfortunately for him, we were ready. He got a double dose from my gun and Caseys at the same time. We had finally done it.. Taken a Blue Grouse in AZ under my dogs point.. The right way!! Penny girl, ya done good!!

 

It was one of those hunts that was difficult enough that it gets under your skin enough that you want to try it again and again. Tough conditions, cold, wind, sunburnt, windburnt, high alitude and not a whole helluva lot of birds out there. I can't wait till then...

 

Penny did NOT enjoy the prestine views of the North Rim like we did!! She wanted off that rim lookout in a bad way!!

[bowhunter4life]

that last picture said it all.great story.mike

[Dan H]

Scott, Never hunted Grouse are the males colorful like pheasant? And females dull?

Birds or no birds the trip,experience and area looed awesome.

Cool dog.

Dan

[Red Rabbit]

It was a tough hunt, especially on Casey . When those grouse would flush a few thousand feet below the rim (as seen in the bottom pic) like a chukar, we'd send Casey down to flush em back to the top of the rim. As pointed out by Scott, Penny was afraid of heights and would not go down into the ditch after the birds.

 

We didn't see any turkeys and just a few deer, including one 3 point buck.

 

Doug~RR

[KGAINES]

Sound like you guys had a great time, congrats on the bird.

[Red Rabbit]

Here's a pic of that feral exotic deer species we encountered on the Kaibab. Unfortunately, we had no archery deer tags.

 

 

Doug~RR

[More D]

Whaaaa the...............

 

 

 

 

 

[azyoung]

Scott, Great story and pics. Thanks!

 

Jeff

[CouesWhitetail]

Very funny Doug......I wish we had moose to hunt in AZ! Moose is some of the best game meat I have had. Sure miss seeing them.

 

Amanda

[DEERSLAM]

Doug,

You're gonna get Shiras all foamin at the mouth with that pic

 

Good thing they ain't none in AZ, that would cost me more app. fees

[Chef]

Love that first pic...Penny looks so proud!

 

Looks like a great time was had by all.