Blue Grouse & Unit 1

[Jeff Welker]

As I contemplated my hunting opportunities for 2012, I got to thinking about adding something new to my regular dove/quail hunts. This past summer while spending some quality time in Greer I saw a few Blue Grouse while hiking with my son and grandson near the old Thompson's Ranch in Unit 1. It gets me to wondering if there are sufficient birds to justify the time/expense to make a proper effort? If I've read the regs correctly, it would be a fall hunting opportunity. My wife was raised in Alpine and her father tells me they used to hunt them successfully; however, that was many years ago and things certainly could have changed for the better or worse.

 

Any comments or experiences that folks might share would be sincerely appreciated.

[billrquimby]

Don't know how the fire affected the grouse on Escudilla Peak's Terry Flat, but that's where I could count on always finding them. There still are few around Green's Peak and above Phelp's Botanical Area just past Sheep's Crossing. I've never hunted them, and don't know anyone who has hunted them recently.

 

Next time you're in Greer between May and November, give me a call. I'm in the book there.

 

Bill Quimby

[Jeff Welker]

Bill:

 

Here is a photo of Escudilla after the fire.

 

 

While it doesn't show Terry Flat in the photo, it is my understanding that the entire top of the mountain got hammered like this area by the tower. I have spent considerable time in and around that mountain hunting, hiking and photographing over the past 30+ years. Terry Flat is one of my favorite places in the world. I never thought about hunting grouse up there; however, I'm guessing it will be awhile before the wildlife fully returns. I'm also guessing (based upon what I've seen in the rest of the Wallow Fire area) that the grasses are coming back well, but the trees are another story. What little I know of grouse in AZ, they need those spruce and fir trees to thrive. My father-in-law fought the first fire on Escudilla in 1951 and he says it was burned nearly identical to damage done with the Wallow Fire. I hope mother nature is just a quick in healing the mountain over the next couple of decades as she did in the decades following 1951. The Forest Service has the mountain completely closed and I'm not sure when they will let folks back up to Terry Flat.

 

I definitely will give you a call this summer. Would love to buy you lunch and talk all things outdoors.

[billrquimby]

Wow. That view makes me think of all the elk a hunter could see from that side of the mountain this year. Wish I were thirty years younger, still able to walk anywhere, and lucky enough to draw a bull tag.

 

Please do call this summer. Just give us a day or two notice, though. We sometimes go to yard sales in Round Valley or up to Zuni and Gallup. My wife supports six or seven silversmiths up there.

 

Bill Quimby

[.270]

i've taken many limits of blues up there. shot a bunch of em around terry flat too. don't know what the fire did, but i would think it put a hurtin' on the grouse. i know this much, if you're gonna hunt grouse, stay on the north side of the ridges, knobs and knolls. that's where they live. i've seen them on the north side of every place i ever hunted, and that is about every place in u1 and 27. they are really drought affected and the numbers go way up and way down with the wet weather. i would have to think it might be awhile before the herd will come back after this fire. best gun is a .410 repeater. use 8 shot in a really mild shell. they ain't real smart after you find em and a 12 or 20 will really tear em up because they don't run off. i've shot a lot of em after backing up so i didn't hammer em so hard because they won't run off. in colorado you can shoot em with a .22. if it was legal here, that's what i'd use. Lark.

[dzell]

its to bad it aint legal to kill them with a stick. you mite think Im pulling your leg or kidding but Lark said it rite their not very smart and its dang sure something that can be done

[azslim]

there's a reason they got the nickname "fool hens"

[grizzwald)-->]

I was up in 27 for the Aug. Archery hunt and saw this blue grouse with two pults on the foote creek trail. I was surprised to see them as it was pretty "toasted" up there, but it seems like at least a few birds made it. Pretty Cool

 

 

 

 

-Grizz

[Couzer]

Thats good to hear!