By Dave Workman
Editor-in-Chief
As you read this, I’m probably tramping around somewhere above 4,000 feet on a ridge on the east slope of Washington’s Central Cascades, toting a 20-gauge over-and-under shotgun chambered Modified and Improved Cylinder, and loaded with No. 6s, looking for Blue (aka Sooty or Dusky) grouse.
Perhaps with any luck I’ll already have a couple in the bag, and if not, well, more brush beating.
I have not missed a grouse opener in 50 years, and this year is no different. Where grouse hunting is concerned, the big blue (sooty) grouse is my favorite upland gamebird.
Sure, I’ve hunted pheasant and chukar and did okay on those occasions. Quail have been a challenge, and doves…well, mourning doves must be in cahoots with ammunition companies, and I’m never gonna sucker for that again! Until next time, maybe.
But blue grouse, now this is a bird which can—breasted out—feed two people. It is the largest of the grouse species, at least in Washington, and over the years I have put some big ones in the cooler.
About three years ago, the Fish and Wildlife Commission pushed the traditional Sept. 1 season opener back to the 15th, ostensibly to help hens get through the opener and give the families time to scatter a bit. True, I have seen blue grouse in groups of maybe six or seven birds at times, just wandering along old gravel forest roads oblivious to the guys wearing those orange vests! Oops!
A fair number of wingshooters, however, suspect another part of the equation was to keep hunters out of the forests over the Labor Day weekend, giving non-hunters the weekend without a lot of fluorescent orange and firearms on the trails and in the campgrounds.
The controversy surrounding a couple of commission members was recently reported by TGM, and I recently reminisced about shooting Evergreen State grouse with a .22-caliber pistol.
But today, Tuesday, Sept. 15, I’m toting a smoothbore, plus some sort of big bore handgun—either in .45 Colt or .41 Magnum (I’m in bear country, remember!)—and it may be overcast, cool and maybe even sprinkling rain. But I’ll be hunting, instead of sitting in an office, and this makes all the difference!
I grew up calling these big birds blue grouse, but the wildlife agency prefers to call them “sooty” grouse, probably just to annoy old-timers like me. Also called “hooters” because of their sometimes melancholy call resembling someone blowing across the spout of a long-necked glass bottle, and other times “fool hens,” because they can seem remarkably stupid at times, these big blue grouse live in the higher elevations in mixed timber, often near wild blackberry and huckleberry fields, along old logging roads, and around areas of mixed hardwoods (alder, maple, vine maple) and such mainstays as Douglas fir, pine, spruce and hemlock.
Not that it matters, but most of the terrain where blue grouse thrive is higher-elevation hillside stuff. It can be steep, tiring to navigate, and the birds will never give you an even break.
Back in my days as an outdoor writer at the old Fishing & Hunting News, we also called them “thunder chickens,” because they invariably take flight from cover with a loud thundering of wings. I’ve been spooked so badly at times I never even had the wherewithal to bring my shotgun up. Other times, I’ve managed to bring them down at some distance when they were flying away in the clear.
Later in the season, you’ve got to be careful to recover them quickly and open them up to remove the entrails because they are needle eaters, and the digestive juices can muck up your table fare.
I have eaten them fried, roasted and a few times as a substitute for chicken in a pasta and parmesan dish. They would also make a good substitute in a pasta/alfredo dish. For frying, I recommend breasting them out, wrapping each breast in a strip of bacon, lightly peppered or otherwise seasoned, and maybe rolled in some flour. They are delicious with baked or even fried potatoes, and a vegetable of your choice nicely rounds out the plate.
I have hunted them with pretty much everything but a 28-gauge. I’ve got a sweet little .410-bore S/S double from Stoeger, and a fixed-choke 20-gauge Stoeger, which have proven themselves to be real grouse busters.
Some years ago, I bought a 20-gauge Franchi O/U with interchangeable chokes, and other than having to replace the factory recoil pad which literally crumbled apart a couple of seasons back, this gun has not had a bit of work, not even a stock refinish.
And then there’s my beloved 12-gauge fixed-choke S/S Beretta, for which I paid an incredibly low amount of money back when I was 19. It was a used gun, though upon close inspection I immediately realized it hadn’t been used all that much. Both bores were literally glass smooth, and it had been traded in for something else at the old Chet Paulson Gun Shop in Tacoma, Washington because its previous owner apparently just couldn’t get the hang of it, or it didn’t “fit” properly or some other such nonsense. From the moment I hoisted it to my shoulder, I knew it was the gun for me. Loaded with high-base No. 6s, I’ve shot ringnecks, grouse and chukar with this gun, and rarely missed.
Many of my contemporaries hunt then with No. 7 ½ shot payloads, but I grew up shooting 6s and I’ve used lead or Bismuth to clobber them and haven’t been disappointed.
For those who have never hunted western grouse, I can only say you are missing something. I’ve seen these birds do some of the darnedest things, often causing them to wind up in the stew pot, while at other times they are simply the most challenging upland birds on the map. Blue/sooty grouse live up high
Blue grouse, and for that matter, ruffed/forest grouse, can swiftly explode from cover in a thunder of wings, startling the heck out of a hunter, and before you can get a bead on the suckers, they disappear behind a tree trunk never to be seen again,.
I’ve had grouse flush, only to land quickly on a tree limb—they ought to wear a sign which says “Shoot Me, Here I Am!”—or they land a short distance away and just dare you to come after ‘em.
Like other upland birds, primarily the chukar, blue grouse will often take off and head downhill, picking up air speed. And, they can be remarkably fast, beating a shot spread with ease.
At the moment, I’m officially on vacation. I’m just writing this to taunt some of my pals with the promise (prediction?) that I will undoubtedly leave a few birds for them in the days ahead.
I’ve been waiting for this day for several weeks. Today will not be long enough, but not to worry, I can go back after them later in the week.
Wish me luck! At my age, I probably need it.
