Thanks as always to Pirate’s Cove For the Rule Five links!

Our deer hunt in the Bosque del Oso State Wildlife Area was a success from the meat standpoint, as two fat bucks were taken, but neither of them were quite trophies – but then, antlers aren’t so good to eat no matter how long you stew them, so there’s that.  I have promised the full hunt report to my friends at Glibertarians, so I’ll post a link to that when it is published.  In the meantime, yesterday saw Mrs. Animal and yr. obdt. on a flight back to our temporary New Jersey (ugh) digs, so, I suppose, we’ll make the best of it.  The best of it may include a couple of trips up into Pennsylvania looking for ruffed grouse, so stay tuned for news of that.

The Ruffed Grouse (Bonasa umbellus) makes for quite a challenging hunt.  While Colorado lacks them, having only the dusky mountain grouse that we regularly shoot from trees with .22 pistols, the woods around my childhood home in Allamakee County, Iowa had good populations of these fast-flying forest birds.  They are evasive flyers and make for some of the most challenging wing-shooting I’ve ever experienced.  In his day the Old Man was something of an expert at making a shot charge arrive at the exact location of a fleeing grouse, but I’m not the shotgunner he was, sadly.  Still, I’ve managed to bring a few of these birds to bag in my time, and hopefully will be able to do the same again.

When I was a kid, the sounds of grouse drumming was one of the sure-fire signs of spring.

They’re great eating, too.

As Colorado turns increasingly blue, Mrs. Animal are moving ahead with our plans to move up to the Great Land.   That state has plenty of grouse, not only ruffies but sharp-tailed, duskies and spruce grouse, along with three kinds of ptarmigan.   The bird hunting is great in that northern state; that’s something to look forward to.  But in the meantime, I’ll settle for some Pennsylvania ruffies.