[wrangler1]

Well I jsut signed up and wanted to say hi . My name is Bob and I live in Nothern Michagin. I work at a camp and I'm the ranch mng and the Target sports dir. We have riflery, archery, and Trapshooting. I have been shooting for years. My first shotgun was a 12ga. mossburge 500 I payed $150 for it when I was 18 it was the first gun I every bought. I started shooting bottles by the river my friend have a old 16 ga. that when you shot it didn't reless the pump so you had to use the reless butten behind the trigergard. We would toss bottles for each other we would shoot frogs, bird, any thing that we could find :twisted: . I moved to MI and started working at camp and got my first taste of trap shooting. About 3 years ago I got a new gun a winchester 1200 pump at a gun show for $200 bucks. It gets the job done :wink: . At camp we shoot New England 12's and 20's we used 410 then I found some winchester AA light loads and realy like them so we are getting rid of the 410's.
The real quetions is I ahve been shoting for years at bottles and trap but when I go out bird hunting I can't get a thing. We have lot of Grose and it a lot of hunting in ceder trees. How do you get a shot off when the bird flys from between your feet and after you start breathing again and see the bird and think shot by then the bird is long gone. Am I the only person that has this problem or is it normal.

 

[RemingtonII]

Welcome to the forum.

I am located in northern MN, and the hunters go through thick underbrush and a lot of trees to flush grouse. It is interesting to me that a lot of hunters shoot grouse with full chokes in order to blast through the underbrush, and still get some pellets into the grouse. Many hunters in this area swear that they cannot take down a grouse in the heavy underbrush with an i/c choke.

 

[Guest]

Having chased quail, rabbits, and deer in some thick stuff I think many people just miss in the excitement by shooting too soon.

One of the ways to practice the unexpected flush of birds on a trap or skeet field is to have the puller just release the bird w/o you calling for it. We start at the 27yd line and walk towards the trap house, the puller randomly launches the clay, sometime 2 at any point during the walk towards the house. With both skeet houses and a trap house there are any number of places that the birds can come from.

 

[Cemoto_Man]

hey!
and welcome to the forum. I do a lot of Grouse hunting in Northern lower Michigan...Iosco and Oscoda countys. The secret to hitting grouse is to turn off your brain and react instinctivly. Keep your eyes on the bird, ignore the trees and brush. If you have the time, wait for the glide pattern. This usually happens when they're out there away...40 yards or more sometimes. That's when the modified choke and full choke comes in handy. A few fellows like an IC in the first barrel and modified or full in the second bbl. That way if you have to rush the shot you don't blow the bird into the next county. If you wait until they're 35-40 yards out ya hit 'em with the tighter choke. I like 7 1/2 shot but some guys go out for early birds ( while there is still lots of leaves on the trees) with number 6 shot. Personally I don't think that 6 is necessary.

 

[JWiley]

Hi Wrangler:

Evart...that's pretty far out there. At least they have a Jay's in Clare to get in to!

If you're going to practice on clay birds, try sporting clays instead of trap. You'll get a variety of target presentations that will get you ready for many hunting shots. Here are a couple of links that will point you to clays clubs in Michigan:

www.shotgunsports.com/cmichiga.htm

www.fieldandstream.com/fieldstream/blac ... higan.html

Good luck with your grouse issues.

John

 

[wrangler1]

Thanks for your thoughts I'll give it a try and see whta I can get

 

[Jeff23]

Hi Wrangler, welcome to the forum--

I've been hunting ruffed grouse ever since I moved to New England in my 20's some thirty years ago. Most of it has been in thick brush, cypress trees, cedar brakes, alder hells and the like. I would say that some of the most humorous incidents that have ever befallen me, many of them ones that I hope no one else observed, have occured while grouse hunting in close cover. I shall not recount these humiliating stories here. It is enough to say that all true grouse hunters are men who know a deep, desperate, and bittersweet sorrow, so welcome to the club. Yet each year I return to the ridges and swamps, hopeful that I will somehow begin to hit them with regularity and confidence. However, they have a positive genius for streaking off at odd angles, sometimes even behind you, and all I can do is agree with cemoto man that this is instinct shooting. You can't wait to establish a lead--the bird is only there for an instant. I've had some minor success, in very close cover, by using spreader loads, but if it's open enough for the glide effect to kick in these won't help.

Somewhere, there are a bunch of grouse having a drink and laughing at us. I guarantee it :lol:

Best,

Jeff23