Jurassic Park's grouse thread got me to thinking about all the odd-ball stuff I've had happen while near, or hunting, grouse. Feel free to add your own stories!

Once, in a land far, far away(Lake Co., Michigan), three pals and I were hanging out at the one guys family cabin along the Pere Marquette's south branch. It was early winter and grouse were budding good. We had returned to the camp after a jaunt into the surrounding woods and we were unsuccessful in our quest to shoot a bird or two for supper. Imagine our total delight when we spied a bird budding in an aspen only a short distance from the cabin door. My one partner hauled down on the bird and only managed to flush the darn thing. I swung ahead of the quickly departing bird and jerked the trigger....and also missed. We were dejected, but only very briefly....the bird was vamoosing at a high rate of speed across an opening and headed for the other side's tree line. He didn't make it. The bird hadn't flown much more than 40-50 yards when it came to an explosive and immediate stop. The luckless son-of-gun had hit a utility wire and killed hisself!

Another pal and I were walking up birds when one flushed just ahead of me. I shot and the bird kept going. We were in a very narrow strip of tags between a small lake and a two-track forest road. As we got up to the end of the strip maybe 200 yards farther along, I happened to look down and saw what must have been the same bird....stone dead and just laying in the leaves. It had a few pellets in it, but had flown on out of sight before croaking.

Two friends and I were hunting a wooded swamp that had a huge cross-country powerline slicing through it. It was one of those with monstrous steel towers. When you were near it, there was a constant humming noise. If the weather was damp, it was a loud constant crackling sizzle. This day was damp. The three of us were lined up about 30 yards abreast of each other as we walked along just to the right of the powerline. I was closest to the line. We hadn't gone far when I heard the wingbeats of a bird flushing near the farthest out fellow, followed by his shot. The bird flew right to left and flew in front of the middle guy, who also shot. When the bird went past me I also shot at it. It winged on without missing a beat. When it got out into the powerline opening it suddenly adjusted its flight to make me believe it was going to fly up and over the crackling wires......but instead of up and over, it went, literally straight up....towering is the term If heard for that. It flew straight up about 75 feet....then fell to the ground dead. That bird had a single pellet in it's chest. I have seen waterfowl tower like that too. They were all head shot.

One November I decided to hunt opening day of deer season on public land a few miles from home. A couple days before season opened I went to the ridge I was going to hunt, and I built a nice brush blind to sit in. I took our little brown family dog along for help and advise. After the build we were headed home via a state highway, and cruising at 55mph with the window down enjoying an Indian Summer day. I was tooling along and happened to glance out the open window to my left.....and here came a grouse flying straight for me. The bird was trying to adjust its direction, but was too close. I had a fraction of an instant to react by ducking....the bird bounced off the back of my head and slammed into the passenger side window, then fell flopping to the floor where the fat little brown dog chomped and shook it to death before I could get pulled over. The meat was excellent.

I have heard several times of "tame" grouse that would follow folks around and peck at their feet, etc. I have never seen one in person, but one of my uncles had one on his place like that. It followed him all over the place, and would always show up when he was cutting wood or puttering in the woods. It would even fly along side of him as he rode his quad down the numerous trails he had on his land. At times it acted friendly, other times it was aggressive and would run up and peck his boots while making purring and clucking type noises.

Anyone else?

Yep. I was dropping off a deer to have it butchered and as my daughter and I were driving out the road I noticed a grouse that didn't seem at all concerned by my truck. I told my daughter to stay put and I got out and approached the bird. It came right at my feet and started pecking at my boots. It wound up flying off and landing on the peak of the guys asphalt roof. Never seen anything like it before or since.

I shot a good number of grouse growing up in northern Michigan, all the hunts were special. My first grouse I ever shot was a picture perfect shot you hope for. Very low cover, flushed close to me a flew straight away. I still remember that first bird.

In the spring it seemed like it happened at least once a year, we would have a grouse fly into the side of our house or our big lilac bush and kill themselves. Our older neighbor said it was "flying blind". Caused by eating berries that were fermented from last fall and the birds were flying drunk.

We used to have one at camp that would run behind you as you cut the grass.

It was also a very bad hide-n-seek player. You'd go hide and that dang thing would come and strut and drum right by where you were hiding.

Big Joe, my first grouse was plinked off a hay stack with a .22 rifle. I was shooting from inside the neighbors dairy barn. That was 52 Septembers ago. It was also in Montcalm Co. That dairy farmer has been gone many years, but the barn still stands, just across the road from the small lake I grew up on north of Sheridan.

I had a bear snare set at the end of a logging spur road in the Oregon Cascade mountains. When I drove in to set it up a Blue Grouse flew down from the hillside and proceeded to strut around and occasionally peck at my feet. When I walked away to set the snare, he stayed by the truck. This grouse greeted me every day when I arrived to check the set. The greetings were a little less friendly as time went on, and the thought of grouse dinner crossed my mind. I could of easily caught it by hand. This was in the spring, breeding season, when males do stupid things.

It was some time In Jan with freezing temps and lots of snow on the ground. I was rabbit hunting and caught 2 grouse by hand that day. They were tucked under some blow downs and just didn't want to fly. I felt bad for them and let them go.

I've had spruce grouse charge me like that. I fought them off with my .410.

Cool thread J. Morse! I have some similar stories too.

When I was a kid about 10 years old I would go grouse hunting with my Dad and we always walked trails, all day long!
We were walking this one trail and it was already later in the evening when we saw a grouse sneaking off into the bush. My Dad told me to stay put and he chased it. I lost sight of him and couldn’t hear him walking through the fall leaves any more. I figured my Dad abandoned me and I was done for. Lol. A little boys imagination eh!

When I was a teenager I shot a grouse with my pellet gun. It flew away and I assumed I missed. I kept my eyes on it while it was flying and mid-flight it dropped dead. Head shot.

About 10 years ago I shot a grouse in the head with my .22 and it flew as well about 40 yards before it dropped dead out of the air.

About 4 years ago I was driving through town where there’s no grouse and in the middle of the paved street is a grouse lol. I pulled over right in front of it and watched it for a minute. It finally took off flying straight across the person front yard and crashed right into their living room window lol. I saw their entire window shake!
I sat parked in the street looking in disbelief when all of a sudden a guy comes up to his window looking at me as if I threw something at it lol.
Then he saw the grouse laying there haha!

Interesting stuff JP! I have killed more than one grouse on the wing with my .22 rifle. Keep in mind I have shot at a zillion+ of them flying, so when I did connect it was pure luck! One of them did the fly-off-and-croak deal too. A friend and I were rabbit hunting a brushy fence row when a bird flushed behind us 30 or so yards. It winged out across an open field and I raised the rifle and shot at it once. We heard the unmistakable sound of a hit, so my friend and I kept our eye on the bird as it flew on across that field. About 100 yards after the shot the bird folded and bounced to a stop just before it was into the woods. It had been shot through the heart and must have been running on pure adrenalin.

We have eaten several unlucky window smuckers over the years. My All Purpose Daughter once had one come clean through one of her kitchen windows, blowing glass, feathers, and bird blood all over her dinning table and floor. I did a mount for her from it. The bird wasn't as damaged as the mess would have led you to believe. I think it's stuffed away in her basement somewhere. She isn't into dead stuff as much as her brother and I!

In the late 70's I lived in West Yellowstone and hunted grouse on my bike with a borrowed shotgun. They were very tame and begged to be shot off the trees.

One evening I came to a small clearing in the forest and had to take a leak. With my side by side broken open and zipper down, a grouse flushed from a bush not 5 feet in front of me. I got lucky and killed it. Never forgot it.

Pete

When I was 10 or 11, I spent half a day hunting partridge with my dad and uncle. They never killed a bird. Later that same day we went fishing up the canyon and I killed a ruffed grouse with a rock.

I felt like Brian from Gary Paulsen’s “Hatchet” one time. We had a terrible early October snowstorm, deep, wet and heavy. The grouse were pushed to the road edges. I drove upon one alongside the road, stopped and realized I had no firearm, but I had a hatchet. Ruffies have never been accused of being too smart around here so I thought why not try. I didn’t even have to throw it, I simply walked up and whacked it in the head with the blunt side. No bullet, no guff.

I went out to my dad's pole barn one morning and the first thing I noticed was a good sized whole hole right thru the glass on a side window.Thinking somebody tried to,or did,break in I went over to the window checking it out.Then I turned towards the middle of the garage and lying about in the middle of the building lay a partridge, or "ruffed grouse".How in the world did a bird that size sail thru a sliding window and make it halfway across a 20' wide building?

Momentum!

I got a ton of them.

There is a red faced grumpy looking emogi on the thread name.....how did that appear?

Guy showed me a video of a ruffed grouse at one of his work sites in the woods. Thing was on his shoulder then on top of his head, he lifted the phone so the bird could see himself in the screen and it tried pecking the phone. He said the bird had been hanging around for a couple days and then just decided to land on his shoulder that day.

You must have accidently clicked the icon for it when you made the post. You should be able to edit the post, and unclick the icon to make it go away.

Thank you, Miss Angela.