Had one break through the window in Jr. High English class in 1971. In the city, no woods any where near.

Had one flush and hit me in the head while riding on my quad checking traps. I almost was able to grab it before it recovered and flew away.

A couple years ago, I shot one with my pistol while checking traps. I had a grey fox in a set, and the grouse appeared to be harassing the fox in the set.

My Grandad once told me about how, one early winter he came up on a grove of Balm of Gilead trees chuck full of budding birds. (aka Balsam Poplar trees). He was toting a single shot .22 and he said he started out shooting the lowest birds, and when others got to long-necking and acting nervous, he'd freeze and let them calm down and go back to budding before starting up killing more. He ended up with either 23 or 24 birds before the flock spooked and flew. I don't know if it was 23 or 24 because he also told me a story about him and his one brother snaring 23 or 24 Snowshoe Hares in one snare check. I don't remember which number went with which story. I have both recorded on a cassette tape in my safe-deposit box, but I don't listen to it because I'm scared the old tape will break.

Closest I ever came to needing a wheelbarrow to tote home my grouse pile was once about 1970-71, while walking a marsh checking my fox traps. I was walking across the ice when I spotted movement under a small clump of snow draped willows about 30 yards ahead of me. I had I.D. it as a grouse, and was thinking I'd pop it with the .22 rifle I was carrying. I couldn't get a good look, but was sure if I moved up a few steps it would raise it's head and I would bag it. I had only gone a few steps closer when the bird spooked a flew away. I was disappointed, but plodded on......I didn't go a half dozen steps when, one after the other, 13 more grouse flushed from under that little clump of willow. I almost took my 20 gauge instead of the rifle when I left the house that morning too. To this day I wonder just how many of those birds I'd have killed if i would have sent a load of birdshot in there from where I'd first seen movement. Likely an over limit! (Which was 5) An old timer I had as a mentor as a kid did that once and he killed 5 of the 7 birds under the bush he shot into. I may have had to make two trips home!

I remembered another grousey story....sort of. When I was about 17 I was hunting cottontails with my elderly neighbor guy. He had the best beagle I have ever hunted behind. We were standing up on an old RR bed and the dog was working a real small swale that wasn't more than 40 yards across. It was full of Bebb willow and Canary grass, all of which was draped in several inches of fresh snow. The dog was acting like she smelled a bunny, so I was on point watching for it to hop into an opening in the brush where I intended to shoot it. about 25 yards from the dog I glimpsed a grouse scamper across a little opening, and told my partner what I'd seen and that I planned to kill it if a chance presented itself. The dog kept sorting out the rabbit track and I kept watching into the thicket hoping to see the grouse again. All at once I saw a slight flicker of movement under a close-by clump of snowy grass, and a grousey looking head appeared with its top knot up like it was excited. I took a quick bead with the .22 rifle and head-shot the bird, which was only about 8-10 yards below me. It flopped out its last under the grass and I waited for the dog to finish it's rabbit trailing before climbing down into the thicket to retrieve my bird. When I got within steps of the bird a grouse rocketed on up out of the grass and winged away. It wasn't much of a surprise, but the head-shot hen pheasant sure was! I was embarrassed by my stupid mistake, to say the least. I did, however, sneak the meat home in my coat. I believe my hunting partner shot the rabbit the dog was on too. That old neighbor was one heck of a guy to have take a young fellow under his wing. He was an old scrapper that had been a heck of a fighter in his youth. He was older than my folks by 25 years. He lost a son during WWII. The boy was shot down over Germany. The old guy never spoke of it. His wife told me. He talked like Deputy Dog and walked like a Weeble Wobble. He loved to pull a whiskey cork, and was prone to get tanked up and go skinny-dipping off the dock in front of his house......daylight or dark!

Had one walk into camp this weekend during a bs session . About 15 feet away it committed suicide

That's a treasure J. Morse. You've probably given it some thought but tape does deteriorate over time. Might want to preserve that to an electronic format while it's still possible.

How would I do it?

Story is no good without a picture. Where is Waldoo....

I found a .410 870 in a village dump years ago, put a new barrel, magazine spring and follower in, and "The Dump Gun" has killed a passel of grouse and ptarmigan over the years. It's become the most used gun in the family, with myself, my wife and my ten year old son all using it. The most I've ever killed with one shot was 5. Saw a big flock of ptarmigan run under a willow in the winter while checking traps with my boy, got off the snowmachine and laid down, sot at three heads that were lined up, saw them fall, another flew straight up about 50 yards, then glided about two hundred yards away, where it expired, when the rest flushed after the shot, I lined up two and got them with my second shot. I went and retrieved the one that had glided two hundred yards away, and when I returned to get the three under the bush, to my surprise there was another wounded one, which I promptly dispatched by wringing it's neck. So with the first shot 5 and the second 2. Good eating.

There are companies that will digitize tapes for you, so you can have it on a cd and on your computer. Look online or in the yellow pages for "audio conversion" or "media conversion."

Sitting my tree stand one day in '69 or '70. Heard something to my right. snapped my head in that direction to see, right in my face, three feet away, a grouse flared in a landing attitude, obviously intent on landing on my head! Veered off at the last second.

I have a 200 honda 4 wheeler and it kind of sounds like a grouse drumming.
I had one fly up to me and run alongside me.
Sat there for the longest time and finally drove away.
It flew with me then landed on the back rack. goofy.

I got three one day a few years ago while swathing hay with a JD MOCO pull behind windrower. They were in some millet hay I was cutting and at the end of the field when I was turning around with the swather lifted three flew under the swather and were decapitated, so I gathered them up and ate them for supper, it was very odd circumstances but delicious results.

Never had an unusual encounter with a grouse. But, once I was pheasant hunting. A rooster flushed out of range for a shot and flew into some high line wires and dropped like a rock. He broke his neck. That's the only pheasant I've ever gotten without firing a shot.

Sorry my post above was to see "how many grouse are in the frame"

JP should be off to a hundred grouse season with all the young there are this year.