Team Fur News
A Passion For Grouse
By FUR-FISH-GAME Editor, John D. Taylor
John Taylor hunting grouse in the Appalachians with Shana, one of his early English setters.
Growing up in southcentral Pennsylvania, my hunting world began with gray squirrels and a “Black Bart” H&R Topper .410 shotgun. In the fall of 1972, after passing the Dallastown Area Middle School’s sanctioned Hunter’s Safety course, run by the Pennsylvania Game Commission, I acquired my first hunting license.
Dad and I began with some squirrel hunting in the Boy Scout woods – named for Troop 43’s occasional summertime visits there to learn outdoors skills – about a half mile behind the small, but growing, suburban development we lived in. I remember sitting, back to an ancient oak, waiting for gray squirrels to bark and chatter in the treetops. Dad sat a couple of trees over, looking content and peaceful, his father’s 12 gauge Lefever Nitro Special side-by-side across his lap.
That Black Bart .410 was deadly on 25-yard squirrels. The shiny chromed action and black lacquered stock and forearm looked cool, but those skinny red shells didn’t carry much No. 5 shot. Hence, the pattern was sketchy at best, good on close squirrels, but a poor starter gun as a pheasant hunting tool. I’ll never forget missing seven – count’em... seven – 25-yard rooster pheasants sailing over my head while my uncle and other hunters pushed them out of cornfields. Yet that experience sparked my desire to be a wingshooter. I wanted a pair of long rooster tails protruding from my fluorescent orange and canvas game vest in the worst way. It was a regional right-of-passage for boys in the 1970s. And for a time, it came to dominate my hunting desires.
The birds available to a mid-1970s York County, Pennsylvania, kid were doves and pheasants. York County looked more like Iowa – rolling farmland, corn and hay fields punctuated by woodlots – than Penn’s Woods, what dominated the rest of the state. And my hunting interests focused mainly on farmland pheasants for the next decade. Along the way, I graduated from high school and college, got married, and started working as a night security guard, mostly because other jobs were tight, and so I could write. The 1 a.m. guard shack was a desolate place with nothing to do but stare out the window.
I’d come home from work at about 7:30 a.m., wish my wife well as she left for her job, then crash on the bed. During hunting season, I hunted a little on a few mornings. I also ran a trapline during that season. But it was a lonely existence. No friends shared my odd hours. And trying to flush pheasants from weedy November fallowed fields – a stop and go affair, to unnerve birds – felt weird. I longed for a companion.
In the spring of 1983, that companion became a liver-colored German shorthair named Jack. He was my boon companion. Oh, the fun we had together, finding those cackling ditch parrots. Jack loved hunting them and so did I. He fetched doves, too. We’d know some stupendous dove shoots. But we had to wait until Halloween, Pennsylvania’s traditional pheasant opener, before we could do our thing.
Seeking to expand our horizons, I looked to the South Mountains, about an hour and a half northwest of my home, and a new bird for us, ruffed grouse. I’d seen grouse occasionally, hunting deer in Potter County. When flushed from a beechnut grove in the mature forest these enigmas scared the crap out of a still hunter trying to sneak up on whitetails. But I studied up on grouse, learned they were birds of young forest, clearcuts, burns, regenerating woodlands. I knew where a few of those were.
Let’s go chase grouse, Jack.
We booted around the mountains, chasing grouse, for the two weeks in mid-October before pheasant season opened. Jack pointed some grouse. But at the flush they were always screened behind red and yellow autumn leaves, or I was tangled in greenbrier – or swinging on the rare bird rising in an opening, I could only obliterate the saplings between the bird and me. Frustrated doesn’t begin to describe how I felt. And like those seven missed pheasants, I badly wanted to hold a grouse in my hands.
That winter grouse season, Jack and I were hunting along a clearcut on the top of a mountain, its edge bordered by mountain laurel. When Jack started getting birdy, I followed him. Snorting at grouse tracks trotting across the top of 5-inch deep snow, he followed them deeper into the laurel, then slammed into a fast point in an open patch.
At first I thought he was nuts. No grouse here, not even tracks. But when the snow cover in the middle of the open patch dematerialized – it looked like a black and white TV screen fuzzing over with no channel static – a grouse literally exploded from the midst of its snow bowl roost. I swung my Charles Daly stack-barrel 12 gauge, shot, and the bird fell belly up, wings flapping, until Jack fetched it back.
In that moment, a grouse hunter was born.
The ensuing years slowly shifted my interest from pheasants to ruffed grouse, woodcock when we found them. Pheasant numbers were declining. In 1972, Pennsylvania hunters bagged 1.2 million roosters – South Dakota level hunting today. By the early 1990s, that number was maybe 350,000 birds, 250,000 stocked by the Game Commission, and it went down from there. Jack and I could find enough pheasants to sate our desires, but the quality of the hunt was ruined. Dumb, stub-tailed stocked birds – I had no taste for them.
So, grouse hunting slowly took precedence. I joined the local chapter of the Ruffed Grouse Society. Made new grouse hunting friends. There was an October trip to Michigan’s Upper Peninsula with wildlife artist Denny Burkhart, banker Barry Franciscus and Ruffed Grouse Society Regional Representative Bill Goudy. Denny, Barry and Bill were woodcock fanatics. But I was smitten by those gray-phase grouse.
Jack was a great bird dog, but even with a bell and a 3-inch wide fluorescent orange collar around his neck, he vanished against an oak-brown forest floor. I wanted another dog, too, because Jack was aging. Bill Goudy suggested I consider a Ryman-type English setter, and suggested DeCoverly Kennels, home of gorgeous foot-hunting setters, grace, beauty and birdy hunter personified. Nash (DeCoverly’s October Boy) named for Nash Buckingham, a turn of the 20th century outdoor writer from the South, came home the following spring. I also took a deep dive into grouse literature, developing a love of George Bird Evans’ work – “The Upland Shooting Life,” “Troubles with Bird Dogs,” and “An Affair with Grouse.”
Ruffed grouse consumed me. For the next 25 years, nothing gave me more joy than following my Ryman-type English setters through the grouse woods. Nash was followed by Shana, then Evan, then Beryl and the two kids we kept from her litter of 10, orange belton Harry and Ellen. We regularly hunted grouse in Pennsylvania, in Virginia during the late season, and in junkets to Minnesota, Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont even Oregon.
Nash, Taylor’s first English setter, with Nash’s first grouse. Nash was not happy we had to cut his hunt short and head home a moment after this photo was taken.
Meanwhile, the same huge decline that happened to pheasants was happening to grouse and woodcock in the East, particularly among Appalachian Mountain birds. My 1980s records show Jack, Nash and I finding and flushing an average of 3.5 to 4 grouse per hour in our close-to-home coverts – pretty phenomenal grouse hunting.
I wasn’t shooting many of those birds because I was still learning the nuances of grouse hunting, like finding good coverts and knowing where the birds were likely to be in them, or how to approach pointed grouse and how to move into an opening for a shot.
Yet by the late 1990s, I needed to travel three or more hours to find even two birds per hour – if I was lucky. Even new South Mountains coverts could barely produce a single bird per hour. Blame fell on too many deer eating down the forest’s diverse vegetation, too few timber harvests due to changes in forest conservation policies, the Game Commission's focus on big game rather than upland birds (despite their pledge to conserve all wildlife in the state), West Nile virus, late season hunting, and other theories.
Then, the spread of deer ticks cost me my best grouse dog, Evan. He developed a bad case of anaplasmosis/ehrlichiosis from a tick bite in Virginia, Minnesota or Pennsylvania. (I hunted all three states that year.) I was mighty careful keeping him on anti-tick preventatives, yet one got through. When he collapsed standing in the doorway to the kitchen, we rushed him to the emergency vet. Antibiotics kept the misery in check for a little while, but it hid in his bloodstream and bone marrow, striking at inopportune times to rob him of his vigor.
In 2001, during a junket for a book I wanted to write about hunting all of the lower 48 states’ grouse, I “discovered” sharptailed grouse on South Dakota’s prairie. I got connected with two locals, Chris Hipple and guide Bruce “Wickerbill” Crist, via Mark Kayser, who worked for the state’s Department of Tourism then. I hunted over Shana with Chris, and joined Wicker when he took a group of Wisconsin and Colorado clients onto the Cheyenne River Sioux Reservation to hunt sharptails. The company was fantastic, Wicker was a total blast, we got into good bird numbers, and – most of all – there was something about that wide open, wild country that spoke to my grouse hunter’s heart.
Having experienced sharptails, ruffed grouse hunting left me wanting. I longed to return to the wild of the prairie.
It would be another 12 years, traveling to and from the prairie annually – South Dakota in particular, springtime for turkeys, fall for sharptails, antelope and deer – before the conversion was complete, but it happened, and I became immersed, consumed by sharptails and prairie.
I look back on 25 years of ruffed grouse passion with many, many fond memories, especially of the English setters who graced my world, and knowing ruffed grouse was a catalyst for loving sharptails and the prairie. Years ago, I longed to be like George Bird Evans, a grouse “guru” philosopher/writer, living in a remote place – he and his wife Kay chose a West Virginia mountaintop after their New York City careers as illustrator and editor – hunting and writing about grouse. (Evans also had a thing for woodcock later in life.) Evans didn’t venture too far from his beloved Appalachians.
Perhaps if he had, he might have tapped into the same wild spirit I’ve come to know and love on the prairie.
I’m grateful for the ruffed grouse years but have no intention of going back. I realized some of what drew me to ruffed grouse was proving to myself and others that I’d become a “real” grouse hunter. Being constantly slapped in the face by sapling branches, humping up and down mountainsides all day, and killing dogs by exposing them to ticks simply wasn’t something I wanted to do any more.
We all grow and change in our experiences as hunters. I like to think I’ve found my final destination out here on the prairie. But I’ll skip the guru garb for a cowboy hat, boots and a good side-by-side shotgun, following an English setter coursing the prairie for sharptailed grouse into the sunset of my life.
Penn State Venison Course
Visit Penn State University’s Extension Service’s online and hands on workshop on Aug. 22.Photo: Steven Cordes/Unsplash
Penn State University’s Extension Service is offering a “Venison 101” course to help hunters optimize their harvest. The course combines online components with an in-person workshop scheduled for 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Aug. 22, at the Penn State Meat Laboratory on the University Park campus in State College, Pennsylvania. The course is designed for hunters and hunting families. The online components will cover the history of hunting and deer ecology, field dressing, deer diseases, chronic wasting disease, carcass processing, recipes and venison preservation using methods such as canning, dehydration/jerky-making and freezing. The in-person workshop will include hands-on processing of carcasses, sausage making, venison tasting and a chili cook-off. A team of extension experts — including wildlife specialists, veterinarians, meat scientists and food safety experts — will teach the course. Visit https://extension.psu.edu/venison-101-hands-on-butchering-processing-and-cooking or by call 1-877-345-0691 to enroll.
Urban Forestry Monitoring
Wisconsin’s urban forestry analysis revealed some of the importance of trees in the state’s two largest cities. Photo: WDNR
The Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources (WDNR) recently shared results from a multi-year urban forestry monitoring project for Milwaukee and Madison. The Urban Forest Inventory and Analysis (UFIA) project established hundreds of permanent plots in both cities to collect tree, vegetation and land use data. Plots were randomly placed on private and public land, giving a unique and holistic perspective into each city’s local trees. The project used the plots to estimate important forest characteristics like species composition, tree size distribution, invasive species coverage and wood volume. Key takeaways from the results include:
• Large trees are disproportionately responsible for providing air pollution removal and runoff reduction, because of their leaf area. In Milwaukee and Madison, trees at least 15 inches in diameter contain around half of the city’s leaf area, despite only representing 10% or less of the tree population.
• Trees in Milwaukee provide an estimated $12.6 million in annual benefits to society. In Madison the figure was $11.5 million.
• The high numbers of common buckthorn, particularly on forest land and other lightly maintained areas, threaten the regeneration of desired native species.
The project also established 900 plots in other urban areas across the state. Statewide results will be available in 2026. Teams will revisit the plots every seven years to assess change. The Urban Forest Inventory and Analysis program is a partnership between the WDNR and the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Forest Service. The project adapted survey methods from traditional forestry to create a robust monitoring process on urban land, which represents only 3% of the state’s land area but contains 67% of its population. To learn more visit dnr.wisconsin.gov or call (608) 445-4578.
Pennsylvania Sunday Hunting Bill
Waterfowlers and other hunters may soon be able to hunt on Sunday, if Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro signs a state House and Senate approved bill to lift the ban on Sunday hunting. Photo: Aaron James/Unsplash
During June, legislation that would fully repeal Pennsylvania’s long-standing Sunday hunting ban passed both the state House of Representatives and state Senate. Introduced by Rep. Mandy Steele, D-Allegheny County, House Bill 1431 was approved by the House Game and Fisheries Committee on June 3 and was approved by the House by a vote of 131-72 on June 11. The Senate approved the bill on June 26 by a 34-16 vote. The bill then returned to the House for concurrence, was approved and sent to Governor Josh Shapiro for his consideration and signature on June 30. The Pennsylvania Game Commission (PGC) supported the measure to end the state’s prohibition on Sunday hunting and allow the Game Commission to include Sundays when establishing hunting seasons. While there long have been Sunday hunting opportunities for foxes, coyotes and crows, and Act 107 of 2019 cleared the way for additional hunting on three designated Sundays, Sunday hunting has otherwise been prohibited in Pennsylvania – one of the last of the state’s “blue laws.” The initiative to repeal the ban had a broad base of support behind it. Many sportsmen’s groups and the Pennsylvania Farm Bureau backed the proposal.
***UPDATE: On July 9, Gov. Shapiro signed the bill eliminating the Sunday hunting ban. PGC Executive Director Steve Smith said the Game Commission will implement the change into this fall’s hunting seasons.
Sniffing Out Rare Michigan Turtles
Biologist Bill Parsons uses dogs to find woods turtles and outfit them with a GPs unit or radio tracker. Photo: MDNR
Wood turtles are medium-sized, semiaquatic turtles known for their beautifully sculpted, ridged shells and distinctive orange-yellow markings. In Michigan, they typically are found in clean, fast-flowing rivers and streams with sandy or gravelly bottoms, usually bordered by forests and undeveloped floodplains. Their range includes parts of the northern Lower and Upper Peninsula. During late spring and summer, wood turtles spend much time on land, foraging in fields, forests and floodplains for a variety of foods, including berries, slugs, insects and earthworms. However, habitat loss, road mortality, nest predation and illegal collection have decreased the population severely enough that the turtles listed as threatened and are among Michigan’s Species of Greatest Conservation Need, said Tony Henehan, with Michigan’s Department of Natural Resources (MDNR). As a result, MDNR and its partners have launched several research efforts to solve this conservation challenge. The Little Traverse Bay Bands (LTBB) of Odawa Indians has been a key collaborator. LTBB biologist Bill Parsons leads the tribe’s conservation effort which includes conventional survey methods to locate and monitor the turtles, such as float trips along rivers to spot turtles, visual surveys along riverbanks and tributaries to assess habitat use, and the use of radio telemetry. However, one of the most promising innovations is using detection dogs trained to locate turtles more efficiently in the wild.?When a turtle is located and captured, it may be marked and fitted with a GPS or radio transmitter. This helps researchers better understand movement patterns, nesting behavior and habitat preferences, Parsons said. For the tribe, the wood turtle — Mitig-mishiikenh in Anishinaabemowin — is more than a species of concern, it’s culturally significant. Many tribal citizens belong to the Turtle (mishiikenh) Clan, and conserving this species for the next seven generations is both an ecological and cultural priority. Visit wildlifeconservationinitiative.org.
The Importance of Pollinators
Landscaping with native plants like the pale purple coneflower, butterfly milkweed and anisa hyssop is beneficial for insects. Photo: IDNR
In mid-June, Iowa celebrated Pollinator Week, an opportunity to focus on the crucial wildlife species that pollinate plants, including crops, and the important role they play. Iowa’s primary pollinators are insects – especially bees, moths and butterflies – but also bats and the ruby-throated hummingbird. Yet pollinators are important year-round. Here are five things anyone can do to support pollinators.
• Plant Native Plants - Native plants support many more pollinators than non-native ornamentals. Native oaks, for example, support more than 500 species of moths. Also, many pollinator species can only eat from one species of plant. So, having a diversity of native plant species helps pollinators.
• Add Water - Pollinators need water, too. Adding water can be as simple as adding some rocks to a bird bath to provide shallow areas where insects can access water without drowning or building a puddling area for butterflies.
• Lighting - Night lights can be harmful to many insects. Make your lighting more pollinator-friendly by using shielded lighting, turning off unnecessary lights, using only as much light as needed, using timers, dimmers, and motion sensors and using warm colored light (3000K and below). Visit darksky.org for tips.
• Reduce Hazards - One of the biggest hazards pollinators face is insecticides. Most insecticides are non-specific. Sprays to kill a pesky non-native bug that's eating flowers can also kill monarch butterflies and luna moths. Try to eliminate or reduce insecticide use.
• Embrace Wildness - Wildlife, including pollinators, thrive in environments humans may perceive as "messy." Tall grass, leaf litter and standing dead vegetation provide important refuges for many pollinators.
States Seek Help Counting Turkeys, Quail
Arkansas, Pennsylvania and Nebraska want residents to report wild turkey sightings. Photo: AGFC
In Arkansas, conservation-minded individuals can help the Arkansas Game and Fish Commission (AGFC) keep an eye on turkey reproduction by participating in AGFC’s Annual Wild Turkey and Quail Population Survey, available via the agency’s website at www.agfc.com/turkeysurvey. When hiking trail or driving backroads keep an eye out for turkeys, male or female, and quail. AGFC biologists and partner organizations will still be tallying brood surveys, but the public can also help. The Pennsylvania Game Commission is also seeking public help to count turkeys through Aug. 31. Survey data allows the agency to determine total wild turkey productivity and compare long-term reproductive success within Pennsylvania. Report turkey sightings (number of birds seen, location, date and contact information) at https://pgcforms.pa.gov/TurkeySightingSurvey. Statewide reproductive success last summer, measured by the number of turkey poults seen per hen, was 3.2 poults per hen, compared to 2.9 poults per hen in 2023 and 3.1 in 2022 and 2021. Nebraska Game and Parks Commission’s is a third state asking residents to tally summer turkey broods through Aug. 31. Visit OutdoorNebraska.gov and search for “turkey brood survey” for instructions and the survey link. The link can be bookmarked on a phone for easy use in the field.
Ohio Black Bear Research
The Ohio Department of Natural Resources (ODNR) recently collared a female black bear in Ashtabula County to learn more about how bears are expanding their range in Ohio. Photo: ODNR
The Ohio Department of Natural Resources (ODNR) Division of Wildlife, in partnership with the University of Dayton’s Gantchoff Lab, recently collared a female black bear in Ashtabula County to learn more about how this species is expanding its range into Ohio. This is the first time an Ohio female black bear has been fitted with a GPS collar. Black bears are rare and are considered a state-endangered species. Extirpated from Ohio in the mid-1800s, in the last few decades bears have been recolonizing the state from healthy populations in Pennsylvania and West Virginia, and bear reports are increasing, with most observed in eastern Ohio. The female bear captured in early June was estimated to be 5 to 10 years old and weighed 198 pounds. It was released unharmed in the same location after a GPS collar, which transmits location data, was attached. Researchers will use the location information to learn the bear’s home range, survival rate, reproductive status, litter size and frequency of reproduction. ODNR biologists are working closely with Gantchoff Lab researchers to learn more about black bear recolonizing Ohio. The project aims to put GPS collars on 10 to 20 Ohio resident black bears. In recent years, ODNR confirmed the presence of female bears with cubs in northeast Ohio. Visit wildohio.gov.
Minnesota Adds Eight Counties to Feeding Ban
Minnesota now has a feeding and attractant ban in 32 counties to prevent the spread of chronic wasting disease. Photo: Judd Cooney
The Minnesota Department of Natural Resources (MDNR) added eight additional counties to a deer feeding and attractant ban to reduce the spread of chronic wasting disease, after CWD was detected in wild deer in new areas of the state last year. The ban is a tool to reduce unnatural congregating and lower the risk of CWD spread, said Paul Burr, acting MDNR big game program coordinator. Added to the feeding and attractant ban are Anoka, Clay, Ramsey, Sherburne, Steele, Traverse, Wilkin and Wright counties. The ban now includes 32 Minnesota counties and remains in effect for Aitkin, Beltrami, Carver, Cass, Crow Wing, Dakota, Dodge, Fillmore, Goodhue, Hennepin, Houston, Hubbard, Itasca, Le Sueur, Mower, Norman, Olmsted, Polk, Rice, Scott, Sibley, Wabasha, Washington and Winona counties. In areas outside the ban, MDNR recommends the public not feed deer. Visit www.dnr.state.mn.us.
100th Anniversary Knife Hits the Web
We're sure everyone who doesn't use a computer has had the opportunity to order our collector series, numbered anniversary knives the old fasioned way, so we're adding them to our website for ordering. We've only got about 400 left, so order before they're gone. $95.50, post paid. Order here: https://www.furfishgame.com/store/product533.html
Wisconsin To Hold Sharptailed Grouse Hunt
Wisconsin will hold its first sharptail grouse hunting season since 2018, thanks to bird numbers increasing. The hunt requires a special permit issued by lottery draw.
The Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources (WDNR) will permit sharptailed grouse hunting October 18 to November 9, the first sharptail season since 2018. An application for the limited-drawing lottery permit closes August 1, with preference points from prior years honored. Beginning in the 1990s, state biologists noticed a steady decline in sharptail numbers. Fragmentation and core habitat (pine barrens) loss were believed to be the primary causes of the decline. In 2019, the Sharp-tailed Grouse Advisory Committee recommended no hunting, and WDNR closed sharptail hunting every year since. The advisory committee, consisting of WDNR biologists, federal agency staff and interested conservation groups, specifically wanted to see a higher population before recommending a hunt. WDNR and partners spent the next several years increasing habitat restoration work on both public and private land. Restoring and reconnecting the fragmented habitat that sharptails depend on lead to a population increase – enough so that the Advisory Committee felt the population could support a limited harvest. WDNR wildlife biologist Bob Hanson, a key member of the advisory committee, sees the reopening of the season as a win for conservation. Visit dnr.wisconsin.gov/topic/hunt/sharptailgrouse for more information.
WVDNR Partners with MCA Youth for Restoration and Recreation Projects
Some 40 Mountaineer ChalleNGe Academy (MCA) cadets helped WVDNR and TU volunteers dump more than (10 tons) of limestone gravel into the headwaters of the Middle Fork of the Williams River as part of a stream restoration project, to improve water quality and aquatic habitat for native fish. Photo: WVDNR
The West Virginia Division of Natural Resources (WVDNR) recently hosted the cadets from the Mountaineer ChalleNGe Academy (MCA) to Pipestem Resort State Park for a day of learning and activities to celebrate their upcoming graduation and many acts of service for West Virginia’s natural resources. Some 40 cadets participated in a “Bucket Brigade” stream restoration project at the headwaters of the Middle Fork of the Williams River. They helped WVDNR staff and Trout Unlimited volunteers dump more than 10 tons of limestone gravel into the creek to improve water quality and aquatic habitat for native fish. WVDNR’s partnership with MCA began in 2009 with hunter education classes and has since grown into a collaboration that spans the agency’s Law Enforcement, Wildlife Resources and State Parks sections. These partnerships offer cadets hands-on learning experiences that reinforce the National Guard Youth ChalleNGe Program’s eight core components – academic excellence, health and hygiene, job skills, leadership, life-coping, physical fitness, responsible citizenship and community service. Beyond the stream project, cadets have worked alongside WVDNR staff on several conservation and improvement projects such as cleanup projects at Kanawha Falls and Plum Orchard Lake, trout fingerling stocking and stream cleanups in Kanawha and Fayette counties and the construction of more than 60 picnic tables used in state parks. Cadets have also participated in guided deer hunts with Natural Resources Police Officers. The Mountaineer ChalleNGe Academy is a residential program operated by the West Virginia National Guard, with campuses in Preston and Fayette counties. Since 1993, more than 5,000 West Virginia teens have completed the program, with more than 2,000 earning a high school diploma. The academy places at-risk youth in a structured, quasi-military environment designed to help them develop into productive, responsible and successful members of their communities. Visit wvchallenge.org.
Still Hunting
100th Anniversary Article from January 1926
Editor’s note: This article was written well before geese on the Atlantic Flyway began short-stopping their southern migration. So, the behaviors discussed here reflect that. It’s interesting to recall what geese used to do and how things have changed today, with many Canada geese in particular having become year-round residents of some locations, no longer migrating.
by J. Curtis Grigg
Almost any kind of a hunter can kill ducks and geese from a good blind when the flight is on, but the fellow who can sneak up on a flock of geese close enough to kill one with an ordinary shotgun is usually classed as a still hunter. This is especially difficult if the geese are on plowed ground, where they often stop. As usual, geese that stop here on their way south alight on the water after nightfall, leaving for the fields just as soon as it begins to get gray in the East.
They spend the day gleaning fields, coming again to the water about dark, where they spend the night. They will often stay for several weeks, roosting on the sandbar every night if not disturbed there, spending the days in the fields several miles distant, usually plowed fields or corn stubble, and sometimes in meadows. They feed along the edge of standing corn but seldom light directly in the field. They’re too wise for this. The standing corn interferes with their taking off, since they usually run a few steps to get up speed before starting to fly.
It’s against the law to shoot wild waterfowl before sunrise or after sunset, so the goose-hunter here has to still-hunt his geese out on the prairie, since this is where they spend the day.
Several techniques are used to get close enough to shoot. Binoculars are usually used to locate the flock. Then the plan of attack is made out. If several hunters are hunting together and the wind is blowing, matters are somewhat simplified. All the hunters but one get located to windward and spread out fanwise, getting as close to the flock as they can without being seen. And let me say right here that a wild goose can see second only to a wild turkey. All wild fowl, as every hunter knows, rise off the ground or water against the wind, and in windy weather, geese don't fly high.
Now the hunter who is to scare up the geese is usually an expert still hunter and uses his skill to try to get close enough to kill a goose when they take flight. He picks his line of approach by keeping on the low ground and taking advantage of what natural cover there is, often crawling through mud and water, since it’s necessary to keep completely out of sight if you want to get close enough to shoot when they take wing.
Sometimes a screen of weeds (tumbleweeds are best) is held in front of the crawling hunter, who holds the weeds in one hand and the gun in the other while he squirms along slowly so as not to frighten the quarry. This is usually resorted to in the last lap of the still hunter's approach, when it is impossible to crawl up closer without being seen and he is nearly in range.
Sometimes a well-trained horse is used as a blind to get close enough to get a shot. The hunter walks on the opposite side from the geese and keeps step with the forelegs of the horse, leaning over to keep the horse's shoulder and neck between him and the geese. The horse must be well-trained and must walk slowly. The hunter usually guides the horse by having hold of its mane, or foretop. They never come directly toward the flock but come on an angle so as to pass within range. The advance is slow, and the horse is usually allowed to feed along. An old, quiet horse is usually used and soon learns what is required of it.
Ducks are still-hunted by crawling up as close as possible to them and then jumping up and running toward them, which causes them to take wing. Many hunters frown on taking shots at ducks on the set or pot-shots as they are sometimes called, but kill their limits on the wing.
Deer are often still-hunted, the still-hunter using his knowledge of the lay of the land, and woodcraft and his knowledge of the habits of the deer itself, to get close enough to make a kill. It is much easier to get a nice buck by waiting at a runway while the "guide" drives, but after you become proficient at still-hunting without a guide, waiting at a runway is too much like taking a pot-shot from a blind at a lot of mallards on the set. It doesn't require much skill or knowledge of the game; all you have to do is shoot straight. The still-hunter out alone depends on himself to keep from getting lost and his knowledge of deer to make a kill. His knowledge of woodcraft chooses the nearest and best way back to camp, and how to spend a fairly comfortable night in the open if for any reason he is unable to return to camp, and a thousand and one other little things that the expert still-hunter knows.
Learning all these things first-hand takes many years. Therefore, a would-be still-hunter should remember what he has read or heard others tell about doing under certain circumstances. When he gets lost and his compass refuses to point north anymore, instead of starting out at a break-neck pace in the direction in which he thinks the camp lies, he had better sit down on a log and maybe he will find after he calms down that his compass is all right. If he knows the general lay of the land as to the direction the streams or ridge run, he can often figure out the location of camp by climbing a tree or high ridge and prove that his compass still points north. Only a fool doubts his compass when it is apparently in good condition.
If he is forced to spend a night away from camp, he picks out a sheltered place by some large fallen log or boulder to act as a wind break and to reflect the heat from his fire. He gets wood enough to last over night before it gets dark; makes his bunk out of small branches in the lee of log or boulder and builds his fire out in front. The Indians say, "Build a small fire and get close to it." Care should be taken to clean all flammable stuff away for several feet around before building the campfire, because the wind may rise during the night and sparks start dangerous forest fires. One can never be too careful of fire when camping or hunting, and his experience or lack thereof is easily told by how and where and how big he builds his fire.
The code of ethics of many sportsmen will not let them shoot ducks, prairie chickens or other birds on the set, but they kill all the law allows them if they can on the wing, often using a well-trained dog to locate them. Other hunters wouldn't think of using a shotgun for squirrels but take a dog and a rifle and go out and kill all they can carry. Other "sports" hunt deer, caribou, elk and bear solely for the head or hide, and I am sorry to say, sometimes leave the rest to go to waste.
It is often perplexing to the inexperienced why he must shoot at birds only on the wing. He wonders why it isn't good form in some localities to use a shotgun on squirrels, or why many fox-hunters never attempt to kill the fox ahead of their dogs.
Many of these ethics of sportsmen have good reasons behind them and it is well "when in Rome to do as the Romans do." But remember, a hog is a hog, whether he kills his game according to the best ethics of sportsmanship or not. If he kills more than he can use because opportunity presents itself, he is at best a poor sport. Our supply of fish and game is yearly decreasing, and good sports do not wait for the law to reduce the limit that may lawfully be taken, but take only enough for their use in a sportsmanlike manner, always leaving plenty for breeding purposes.
UPCOMING EVENTS
Idaho Trappers’ Association
The Idaho Trappers’ Association (ITA) will hold its annual Kids’ Camp August 8 - 9 in Fairfield, Idaho. Also, ITA, in conjunction with the National Trappers’ Association, will hold their annual banquet September 6, at the Shoshone Bannock Casino, in Fort Hall, Idaho. For more information, contact Missy Kramer at (775) 401-0717.
New England Trappers
The New England Trappers (NET) will hold their NET Weekend August 14 - 16 in Bethel, Maine. Contact Neil Olson (207) 8755765 or (207) 7491179 for more information.
Pennsylvania Trappers’ Association
The Pennsylvania Trappers’ Association’s District 10 Fall Convention will be held September 12 and 13, at the West End Fairgrounds, in Gilbert, Pennsylvania. For convention information, contact Bob (610) 759-9203. Also, a cable restraint class will be held September 13, during the convention. Pre-registration is required for the class, contact the Pennsylvania Game Commission (717) 787-7015 or visit www.pgc.pa.gov.
West Virginia Trappers’ Association
The West Virginia Trappers Association (WVTA) will hold its annual convention September 19 and 20, at the Gilmer County Recreation Center, located at 1365 Sycamore Run Road, in Glenville, West Virginia. Gates open at 9 a.m. Sept. 19, and 8 a.m. Sept. 20 with demos and seminars. Free Trappers Education Classes for all ages is available Vendors will be present both days. WVTA will also be host the National Trappers’ Association Southeastern Regional Convention, October 10 - 11, at the same location. Contact Jeremiah at 3049163329 or visit www.wvtrappers.com
North Carolina Trappers’ Association
The North Carolina Trappers’ Association will hold its convention September 26 and 27 at the Johnston County Livestock Arena, located at 520 County Home Road, in Smithfield, North Carolina. The convention features trapping and fur handling demos, a trappers’ auction Friday afternoon followed by a fellowship meal Friday night and a kids’ contest's Saturday morning. There is a one-time admission fee of $5 (15 and younger get in free). Contact Harold Dorsett (919) 732-7878 or Matt Bishop (910) 545-7760.
Kansas Fur Harvesters Association
The Kansas Fur Harvesters Association will hold their Fall Rendezvous October 3 and 4 in Belleville, Kansas, at 910 O Street, the crossroads of Highway 36 and 81. Admission is free, and the event includes vendors, food, a trap setting contest, a women’s skillet toss and a white elephant sale on Saturday. Contact Eldon Dunstan (785) 243-4872 (evenings) or email Dunstanconst@gmail.com.
Illinois Trappers’ Association
The Illinois Trappers Association (ITA) will hold its annual convention at the Logan County Fairgrounds in Lincoln, Illinois, October 3 and 4. The event features hourly demos, many vendors, tailgaters and raffles. Friday night will be a dinner, awards banquet and auction with proceeds going towards the defense fund. Saturday afternoon is the annual membership meeting. ITA reserved a block of rooms at a discounted rate. For more information, visit illinoistrappersassociation.com or call President Ryan Ruhl at (309) 368-2523.
Texas Trappers and Fur Hunters Association
The Texas Trappers and Fur Hunters Association TFHA will host a fall rendezvous October 17 – 18, at the Gatesville Civic Center, 301 Veteran's Memorial Loop, in Gatesville, Texas. For more information, visit www.ttfha.com.
Coming in our September 100th Anniversary Issue
Features
• 100 Years of It Ain’t Broke - John D. Taylor shares his journey to becoming your editor.
• The American Woodcock - J. J. Faux looks at the joys of hunting woodcock and discusses the bird’s conservation.
• Doubling Your Fun - Mike Schoonveld tells why, where and how double trap sets can be a boon for trappers targeting furbearers.
• If Rifles Could Talk - Doug Olson listened and shares his father’s and grandfather’s rifles’ adventures in a most interesting way.
• September’s Dusky Grouse - Noah Davis climbs into the Rocky Mountains to discover what’s special about chasing dusky grouse.
• Jungle Rats - Phil Goes and his sons, Huck and Hugo, explore early season squirrel hunting and come home with memories and squirrels.
• Fall Gobbler Strategies - Bruce Ingram shares tactics that work for one of autumn’s more difficult hunts - gobblers.
Other Stories
Mattie’s Coyote
Mesa Gold, Chapter 1
Go First Class At Least Once
Secret Sauce Trout
Avoiding a Fall
Bragging Rights: Muskrat Skinning Contest
When Grouse Get Squirrelly
Jump Shooting Small Streams
The Dove Pond
100th Anniversary Special Section
• Editorial from A.R. Harding
• Skunk Trapping Pays
• 35 Years At the Helm: Former Editor Mitch Cox Remembers
• What Makes a Sportsman?
• Maurice Decker Says “Let’s Eat”
Upcoming Events
Mason Magic
End of the Line Photo of the Month
John Marsh, Meeteetse, Wyoming
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