We would love for you to Join Us at Grouse Camp in Eagle River, WI September 27th -29th. Now you have a chance to do so for free by entering our active video contest.
Thanks to generous donors, winners (up to 10) will receive free entry to Grouse Camp 2019 which includes event registration and some meals ($150 value). This does not include lodging.
[Read more…] about Video Contest | Join Us at Grouse Camp
Since 2015 RGS/AWS members have followed along with our annual Grouse Camp Tour. From the organization’s roots, in Monterey, Virginia, to the far northern covers of Maine, the Grouse Camp Tour has traveled the country celebrating our beloved hunted traditions alongside our devoted membership.
The Grouse Camp Tour hasn’t seen the covers in Wisconsin since the inaugural tour in 2015. This fall Grouse Camp returns to Wisconsin as we invite you to join us during the first ever Grouse Camp Meet-up in Eagle River, Wisconsin, September 27th -29th.
NEW YORK & NEW ENGLAND
2017 GROUSE CAMP TOUR
October 21 – 29
#grousecamptour
“There is an old New England saying to the effect that if you give a man a shotgun, a bird dog and a violin, he won’t amount to a damn.”
~William Harnden Foster ~
Join the Ruffed Grouse Society and American Woodcock Society for the third Grouse Camp Tour, where we celebrate habitat, membership, volunteers and the grouse/woodcock hunting experience. This year’s Tour will be throughout the New York and New England region: New York Grouse & Woodcock Benefit Hunt – Malone, NY, Vermont, Western Massachusetts and Southern Maine.
[Read more…] about GROUSE CAMP TOUR STARTS TODAY!I might have arrived late to the grouse hunting scene, but I am determined to do everything I can to “pay it forward” and leave it in better shape than I found it.
Why do I hunt? I really didn’t have any choice, and I have been eternally grateful. My dad was a quail hunter. He started taking me when I was four or five years old. When I got too tired, he carried me on his shoulders. We hunted the sand hill scrub and pine/palmetto woods of Florida. I got my first shotgun, a JC Higgins .410 single shot for Christmas when I was 10. About that time, quail hunting lands began getting scarce as the hills and pine woods of Central Florida were bulldozed for orange groves. So, we shifted to dove and duck hunting.
[Read more…] about WHY WE HUNT, Member Jim Gray
North Carolina/Georgia
RGS chapters are striving to ensure national forests are properly managed in the Southern Appalachian Region to preserve our grouse hunting traditions for future generations.
The famed conservationist Aldo Leopold once said, “We shall never achieve harmony with the land, anymore than we shall achieve absolute justice or liberty for people. In these higher aspirations the important thing is not to achieve but to strive.” The word “strive”, being the operative, is exactly what RGS chapter volunteers are doing in North Carolina and Georgia to ensure our public lands, namely national forests, are being properly managed for wildlife.
[Read more…] about 2016 RGS GROUSE CAMP TOUR – North Carolina & GeorgiaVirginia/Tennessee
Grouse/woodcock hunters are speaking for the wildlife that cannot speak for themselves – influencing forest management on public lands.
Only partially down the Tennessee mountain trail, Parker Street, of the Appalachian Highlands RGS Chapter, pointed to some Rhododendron sandwiched between clear old growth and a more recently managed mountainside. “Right here . . . there ought to be a bird in here, boys,” he urged.
[Read more…] about 2016 GROUSE CAMP TOUR – Virginia/TennesseeRGS 2016 GROUSE CAMP TOUR – Monterey, Virginia
The Birthplace of the Ruffed Grouse Society
Walking down the short main street of Monterey, Virginia, a small mountain town in the northwestern part of the state, it would be difficult to assume that North America’s leading forest wildlife conservation organization was started there way back in 1961, but it was . . . welcome to the birthplace of the Ruffed Grouse Society.
[Read more…] about 2016 RGS GROUSE CAMP TOUR – Monterey, Virginia2016 RGS GROUSE CAMP TOUR – West Virginia
The Habitat and History of the Canaan Valley
Grouse camp mystifies the overall grouse and woodcock hunting experience . . . sitting next to a fire, telling stories of misses and great days afield, belly laughing at your buddies, all while petting a bird dog . . . these are all things we cherish and must preserve for future generations of grouse and woodcock hunters.
[Read more…] about 2016 RGS GROUSE CAMP TOUR – West VirginiaDay 5 began with a tour at the headquarters of Stormy Kromer, Jacquart Fabric Products, Ironwood, MI. (U.P.) Owner Bob Jacqaurt, who’s one of the most studied Kromer historians today has been a longtime friend of RGS Regional Director, Dave Johnson. Dave paired the Grouse Camp Tour crew up with area chapter committee member Matt Tingstad and friend and fellow RGS member Luke Lamb. It was a short and wet morning hunt but proved to be productive.
Day 4 took place at a very unique grouse camp in Wisconsin. Father and son, Chuck and Chris Bye have tailored their camp specifically for hunting grouse with their prized crew of English setters, including ideal habitat for grouse and woodcock as well as tons of trails for hunters of all mobility levels. Also in camp was Henry Page, longtime friend of the Bye’s and fellow RGS member. It didn’t take the crew long to realize that the most of elements that made up this camp were also in the minds of many grouse hunters’ who strive for a special camp of their own. No element of the grouse camp and hunt experience were lost on these guys, for them it’s about the entire experience, not the game bag status at day’s end.
