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23 Woodcock In 22 Years – a Book Review

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by Jeff Wilkerson

23 Woodcock in 22 Years: Reflection on Hunting, the Night Sky and Our Place in the Universe
Published: November 2024
University of Iowa Press
Retail Price: $24

Woodcock cast a magical spell over many hunters. Much has been written about these migratory gamebirds, from lyrical poems and treatises to how-to discussions and biological books. When we ponder these mystical birds, their characteristics, migrations, habitat and hunting, our minds travel toward the north woods of the Great Lakes states or the Northeast. Likely, we imagine a pair of hunters traipsing along a damp bog, alder run or creek bottom following a brass-belled pointing dog, heading to coverts with names like “The Farm” “Lacy’s Romp,” and “Gallow Tree” – places that for those in the know, their hearts skip a beat when the words are whispered. We enter these sacred spots hoping for the best and expecting the worst. Never knowing if the winds or moons of the fall will deliver a flight of our prized quarry. While the dog searches for scent, the hunter scans for splash or whitewash and worm bores to provide a clue if they are early or late, straining to find the point, after the last vibrant yet subtle tinkle before the bell’s silence.

The dedicated woodcock hunter is usually a specialist, unlike Jeff Wilkerson, whom after reading his new book, “23 Woodcock in 22 Years: Reflection on Hunting, the Night Sky and Our Place in the Universe,” did I understand that he’s not a specialist. Instead, he’s a dedicated upland hunter.

The author describes himself early on as a “rough shooter.” That is, a walk-up hunter who uses his legs and desire to find birds instead of using a dog. For some, this may seem like sacrilege, but if this book taught me anything – and it taught me a great deal – it’s that there are many ways to find one’s pleasure afield and all of them are personal.

The author is a physics professor at Luther College in Decorah, Iowa, and teaches classes on astrophysics and astronomy. Throughout his book, he brings the world of stars, matter and anti-matter and the galaxies above us into the world of upland hunting in a fashion that has a fresh voice and presentation. Holding a woodcock in his hand, he ponders about its carbon release in comparison to the stars above us. He compares his study of stars to the footprints of public lands he hunts each fall in Iowa. Yes, Iowa! A state not known for woodcock, yet his pursuit is as dedicated as those hunters in more prolific states. His covers all become as unique as the stars in the sky he and his students research; their placement and changes in the natural world becoming the common denominator.  

One note: a glossary of astronomy and physics terms would’ve been beneficial to the sporting readership. While I appreciate his honesty to the loss of birds due to the absence of a retriever, readers may also find this ethically disturbing. However, this book is memoir of a “rough shooter” – as in 22 years’ worth of woodcock hunting. Wilkerson uses his legs and mind to pursue game birds in the Hawkeye State in a very personal and moving way. While harvesting 23 woodcock in 22 years may not be the expectations of many, after reading this volume, I would leave my dogs for the day to hunt with this author in his covers. I’m certain that I would learn and it would be diverse. Hopefully, I would be able to keep pace with his stride.

The Role of Conservation and Fair Chase Ethics in the Future of Hunting

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by Charlie Booher

Conservation and hunting have been tied in this country for more than a century of recorded modern history, and since time immemorial before then. Neither is an accident. People who hunt have always been intimately familiar with the fluctuating functions of the natural world, ranging from shifts in population dynamics of game to the ways in which certain habitats might be manipulated to achieve our goals.

Hunters recognize that our role in society extends to the conservation of all natural resources. We’ve made ourselves responsible for ensuring the health of habitats and wildlife populations for generations to come. We’re leaders in conservation – not just because we hunt, but because our experiences in the field reveal the ecological realities of our time – and mandate our action far beyond merely ensuring that this year’s harvest doesn’t jeopardize next year’s.

The habitat management, advocacy and land conservation work of RGS & AWS, and organizations like it, are a critical component to demonstrating our community’s collective care for the natural world. Our individual commitments to field ethics – like fair chase – are equally important. 

Conservation

President Theodore Roosevelt said that “conservation is a great moral issue, for it involves the patriotic duty of ensuring the safety and continuance of the nation.” It seems that in the last century, we’ve lost sight of the fact that conservation is bigger than just wildlife.

The unregulated harvests and habitat destruction of the 19th century nearly decimated many wildlife species. Yet, it was hunters who first advocated for science-based wildlife management and sustainable use of resources. By placing limits on harvests, funding conservation efforts and restoring critical habitats, hunters played a pivotal role in reversing the tide of wildlife decline. We still do.

The forest ecosystems that grouse and woodcock inhabit require regular disturbance to thrive. Without active management interventions like timber harvesting and prescribed burns, these habitats age and lose the structural diversity that provides food, cover and nesting opportunities. However, these efforts face increasing challenges. Public misunderstandings about habitat management techniques, urbanization and the growing disconnect from nature make it more difficult to implement proactive conservation measures. Hunters must serve as ambassadors, educating others about the ecological benefits of forest management and advocating for policies that prioritize habitat conservation.

Today, organizations like RGS & AWS continue this legacy by championing habitat management and advocacy. Its work ensures that forest habitats remain viable not just for grouse and woodcock, but also for countless other species that depend on early successional forests.

The wisest among us have always known that prudent use of these natural resources is necessary for our very survival as a species. Examples abound of societies that out-consumed their resources and disappeared.

The reality that underpins our collective need for water, food and shelter first and foremost is something that many of us no longer have to recognize on a daily basis. Less than 2% of the people in this country are primarily employed in agriculture (farming and ranching), fishing or forestry. A few percent more are engaged in oil and gas extraction and mining. In the 1880s, nearly half of the population was employed by these industries.

By and large, our economy has moved away from land-based careers and livelihoods, leaving many of us prone to Aldo Leopold’s “great spiritual dangers” of “supposing that breakfast comes from the grocery and … that heat comes from the furnace.” Everything we do depends on the consumption of natural resources. All decisions have consequences. Acknowledging those consequences shouldn’t leave us ridden with guilt, but we must acknowledge them just the same and adjust our behavior, our spending and our votes accordingly. Unfortunately, we have little motivation to do so when the goods and services that come at the lowest cost also come with the greatest civil and ecological consequences.

Issues of land and the distribution of natural resources – issues that impact us as hunters, not to mention citizens of the world – underpin the rest of the problems and opportunities that our country and our world are grappling with. Issues of technology and food insecurity, and the quality and quantity of water as well as national security are all inherently geopolitical. They are also hyper-local.

It’s not just that kids don’t go outside as much as they used to or that video games and organized sports take up all too much of our society’s precious collective free time, but that we as a people have fundamentally lost touch with the biological, physical and chemical processes that enable our lives to exist on this earth. Food, fuel and fiber all come from somewhere, and require labor to turn raw materials into commodities into manufactured goods. I’m reminded of the Paul Harvey quote that reads, “Man – despite his artistic pretensions, his sophistication and his many accomplishments – owes his existence to a 6-inch layer of topsoil and the fact that it rains.”

However, before that topsoil and rain enabled us to produce crops for harvest in neat and orderly rows, those elements produced enough wild plants to feed enough undomesticated animals for humans to hunt. There are many, extraordinarily good reasons for why we as a species no longer subside solely on wild proteins. For one, cows, hogs, lambs and chickens are much easier to raise and eat than having to find bison, javelinas, bighorn sheep or grouse whenever someone is hungry. However, absent the need to hunt, many in our world have forgotten why some of us still do. Reasons abound. Social scientists and philosophers have generated lists of motives and categorized them, but that matters little. What matters is the rest of the world’s perception of what drives us afield and how we behave when we’re there.

For hunters to convince the non-hunting public that the work of active forest management is necessary, and that hunting ought to be able to continue, we first must be the example among our ranks – and that starts in the field when no one is looking.

Fair Chase: The Ethical Compass of Hunting

The history of modern hunting began in the latter half of the 19th century, at a time when the unregulated harvest of wildlife and unmitigated habitat destruction were leading many species on a path toward extinction. Logical, intelligent people proposed an end to hunting altogether. However, hunters were among the first to notice these ecological catastrophes and to propose and promote innovative solutions to these wicked problems. To maintain hunting at that time, hunters had to demonstrate the utmost care for the wildlife they pursued. It was our job then, as it is now, to demonstrate that care in deed and in spirit. When we head into the field, we participate in a human lineage that precedes recorded history. We also serve as ambassadors for this modern practice. The rest of the world didn’t (and still doesn’t) care how much these hunters knew until they knew how much they cared. These were the conditions that spurred the creation of a set of field ethics that has come to be known as “fair chase.”

At its core, fair chase is about respect – for wildlife, the land and the traditions of hunting. It embodies the principles of self-restraint and sportsmanship, ensuring that the pursuit of wildlife remains honorable. As technology advances, we must carefully consider how new tools and practices align with these ethics. The principles of fair chase are particularly relevant for grouse and woodcock hunters as hunting these birds demands skill, patience and an intimate understanding of the forest. Ethical hunters value the chase not just for its outcome, but for the opportunity to engage deeply with the natural world around us.

Public trust hinges on our ability to show that hunting is about more than personal gain. It’s about sustaining wildlife populations, respecting the land and contributing to the broader goals of conservation. Every hunter has a role in upholding these ideals, both afield and in the public eye.

I know few people who pursue grouse or woodcock to fill their freezer – and even fewer who are capable of such a feat. We pursue these birds, of course, because they’re delicious, but also for the love of the hunt, and the dogs and the fine firearms as well as the forests that provide habitat for them all year long.

Academics use the term “social license” to describe society’s willingness to tolerate certain activities. As you might imagine, apple pie and baseball enjoy rather high social license in this country; however, increasingly, our disconnect from the physical realities of growing and harvesting wheat and apples for pies and trees for bats has decreased the social license for those necessary activities. The same has, in some places, become true of hunting.

Fair chase is not only an internal code, but also a key factor in maintaining hunting’s social license — the public’s acceptance of hunting as a legitimate activity. In an era where fewer people hunt and even fewer understand its role in conservation, hunters must demonstrate their commitment to ethical practices and environmental stewardship.

Our ability to continue hunting depends on how we’re viewed far beyond our own circles. Our conservation ethic, be it Leopold’s relative to how we relate to the land or the Boone and Crockett Club’s fair chase ethic relative to how we relate to the wildlife we pursue afield or an entirely separate set of personal and societal ethics, will be central to how we use what we know to improve the world around us.

We don’t want any one person or group policing our community’s behavior – and we all know that there are plenty of folks in this world who can do that for us, plenty of whom are hunters themselves. However, I do want to build a world where my grandkids don’t have to worry about whether or not there are wild animals to pursue or about their ability to pursue them beyond the trials and tribulations that we all face when learning and honing a new skill.

But today, we live in a world where all history – regardless of how minute or raw or harsh – is recorded. Whether we like it or not, our ability to hunt relies on our ongoing commitment to the conservation challenges of our time and our exemplary behavior afield.

Hunters as Leaders

History might not repeat itself, but it sure does seem to rhyme. If that’s true, it sure seems that it’s about time the conservation community elevated itself – or re-elevated itself – to issues of national prominence.

The conservation challenges of today are more complex than ever. Climate change, habitat loss and declining biodiversity threaten wildlife populations across the globe. For species like grouse and woodcock, whose habitats are particularly sensitive to environmental changes, the stakes are especially high.

Hunters, as some of the most engaged users of wild landscapes, are uniquely positioned to lead efforts to address these challenges. Whether through volunteering for habitat restoration projects, advocating for science-based wildlife management or supporting conservation organizations, our actions can make a significant impact.

The future of hunting depends on our ability to balance tradition with responsibility, personal enjoyment with public trust and the pursuit of game with the preservation of wildlife. Forest grouse and woodcock hunters, with their deep connection to dynamic landscapes, are uniquely positioned to lead this charge.

As hunters, our legacy isn’t just in the game we harvest, but in the landscapes we leave behind. By embracing conservation and practicing fair chase, we can ensure that future generations inherit a world rich in wildlife, wild places and the joy of the hunt.

To this end, we all have a responsibility to ourselves and each other, as well as to the hunters who came before us and all those who will come after us, to advance this legacy – for the future of wildlife, wild places and all those of us who pursue them both. 

Charlie Booher is a consultant at Watershed Results specializing in natural resource conflict resolution. He has the great privilege of representing some of this country’s oldest, largest and most generous conservation organizations in Helena, Monyana, and in Washington, D.C. Charlie holds undergraduate degrees in fisheries and wildlife conservation and public policy from Michigan State University and graduate degrees in wildlife biology, public administration and natural resource conflict resolution from the University of Montana. Charlie is an associate wildlife biologist and professional member of the Boone and Crockett Club. Outside of the office, you can find him hiking in the mountains of Western Montana and re-learning how to hunt and fish in the Northern Rockies.

First Season of Making Memories Together

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Article and photos by Steve and Jodie Ries, Top Gun Kennel

As we reflect back on the initial meeting with the breeder, making our selection and training our spring puppy, the time has come to start making memories together.

There’s nothing better than taking a young dog to wild bird cover and watching how our combined training, genetic traits and proper scouting have prepared them to overcome the survival instincts of upland birds. We’ve done our part with teaching them all the basic commands, exposing them to birds, gun fire and the type of cover they’ll be hunting in. Now it’ll be important to pack your lunch box with plenty of patience, forgiveness and understanding during this rookie season of gaining experience.

What about the things we can’t teach them that they’ll have to learn to overcome on their own? Things like barbwire fences, wide and deep creeks, running birds, using the wind and scent cone to avoid natural flushes. All this – and making sure they keep track of their owner who might reward them with harvesting the game once this all comes together.  

Make time to take some needed breaks for hydration and rest for both of you. During these times, remind your first-year hunting companion that he/she will reach their prime at 4 to 6 years of age and only then will you start holding them accountable for rookie mistakes. This first season will provide them with so many mind-blowing opportunities and, more importantly, teaching moments that come with both corrections and rewards.

Before we start adding to our memories with our new hunting companion, let’s make sure we’ve prepared ourselves for this season. Create a check list to use every year prior to going to the fields or woods together.

Set up a visit with your local veterinarian to have a physical exam checking all the vitals, weight and making sure vaccines are up to date.

First Aid Kit

Work with your vet to create a package of important items to take with you that will allow you to respond to issues that will occur in the field and provide you time to get medical help. Ours includes sterile gauze pads, iodine, peroxide, tape and a surgical staple gun to be able to stop bleeding if anything serious might happen to allow us to get to a local vet or emergency room.

Health Papers

Obtain copies from your vet to have with you in case you have an emergency and need to use a different vet.

Water

Bring enough water from your own source to have it with you for hydration. Drastic changes of other water elements provide different issues, such as chlorine, bacteria, calcium, high iron, nitrates, along with stagnant pond or creek water. Always have a water bottle with you in the field.

Dog Food

You might have to increase that total calories in your food if you’re planning to burn more during the days together. Remember that it’s not recommended to feed them 10 to 12 hours prior to extreme exercise. Feed them after the hunt once they’re cooled down. You can feed them a second feeding four hours apart, if needed.

Tailgate Check

Always have supplies available for a tailgate check at the end of the hunt with combs/brushes and proper eye flush for weed seeds.

Training Collars

Check your training collars to make sure they’re still holding a charge and everything’s working. Too often, we hear of customers making last minute trips to large sporting good stores the evening before to buy last minute collars or other needs.

Transportation

This is determined by the distance and outside temperatures in which your hunting companions with be traveling. If your dog has the luxury of riding inside a climate-controlled vehicle then this won’t apply. If not, make sure you have some thought process into purchasing a kennel cover to protect them from wind, cooler temperatures and burning extra maintenance calories needed for the hunt and recovery period.

As we’re making plans, let’s set our expectations prior to the hunt with the level of stamina our young puppy has to contribute to our needs and goals with a satisfactory hunting day. We can remember taking our young children hunting with us before they were 10 years of age to introduce them to the outdoors. The thick cover, uneven terrain, short legs and low levels of stamina made for short stretches and plenty of rest breaks.

Rest and Recovery

Most hunters don’t understand the importance of creating an opportune area to allow the rest and recovery required during a single day or week-long hunting trip. Take advantage of the eight to 10 hours they’re not burning calories to keep them hydrated and reduce the maintenance requirements in the elements we create for them. For example, if the room temperature is 25 to 30 degrees less than body temperature, this uses maintenance calories to make up the difference – not to mention leaving them outside in the back of your truck in a plastic kennel without a cover or worse, driving them back home.

It’s estimated that hunting dogs can burn from 2,500 to 5,000 calories in a given day in the field. When feeding them up to 1,500 calories a day with a premium dog food, you can see that the math becomes negative quickly and the reason we need to take every advantage we can with rest and recovery time.

Our bodies are comprised of 75% to 80% water. When we become dehydrated, there are a lot of things that go wrong with our bodies from a cellular, neurological and biological level. Keeping them hydrated and reducing the level of dehydration is critical to the output of each of us – including our hunting companions.  

Pictures

Take lots of pictures to share with family, friends and especially the breeder with updates on your first of many experiences together.

We wish everyone a safe and bountiful hunting season. We hope you enjoy making memories with your new hunting companion.   

Steve and Jodie Ries, owners of Top Gun Kennel have been breeding, raising and training German shorthaired pointers for the past 30 years. Their focus today is working with other breeders and trainers to continue meeting the needs and goals of versatile hunting and family dog owners. Steve and Jodie are co-founders of the Aiming for a Cure Foundation.  

The Loyal Order of Dedicated Grouse Hunters

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by Nate Kennedy

It was three Septembers ago. My first real opening day and my initiation to the joy of hunting over a grouse dog. It was hot and humid, and the air grew thicker and thicker as the golden hour set in. I stumbled along through the alders, trying my best to keep up with Tripp Way and his wirehair, Ruby, not wanting to miss any opportunity to learn or, even more, to shoot. It was a day I’ll never forget – and the first of many great days learning from Tripp and his dog. I took notice of every detail from his well-worn double gun to his old school strap vest as, at the time, I was building my own sort of “kit” for the grouse woods. As I tangled on behind him, the series of patches adorning his vest caught my eye. One from a local gun club, two from RGS & AWS and a third that really piqued my curiosity.

The patch read, “Loyal Order of Dedicated Grouse Hunters.”

I eventually asked him about the Loyal Order of Dedicated Grouse Hunters (LODGH) and he told me it was a great group with a newsletter and a very interesting citizen science kind of data sharing opportunity. He said that many of our RGS & AWS members were also members of LODGH. He encouraged me to join. I did and I, too, received a patch, which I wear proudly on my vest beside my own RGS & AWS patches. It was the patch that I just had to have. Admittedly, I’m a sucker for a good merch opportunity. Yet, for many reasons other than wearing that patch, I’m glad to be a member of LODGH.

LODGH is just as it sounds: a group of hunters with a special place in their hearts for the king of upland birds. Their official publication, Grouse Tales, is a bimonthly newsletter published by Mr. Ken Szabo since 1975. Reminiscent of a classic small-town newspaper, the Grouse Tales envelope puts a smile on my face every time I find it in my mailbox. Its pages display a great mix of photos, hunting stories, scientific intrigue and odes to bird dogs both here and gone.

What’s more? When you join, Ken will send you a diary of sorts. A grouse hunting log. You fill it out with your flush counts, shots fired, birds pointed, dog type, gauge of choice and other information, and maintain it throughout your grouse and woodcock hunting season. At the season’s close, you send it in and in the postseason issue of Grouse Tales you receive a detailed spreadsheet of data from all across the grouse range. It’s an incredibly interesting and involved bit of information and it was a treat to receive my first year as a member. Even better, this year I got to see my own contributions with my own dog and my own sub-par shooting.

My favorite thing to do is to try and hone in on others whom I may know and follow along with the story that their season’s numbers told, what their gun of choice was for the year and which dog breed they proudly choose to display (Lookin’ at you, Colonel!). I’m sure I’m not the only one sleuthing through the Grouse Tales data this way.


Along with that postseason data are postseason highlights – one of which this year included my own success over my first grouse dog in addition to stories and photos from several RGS & AWS members and fellow grouse and woodcock hunters.

The record keeping for LODGH isn’t just a fun thing to do as a part of that organization, it’s a bit of pressure on myself to maintain a record of the days spent afield, which is rewarding in many ways. It’s my favorite part of the newsletter. I’m already looking forward to next season!

I recently caught up with Ken Szabo to learn a little more about LODGH. He told me, “In the fall of 1969, George King of Jeanette, Pennsylvania, began publishing the newsletter Grouse Cover. Due to the demands of everyday life, he ended publication in 1973. During those years, I was a driving force in his overall membership list, particularly in Ohio. After several discussions and meetings – and with his approval – I began Grouse Tales in the fall of 1975.”

“I had no experience as a writer and was a firefighter for the City of Cleveland, Ohio, serving in that capacity as a nozzleman on an engine company. It’s been 49 years since. I never thought I would still be publishing Grouse Tales at age 85.”

Ken went on to tell me that his time with LODGH has been a tremendous education with ruffed grouse hunters all across the country that money cannot buy. “Trust me. They and I are far different from all other types of hunters,” he said. “I learned what grouse hunters like, want and need, but, more importantly, what they don’t like. I know they greatly enjoy Grouse Tales, and I must continue on. I will not let them down.”

I asked Ken what he hopes members “get” out of their LODGH participation. He said, “I hope they will learn more respect and love for ruffed grouse. I hope they enjoy reading the thrills, success and failures of other grouse hunters from across the country. I hope they become proud of belonging to a tremendous and unique group of upland hunters. As the saying goes, there are fishermen and there are trout fishermen. There are bird hunters and there are ruffed grouse hunters. I hope they heed my words, ‘Let me hear from you.’ I hope they learn to love and understand the ruffed grouse as I always have through the newsletter.”

Ken is quite clearly a real deal grouse hunter. In the years when he first began LODGH, he was hunting more than 50 days each season. Those real deal grouse hunters whom we all know and love often tend to be gluttonous for punishment. They enjoy the action. Ken told me, “A cadet firefighter on an engine company is first assigned to the tip or nozzle and is known as the nozzleman. I was always assigned to engine companies and remained a nozzleman throughout my career. I could have very easily transferred elsewhere within the department, especially with advancing seniority, but I always wanted to remain a nozzleman. Why? Because that’s where all the action was at!” That’s the real deal.

The peak of membership in LODGH was during the stretch from 1980 to 2000, though its quality and value to grouse hunters has remained. To join LODGH and subscribe to Grouse Tales costs $19 per calendar year ($24 for the remainder of the year and all the following year when entered after June 30). To Canadian members, add $3. Send payment in addition to your name and mailing address to Grouse Tales, 35162 Schoolhouse Ln., N. Ridgeville, OH 44039. Be sure to ask Ken about procuring a patch of your own to display next to the RGS & AWS patch on your vest this fall. Ken can also be contacted via email atgrousetales1@gmail.com.

The greatest connection between RGS & AWS and LODGH from where I sit is our shared membership. I’ve been in a number of grouse camps over the last few years and always enjoy seeing our members’ LODGH certificates proudly displayed on the wall. Beyond that, their shared love of birds, dogs and habitat. If you’re a proud member of RGS & AWS, I’d encourage you to join LODGH, participate in the annual survey and share your stories and photos within the pages of Grouse Tales as I hope you do within the pages of Covers. When you’re sleuthing through the data, look for me. I’ll be the New Yorker with the Griff and the horrific shooting percentage.

Thanks to Ken Szabo for his nearly 50 years of dedication to LODGH and Grouse Tales and to the birds we all love and cherish.

Nate Kennedy is the Northeast Regional Engagement Coordinator at RGS & AWS. He’s a lifelong hunter, angler and writer with an MPS in environmental communication from SUNY ESF. Nate lives in Northern New York with his wife Jessica and their WPG Raquette.

In Pursuit of Knowledge

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by Emily Sliski | RGS & AWS Mid Atlantic Regional Engagement Coordinator

The weather this particular October day was a grouse hunter’s dream, but if I had to walk through 10 more feet of woody, dense mountain laurel, I was going to throw my gear into the woods and leave. Part of that was self-inflicted; the price of running flushing dogs in grouse woods. The other is discovering new covers and learning what good grouse cover even looks like. Both I gladly do season after season. 

I grew up hunting – a real child of the woods. My dad taught me at a young age how to read the big woods and agriculture fields for whitetail pinch points. Give me an old brushy fence line to walk and I’ll sneak along it in hopes of jumping a rabbit or discovering a tall branchy oak full of gray squirrels. Let me slowly walk a mixed hardwood creek bottom and I’ll tell you what critters have passed through by the signs they’ve left behind.

When I fell into grouse hunting as an adult, I was perplexed that I only found my shins busted from laurel, my arms scratched from raspberry and greenbrier, the same two unfired shotgun shells in my bag and my sanity waning. No birds seen; only a few flushes heard and one very confused bird dog.

While some of the aforementioned cover and maladies are indicative of grouse spots, I knew I had to redouble my efforts as a student of the woods if I ever hoped to encounter a grouse – preferably one I could actually lay eyes on rather than hear only faint flushes of during my first season. I needed to learn what to key into while I navigated cover. What food is available? Protection? Thermal options? Escape routes?

I hail from the Ridge and Valley region of the Appalachians. The ridges here are long with similarly long valleys in between – not the hollows and hills falling on top of each other that come to mind in other parts of the Appalachian range. By the end of the 19th century, my home state was all but clearcut and not in the ways we appreciate today. Penn’s Woods became one of the largest producers in the world, resulting in reckless cutting, issues with erosion and flooding and rampant forest fires. Subsequently, it helped usher in the birth of American forestry. Since that time, cutting has waned. Many of our state forests boast a significantly uniform age class between 100 and 120 years old (an issue I’m glad that RGS & AWS is actively navigating).

The generation preceding me regales the glory days of grouse hunting in these mountains – the talk of flush numbers that make my jaw drop. My dad tells stories of walking our family farm up on the hill for small game and coming home with a mixed bag of rabbits, grouse, squirrels and pheasants. Wild pheasants are gone; they were extirpated along with bobwhite quail during the late 20th century. I don’t commonly see rabbits “on the hill,” but I fervently hope to see ruffed grouse return to the farm in my lifetime.

All this to say that it’s unlikely to simply bump into a grouse in my local woods. I have to be intentional (perhaps more so than my predecessors), know what to look for and be willing to put in some miles.

When e-scouting, I’m generally looking for 10-year-old cuts. I key into elevation, hard edges and the surrounding landscape. In other words, where’s the cut positioned? What’s nearby on the landscape in terms of cover, features and other cuts? Once I identify some points of interest, I turn to boots-on-the-ground scouting, paying close attention to what’s around me.

What’s the big picture? Initially, I’m looking for that classic high stem density. Envision the kind of cover where you know you’ll have to methodically weave through whips and some larger trees (perhaps a few inches in diameter), push through raspberry or circumnavigate some squat, scattered pines. This mixture is important. Grouse run before they fly. Without cover under which to hide, they run ahead off a dog’s nose, regardless of whether it’s the pointing or flushing variety, and will inevitably flush wild – a lesson I’ve learned all too well in my cover searches. As an example, beech can look thick, but without pockets of diverse flora to break up the monoculture, it is insufficient to hold birds. The same is true of rhododendron and mountain laurel. They’re nice in pockets, but large swaths are often devoid of birds and, as mentioned before, a real test of sanity. 

The density of the hardwoods is not the end all. E-scouting is a great place to start, but locating food sources helps me key into where grouse are at the moment. I’m in awe of their ability to survive in these mountains, adapting their diets to the seasons and resources available. While they’ll eat almost anything, the presence of berry producing plants like grape, greenbrier, blueberry, hawthorn or crabapple and hard mast species like scrub oak, beech or birch always pique my cover interest. 

I’ve also had to adapt to different covers of the Keystone State. The reality is that the forests here are diverse from north to south and between elevations. It’s not uncommon in more northern parts of the state to find larger pockets of birch and aspen with relatively little laurel and rhododendron. Aspen catkins are legendary as grouse food. We encounter them in more central parts of the state, but not to the same extent as the northern tier.

My insights, of course, are not universally true. Just as grouse continually adapt to their environment and seasonal changes, I’ve learned to adapt my woods knowledge in my pursuit of them. I remain a student of the woods. I learn along the way – tips from hunting buddies and keen observations while scouting. Even after several dedicated seasons now in the books, there remains much to learn.

I would challenge us all to remain students of the woods and of our home covers.

Emily Sliski is the RGS & AWS Mid Atlantic regional engagement coordinator. She lives in Pennsylvania with her husband, Johnathan, and two Springer Spaniels, Fern and Wild. 

Made in America

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by Tom Keer w/ image

Say the name Remington, Winchester, L.C. Smith, Parker Brothers, A.H. Fox or Colt to a sportsman and they’ll no doubt say guns. As jeans are to Levi’s®, so intrinsic are firearms to those companies’ brands. Some of that might have to do with a heavy pour of romance, history, legacy, quality and innovation; the “Winning of the West” is far sexier with a Winchester ’94, a Colt Single-Action Army and an Appaloosa than with a typewriter, flatware or a plow.

The difference between a business and a hobby is a business makes money, and those companies were run as businesses. In some years, especially those marked by conflict, they made a lot of it. But during those in between periods when supply was greater than demand, they shifted their attention to other core products manufactured from machined metal and turned wood. When skilled workmen weren’t turning out barrels or triggers, they made housewares like coffee mills and curtain rods just as easily as they produced hardware like screws, door hinges, latches and knobs. Stock makers probably enjoyed checkering a forend more than building shipping crates, tables or chairs, but I suspect this is true: with families to support, they enjoyed cashing a pay check more than not.

Take New Haven, Connecticut’s, Winchester Repeating Arms for example. Depending on the decade, between 20,000 and 30,000 employees passed through the gates of the hallowed factory located at 275 Winchester Avenue. They worked inside the brick exterior, machining metal and cutting wood used in some of the most famous firearms known to hunters and shooters: Models 66, Model 73 and Model 94 lever-action rifles, the Model 70 bolt-action rifle and our bird hunting favorites, the Model 21 and Model 12. True Winchester fans know that I’ve simply hit a highlight reel for Winchester-made Enfield rifles, M1 Garands and M1 Carbines helped win wars.  

Winchester identified the sporting, adventurous set as an area of growth and, for a very brief time, even experimented with motorcycles. Around the turn of the 20th Century, The Edwin F. Merry Company of San Francisco was commissioned to build 200 motorcycles of which only two are known to exist. These motor bikes were sold between 1909 and 1911 and have come up for auction twice in the past decade. The sale of a fire engine red model and a dark navy-blue one was handled by noted sporting auctioneer, James D. Julia. Part of me wanted to attend the event, but, for a change, my reason prevailed over my passion. That’s a good thing for if I raised my hand before the final gavel, I’d have been saddled with a nearly $600,000 bill. And I didn’t want to say, “Angela, we have to sell the house. I just bought a hundred-year-old 6-horsepower motorcycle.”

Other sporting and consumer products came in the 1930s when the innovative John D. Olin of Olin Industries bought Winchester in 1931. Those were tough years, with the Depression hitting everyone’s wallets. Sporting arms sales were light since no one had money to buy a new shotgun. The post-WWI and pre-WWII peace time caused lucrative military contracts to dry up. Instead of making Model 12s, production lines turned out refrigerators, flashlights, fishing rods, ice and roller skates, hatchets, saws, knives, screwdrivers, lawnmowers and many other products.

A few falls ago, I thought I hit a small-time jackpot – one that I thought might catapult me into an early retirement. Angela and I were in between coverts and we drove past an antique shop. I crunched into the gravel driveway and opened the door to a building that looked more tattered than its wares.

We coughed our way through the aisles containing bric-a-brac that held more dust than a ceiling fan and, there I saw it, tucked all the way in the corner in the back. It was a shipping crate – a wooden one far more durable than the cardboard Amazon boxes we have today. I looked at the logo the same way I’d stare at an old friend: Winchester.

Were it packed with a top and bottom row of Model 21s I’d have done a dance. While it didn’t, the discovery was still just as cool; once upon a time, the crate housed a Winchester reel lawn mower. You know, the push kind that came loaded with blades that spun around when moved and gave the grass a haircut? I’m told they’re making a comeback these days. Folks seem to favor the low cost, low maintenance, no carbon footprint selling points. If you’ve never used one, then know you can make it pay for itself by dropping your gym membership. The pushing and pulling of a metal and wood lawn mower is as good for strength training as it is for cardiovascular exercise.

The owner saw me eyeballing that crate.

“Pretty neat, huh?” he asked.

“Sure is,” I said. “How much do you want?”

“A Lincoln will do.”

“Five bucks?”

“Ok. Know where the lawnmower is?”

He laughed. “You think I’d be sitting here if I did?”

Earlier this year, I saw one that was in great condition. It was a double gear version with cast iron wheels and an intact handle marked Winchester Ball Bearing. I didn’t sell it for retirement money, but it fetched a good price just shy of a grand. I won’t be around to see if today’s plastic gas lawnmowers will be coveted in 2124, so if we meet in Tinkhamtown let me know how that worked out, will ya?

Many bird doggers lust over any of the approximately 242,000 shotguns manufactured in Meriden, Connecticut at the Parker Brothers Gun Works. Considered by many to be America’s finest shotgun, craftsmen took pride in their work. From Monday through Friday, these stock makers, barrel makers, engravers and others logged 10-hour shifts. They began work promptly at 7 a.m., ended at 6 p.m. and had an hour off at noon for lunch. Saturdays were half days, and they generally worked only five or six hours.

But Parker Brothers had four other factories in the general Meriden area, and all in them manufactured more than 200 household items – many of which appeared in the 1858 catalog. Parker’s core business was practical household items like curtain rods, light plates, screws, locks, latches and doorknobs. There were coffee and spice grinders, piano stools, eyeglasses and metal toys like ships, locomotives and bicycles. Flatware, wooden shipping crates and cabinets were large parts of the company’s business. Then, as now, Parker Brothers sold a far greater number of spoons than shotguns.

Several years ago, my friend Legh Higgins showed me the Parker Brothers coffee grinder he has in his kitchen at Twombly Setters at Coronation Kennels. Legh and his wife, Jenn, are the third generation of English setter breeders that stem from his grandfather Earl Twombly’s genetics. A side note is that Earl supplied Corey Ford with what become two of the most famous English setters of all time: Cider and Tober. Cider got his call name because he went to work in the fall and Tober is short for October, which, like us, was Ford’s favorite month of the year. That Legh and Jenn began each morning with a cup of Parker-ground coffee is as perfect as the 16-gauge O frame Legh shoots.

Legh rang me up a short while ago.

“A few years ago, you seemed keen on my coffee grinder,” he said. “Are you still?”

“Totally,” I said. “Do you know of one for sale?”

“There’s a collection of a few dozen coming up for auction. I’m happy to bid on one for you if you’d like.”

“That’d be awesome,” I said.

A few weeks went by and I hadn’t heard anything. I figured my bid wasn’t accepted, and that was fine, I could make it another year using the plastic one I had. But hope sprung eternal and my phone rang with good news that got even better.

“I’ve got your grinder,” he said. “You can drive up to the Northeast Kingdom and pick it up or I’ve got another option.”

“What’s that?”
“Dean Romig is up here turkey hunting. He lives a few hours from you. How about I give it to him and save you some drive time and gas?”

For many years, Dean Romig was editor at the Parker Pages, the member magazine of the Parker Gun Collectors Association. If you’ve ever met Dean at the Northeast Side-by-Side in Friendsville or the Southern Side-by-Side, then you’ll know he’s one of many things. First, that he’s a dead ringer for the Kris Kristofferson, the actor, musician and helicopter pilot (Dean has lived an equally colorful life). Second, his knowledge of all things Parker is fluid and encyclopedic. And, third, he’s generous in sharing those insights. He, like Legh, is top flight. On most mornings when I pour a second cup of coffee, I think of those two gents for as with dogs and hunting, part of collecting is about the people you meet.

I work with a lot of writers every day, but I don’t know of any who still work on a typewriter. Writing machines was a side hustle of sorts for Big Green, also known as the Remington Arms Company, formerly of Ilion, New York. Remington had been making firearms for more than 60 years, expanded into the agricultural business that included plows, tillers and cultivators, but they revolutionized the writing game. That happened in 1878 when a fellow inventor named Christopher Sholes persuaded the firearm company to back his new QWERTY idea. Don’t waste your time trying to figure out if that’s a new text abbreviation because if you’ve ever used a typewriter, computer or sent a text message then you’ll recognize those letters from the top row, left to right spot on your keyboard. The Remington No. 2 typewriter and its key configuration was so successful that we’ve been using it ever since. Think about that the next time you send a text …

Lyman Cornelius Smith, better known as L.C. or Elsie, started producing breech loaded shotguns with his brother Leroy and a gun designer, William H. Baker. After initial success, the group split, leaving Elsie to partner with his younger brother Wilbert and a new gun designer, Alexander Brown. They, too, were successful, but their company didn’t last long. By 1889, they sold the successful company to Hunter Arms and went on to produce typewriters. Add an Elsie typewriter to your Remington Adding Machine and you’ve got as fine a double barrel of office equipment as it gets.

For most of their years, Colt’s Manufacturing Company focused on firearm production. Their first military contract bought their Colt Army Model 1860 and, throughout their history, those sales were essential to a healthy P&L. The stock market crash of 1929 forced diversification, but Colt had the capabilities to stay solvent by making printing presses, commercial dishwashers, ticket punches and other office machines. In 1923, they launched an electrical division that supplied power and lights to American homes. Switch plates, fuses, breaker panels, safety switches and magnetic motor starters were in their product assortment. If you know of an old home that’s about to be remodeled or demolished, swing by. You may find a few Colt electrical items to add to your collection.

The Fox Gets the Game is a tagline of the Fox Shotgun Company, and that carries over to fishing. While the A.H. Fox Bakelite level-wind reel with adjustable bearings was most popular, the company also made a single-action trolling reel and fly reels. If you want the epitome of old school cool then match a Fox reel with a Winchester rod. That’s a double in my book.   

If you’re an addict like me, you probably won’t pass on the next shotgun to buy a coffee grinder, but maybe you will? Adding a few collectibles made by those fine American companies adds a new dimension to an obsession. And when seasons are closed you can get as much enjoyment by picking away at a keyboard, sawing a board or grinding beans for a pot of coffee. For a sportsman, what could be better than that?

Tom Keer owns The Keer Group, a marketing and public relations company that focuses on outdoor sports and recreation. He’s a writer, hunter and fisherman and a setter man.

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