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Join Us | at Grouse Camp 2019

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Countdown to Grouse Camp 2019

History

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.

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Register Now | Women’s Intro to Wingshooting – Grand Rapids, MN 2019

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Women's Intro to Wingshooting

Join RGS and AWS for our annual Women’s Intro to Wingshooting Course available to Grand Rapids, MN area residents in 2019.

The Women’s Intro to Wingshooting is a course designed to provide women in the region each course is held with outdoor skills, a network resource of like-minded ladies, and a foundation for hunting game birds. The program was developed by RGS and supported by sponsors to promote the future of hunting through recruitment and retention of new upland game hunters

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PRESIDENT’S MESSAGE – Pause to Reflect

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It won’t be long before it’s time for us to think about New Year’s resolutions. Personally, I’ve never really taken this practice very seriously, but I know a lot of people who do. I can see some value in making promises to ourselves at the beginning of every year aimed at making some change for the better or improving some aspect of our lives. To me it’s another form of goal-setting . . . so why confine that activity to just one day of the year?

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GROUSE AND WOODCOCK HUNTING GATEWAYS

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A focus on simple gateways to grouse hunting can recruit our next generation of hunters.

By Matt Soberg, RGS/AWS Editor & Director of Communications

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We always hear about perceived barriers to entry purportedly inherent in grouse and woodcock hunting. “There are no birds around, and it’s hard to find them. The cover is so thick, too hard and strenuous. When you do find birds, the shots are impossible. Guns are intimidating, and I don’t know how to train a bird dog.” Blah, blah, blah.

Grouse hunting is not that scary. Trust me.

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WHY WE HUNT, Member Stephen Faust

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Our sport will die out if we’re not bringing in new hunters. In the sales world, we say if you’re not growing you’re dying. In the hunting world, the same may be true.

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I was about 8 years old when I rounded the corner of a bean field in Hyde County, North Carolina, and it was there I saw what would guide me through the rest of my life. That was 40 years ago, and I can still see the combination of five English setters and pointers locked up on the edge of that field. Walking in on that first point was a blur of wings, sights, sounds and pure exhilaration. I am sure I shot in self-defense, and I don’t remember the first quail I bagged, nor the first woodcock or grouse. But I have points and birds from 40 years of upland hunting scattered throughout my memory. I cannot remember what I went to the grocery store for on a normal day, but I can see a woodcock I bagged over an old setter when I was about 12, just like it was yesterday. From the UP of Michigan to Louisiana, the “Little Russet Feller” has haunted me ever since. When my son bagged his first using the same gun on which I learned, he jumped up and down with excitement. He was hooked, and I was delighted.

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WHY WE HUNT, Member Noah Smith

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The sun was making its way across a high top in the Nantahala Mountains, and the first rays of light hit the frozen windshield of my truck. The thoughts of previous hunts high in the Carolina hills fought for a piece of time in my memories. The memories make grouse hunting so unique . . . no two are ever the same. Every dog has its own slot, every bird too, and the covers, well they reside down the deepest passage in the rooms of the brain, only visible to me and those in which I choose to share them.

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THEY SAID IT! . . . Best Quotes from the Spring RGS Magazine

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THEY SAID IT! . . . Best Quotes from the Spring RGS Magazine

By Matt Soberg

Are you an upland hunter?  Bird dog owner? Shotgun lover?

Have you become afflicted by the grouse and woodcock hunting addiction? Do you care about the future of our sporting traditions?

If you answer “yes” to any of the above, the Ruffed Grouse Society magazine is a must see – a one stop shop for everything grouse and woodcock hunting and forest habitat conservation – hunting tips, bird dog info, gun reviews, book reviews, cooking recipes, classic hunting stories, habitat management information . . . the list goes on and on.

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President’s Message – And Now It’s Our Turn . . .

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President's Message
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Every four years, the confluence of hunting season and the national general election causes me to think about our freedom, democracy and our passion for hunting grouse and woodcock that we so deeply cherish. I think about this in two ways: 1) we hunt grouse and woodcock because we can, and 2) we hunt grouse and woodcock because someone was there to help us get started.

We often hear that hunting is a privilege – which it is. We often hear that the percentage of hunters in North America is in decline – which it is. What many do not realize is that there is more recreational hunting in North America, and more hunters afield, than practically anywhere else in the world.

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Thank You! ~ Fall 2016 President’s Message

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THANK YOU!

“Nothing happens until a sale is made,” is a maxim sometimes used in the business world. For the Ruffed Grouse Society and American Woodcock Society, we could modify it to say, “Nothing happens until a volunteer steps forward.”

In the last issue of this magazine, we presented excerpts of the 2015 RGS & AWS Annual Report to highlight the progress your organization has made in pursuing our mission to preserve our sporting traditions through the creation of healthy woodland habitat for ruffed grouse, American woodcock and other forest wildlife. 2014 was a tough year to follow because in that year RGS and AWS set records for habitat projects accomplished – in terms of project dollars invested and the number of impacted acres.

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Women’s Intro to Wingshooting

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The Women’s Intro to Wingshooting is a new RGS & AWS program designed to introduce women into upland hunting with the pilot program currently ongoing in Grand Rapids, Minnesota.

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Take a moment and think about why you hunt and who introduced you to hunting. What sex are you? I bet there’s a good chance you’re male. When I think about why and who, I think about my dad, a man that “only” had daughters. Although the participation of women and girls in hunting is increasing, there are still very large roadblocks including deeply ingrained cultural associations. I still hear some of my most open-minded and supportive male friends make statements similar to, “He finally got his baby boy after all those girls. He got a hunting buddy.” I’m generally quick to point out what was just said, and they’re often surprised by themselves.

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