grouse hunting

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

February 27, 2017 by Ruffed Grouse Society

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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What is it like to watch a drummer?

February 17, 2017 by Matt Soberg

CONNECTING THE DOTS . . . From Habitat to Hunting

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

This is what it’s like to watch a spring drummer connect the dots from habitat to hunting . . .

I lifted my Kromer above my left ear thinking I had heard a faint rustle of leaves down the hill from my strategically placed location. I set my Thermos cup of coffee onto the ground’s newly-green, late-April shoots and leaned my head forward toward one of the opened blind windows for a better vantage point. Sure enough, my ears were right . . . the pitter-patter of small feet traipsing across the forest floor was getting closer . . . and louder . . . and closer.

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

February 17, 2017 by Ruffed Grouse Society

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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2016 RGS GROUSE CAMP TOUR – North Carolina & Georgia

November 21, 2016 by Ruffed Grouse Society

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.

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2016 GROUSE CAMP TOUR – Virginia/Tennessee

November 15, 2016 by Ruffed Grouse Society

Virginia/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.

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2016 RGS GROUSE CAMP TOUR – Monterey, Virginia

November 12, 2016 by Ruffed Grouse Society

RGS 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.

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2016 RGS GROUSE CAMP TOUR – West Virginia

November 8, 2016 by Ruffed Grouse Society

2016 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.

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Book Review – Tranquillity Revisited

September 12, 2016 by Ruffed Grouse Society

Tranquillity Revisited, by Colonel Harold P. Sheldon

~ Review by Jason S. Dowd

Collecting and reading outdoor literature is a hobby many of us pursue as a means to stay sane between autumns. Some of us take this a step further and seek out authors from the earlier part of the 20th Century, the “Golden Era” of grouse gunning. Not being excluded from the latter bunch, myself, it was only a matter of time until I stumbled across a man that turned out to be one of my favorite authors of the genre, Colonel Harold P. Sheldon.

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Anyone Can Be A Grouse Hunter

September 12, 2016 by Ruffed Grouse Society

No cookie-cutter template exists to define a grouse hunter. You don’t have to shoot a double-barrel side-by-side, run an English setter, and wear brand new gear to be a grouse hunter. If you do . . . great! But grouse hunters come in all shapes, sizes, practices and traditions – the more grouse hunters we have that appreciate the grouse woods experience and understand the need for conservation, the more effective we can be as a voice for healthy forests, grouse, woodcock and hunting.

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Why We Hunt, with Member A.J. DeRosa

August 25, 2016 by Ruffed Grouse Society

We are living in a golden age of the grouse woods. I no longer see the ruffed grouse of the past, but a culture of today – young and old, dedicated and committed to their calling and never so focused on saving the species.

I grew up in a long line of casual “partridge” hunters that never really considered the use of a dog. Grouse hunting was something you did when you scouted for whitetails. Swap the slug barrel off the old Remington 870 pump for a bird barrel, and those New Hampshire “chickens” were prime dinner. The older I became, the less ruffed grouse existed on the southern border of New Hampshire, and as my years went on as a suburban bowhunter, the ruffed grouse became a distant memory.

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grouse hunting

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