Grousing with a SKUGG
Grousing with a SKUGG
Here are a couple of shots from last weekend's annual grouse hunting trip up in NY State. Gun is a Ute Sterly 16 ga. Skeet & Upland Game Gun, 26" barrels choked .006 R and .011" L. Classic ""disappearing behind the tree" shot, but I got on it fast enough to down the bird and blow about a pound and a half of bark off that side of the tree! Next day we hunted new cover and put up 3 woodcock. The first one flushed about 15 feet in front of me and corkscrewed out horizontally instead of straight up like they usually do; I never got a shot at him. The second jumped about 20 feet in front of me but my barrels were hung up in some vines I was pushing through and I never got the gun free in time. The third came up to my right between me and buddy Pete, who had a "perfect shot" he said later, but blew it fumbling to get his safety off under his gloves! So Mudbats 3, Hunters 0 ! To my mind the short-barreled SKUGGs with their wide-open chokes are about the perfect combination for upland hunting in heavy cover. Great being out again with a Fox in my hands! Kevin
- Jeff S
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Re: Grousing with a SKUGG
Congratulations on the grouse and thanks for sharing your story. I love short barreled guns.
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Re: Grousing with a SKUGG
Kevin, the cover looks pretty thick. You did well to get on the grouse. Were you guys using a dog?
Jim
Jim
Goodbye Mandy, once in a life time hunting dog. I miss you every day.
Re: Grousing with a SKUGG
No Jim, but I sure wish we had one this time! When my great English Setter "Smoke" exited the planet, I agonized longer than I should have thinking about a replacement bird dog. I'm still without one but thought long and hard on the way home from this hunt, that if I'm obviously still able to do this type of hunting, a dog couldn't help but be a tremendous asset. Hmmm......
My host's father and his cronies were stereotypical upland bird hunters and fly fishermen of the 1940s and '50s; their dogs of choice were setters and spaniels. Oddly enough, my friend never considered a bird dog in the 43 years we have hunted together. He does in fact have a dog, but it is strictly a pet (Australian sheep dog).
We are still hunting some of the covers they hunted, and even though changes in the successional stages of the forests (e.g., thinning, regrowth, mixed plantings of hardwoods and pines, etc.) have come and gone, the cover is still very thick and tough to plow through in many places. A light, fast-handling gun is essential and wide open chokes are preferred. Lots of interconnecting ridges and gullies through the drainages, and many bottomlands adjacent to streams and creeks.