Good day with a Fox

[Silvers]

Two birds (PA daily limit) taken with a 16 bore AE.

Click twice to expand

[Stan Hillis]

So, if today was your last day you ended it well! Way to go, Frank.

SRH

[Silvers]

Thanks Stan, the last day is tomorrow but I have a Christmas party with my shooting gang and the weather looks dicey anyway.

[Jeff S]

Very nice! I'll bet that 16 ga. AE is a sweetie.

[terc]

Way to go Frank. That's the perfect way to end the season. Merry Christmas

[Kimber06]

Great job Frank, love that picture. I didn't make that grouse trip to NY, but was able to break in that 20ga Sterly on a couple of pheasants over my new pup. It fits me well and is a nice addition to my modest collection of upland guns.

[bbman3]

Frank that is a great Christmas present. Bobby

[Sporrns]

Great photo Frank - those ferns really make the picture for me - our southern NYS haunts are loaded with them. Kevin

[vaturkey]

Very nice. If you walked those up with no pooch, that would be considered a red letter day in Pa.

[Silvers]

Thanks to all who replied. Pennsylvania's last day today would have been a bust anyway with rain pretty much all day, but our Christmas party was great.

If we don't get heavy snows I'll do some grouse hunting in upcoming weeks with a friend just across the line in NY where the season runs until late February. It's sad that our PA game folks closed our traditional post-Christmas grouse season for this year ..... yup I've seen the PGC video and news releases but the closure still doesn't make sense to me.

Yes, ferns make a good color contrast background for grouse pics and so do mossy logs. Except for occasional hunts with friends who have dogs, all my grouse hunting is walk up. I've done it that way since I was kid and attribute most of my luck to knowing the woods and finding the food sources, along with doing a lot of sporting clays shooting and being able to pick up and shoot almost instinctively. Also I use a hunting method (for lack of a better word) that helps me get close before many birds will flush. It was shared with me by a savvy hunting mentor when I was a kid and on my word not to tell anyone. I often think of him and others I was fortunate to hunt with back then.

Merry Christmas to my Fox friends.

frank

[Phillip Woody]

Well done Frank, as always. Very nice 16 AE.

[Jim Cloninger]

Beautiful grouse, Frank. Merry Christmas to you and all Fox hunters! Jim

[loggy]

One of my favorite hunting partners is no longer with us. He never hunted the last day of the season. He felt if the birds made it that far they deserved to have the day off. On the last day of pheasant season I took some flowers to his widow.
We are blessed by the people that come into our lives.
Merry Christmas to all!
John

[Foxnut]

Frank, looks like a great day! Surprised you still have green ferns for the pic as in not browned by frost. Grouse w/o dogs is a challenge. I’m guessing the old still hunt method. Birds get jittery when you pause a couple minutes and will bust out!

[Silvers]

Brett, the woods hereabouts are loaded with that fern species that stays green all winter even in the most frigid temps. Grouse and deer feed on them. The locals call them "Christmas Ferns" or winter ferns. Here's a pic of one taken while walking with our Kaiser this morning. Nice fresh snow for Christmas day!

New IPhone bought a few days ago. Click twice to check out its camera detail. Not too shabby.