POLL: GROUSE! GROUSE! GROUSE!

[Special T]

Mike if your using a motorcycle you don't need a shot gun! I've plenty of limits of grouse because they liked the front spokes of my bike! 

[MikeWalking]

Mike if your using a motorcycle you don't need a shot gun! I've plenty of limits of grouse because they liked the front spokes of my bike! 

Maybe a rag tied a spoke with a little "grouse bait"

[Cougar125]

I wouldn't know if I preferred blues or ruffs since I've never shot a grouse. 

[KopperBuck]

Here's a sooty grouse from a couple weeks ago up in the Mt Rainier area.

[Dhoey07]

I'm surprised how many new o/u models keep coming out.  You would think the market is glutted with them by now.

oh it is, now the niche they are trying to fill is the "affordable" (reads cheap)  gun every day joe's can buy, some of these guns are almost disposable they are put together so poorly.
gun manufacturers found out if you can slap two heavy barrels on top of each other and find a good stout chunk of 2x4 for the stock and then raise the price point up to around $500 ( if it costs more it must be better) for these guns people will be standing in line for them like government cheese. IMO the mossberg silver reserve is a prime example.

there are some O/U's that are tremendous value at around $500 - even less, but the mossbergs are not one of them. also for a gun company that boasts about being made in america I don't know why they stooped to getting these O/U and SxS's made in russia and now Turkey...I would run from a mossberg O/U like my balls were on fire.

I ain't no gun snob. I'll shoot grouse with my o/u stoeger all day long!

[Stilly bay]

I'm surprised how many new o/u models keep coming out.  You would think the market is glutted with them by now.

oh it is, now the niche they are trying to fill is the "affordable" (reads cheap)  gun every day joe's can buy, some of these guns are almost disposable they are put together so poorly.
gun manufacturers found out if you can slap two heavy barrels on top of each other and find a good stout chunk of 2x4 for the stock and then raise the price point up to around $500 ( if it costs more it must be better) for these guns people will be standing in line for them like government cheese. IMO the mossberg silver reserve is a prime example.

there are some O/U's that are tremendous value at around $500 - even less, but the mossbergs are not one of them. also for a gun company that boasts about being made in america I don't know why they stooped to getting these O/U and SxS's made in russia and now Turkey...I would run from a mossberg O/U like my balls were on fire.

I ain't no gun snob. I'll shoot grouse with my o/u stoeger all day long!

I am glad reading comp is still going strong in WA. no where did I mention stoeger or any other value priced gun besides mossberg in my post. I even said there are some good ones at that price point and lower.

there are some O/U's that are tremendous value at around $500 - even less, but the mossbergs are not one of them.

If snob means someone who won't throw away his money on a clunky disposable shotgun, then a snob I am.

[Dave Workman]

Here's a sooty grouse from a couple weeks ago up in the Mt Rainier area.

"Sooty" grouse?

That's a BLUE grouse....and the dumb asses who decided arbitrarily to change it to something else ought to be dragged nekkid up and down the rocky bottom of the Cispus River.

I heard some dipstick refer to them as "dusky" grouse too. 

These ignorant pricks. They ought to go practice game biology on another continent.

Nice image, though.  Telephoto lens, eh?

[bobcat]

"Sooty" grouse?

That's a BLUE grouse....and the dumb asses who decided arbitrarily to change it to something else ought to be dragged nekkid up and down the rocky bottom of the Cispus River.

I heard some dipstick refer to them as "dusky" grouse too. 

These ignorant pricks. They ought to go practice game biology on another continent.

   I'll never get used to the change either. They'll always be blue grouse to me. But they split them into two separate species, dusky grouse and sooty grouse.

Grouse Ecology

Dusky and Sooty Grouse (Blue Grouse) Ecology

Dusky grouse and sooty grouse were first described by Lewis and Clark in the early 1800s. In the 1900s, they were combined into a single ‘blue grouse’ species. In 2006, the American Ornithologists Union ‘split’ the blue grouse into the dusky and sooty grouse. Despite the name change, dusky and sooty grouse can be difficult for many people to recognize. The two species have subtle differences in appearance and behavior and little overlap in distribution; sooty grouse generally are found in the relatively moist west-side habitats, while dusky grouse occupy drier east-side habitats.

Dusky and sooty grouse are found throughout western North America. Their range extends from the southern portions of Alaska and the Yukon, south along the Pacific Coast to northern California and east to the Rocky Mountains (New Mexico to Alberta). In Washington, dusky and sooty grouse are found in mountainous areas wherever open coniferous forests are present. They are closely associated with true fir and Douglas fir forests in winter and habitats that are often more open during summer.

Male dusky and sooty grouse perform a hooting display when they are on breeding territories during the spring. Each hooting display consists of a sequence of 5-7 low frequency ‘hoots’ that are detectable from 100 meters (dusky grouse) to more than 2 kilometers (sooty grouse). The males of both species also utter a single ‘whoot’ note when they are displaying to a female that is detectable from about 2 kilometers. Male dusky grouse perform a ‘flutter jump’ which is a loud flight that is detectable from about 1 kilometer. Male sooty grouse exhibit a similar behavior called ‘landing on loud wing’ display where they create an unusually loud noise at the end of a short flight, often while landing in a tree.

[Curly]

If you ever hear me call them sooty or dusky, please slap me........     

[ICEMAN]

I thought it was "dusty grouse",....what happens when you forget and try again to bag one with your deer rifle.... "dusty grouse"

[Glockster]

Watch out.....don't give W dept of fish and WILDLIFE any bright ideas on 'discovering' some recessive genetic mutation that must be preserved at all costs.   Since there is a historical record of observation by L&C, it's a shoe in.  That'll ad another 22 pages for the regulation book.

Up in Alaska, we call them hooters and shoot them with 22's in the spring time.  "Oh the horror". 

[KopperBuck]

Sorry - but they're different

[Shoffy]

They will always be a "Blue Grouse" to me.... However you can totally tell the difference between the 2 species. The "Dusky Grouse" are more gray and the "Sooty Grouse" are more brown. We've ALL shot both of them and probably not even paid attention and I'm sure they taste the same too.
I love me some BLUE GROUSE though. I would shoot Blues over Ruffed Grouse any day.

Cant wait till Sept. 1st!!!!

[Dhoey07]

They will always be a "Blue Grouse" to me.... However you can totally tell the difference between the 2 species. The "Dusky Grouse" are more gray and the "Sooty Grouse" are more brown. We've ALL shot both of them and probably not even paid attention and I'm sure they taste the same too.
I love me some BLUE GROUSE though. I would shoot Blues over Ruffed Grouse any day.

Cant wait till Sept. 1st!!!!

That's funny, I'd take a ruff any day of the week over a blue!

[Shoffy]

They will always be a "Blue Grouse" to me.... However you can totally tell the difference between the 2 species. The "Dusky Grouse" are more gray and the "Sooty Grouse" are more brown. We've ALL shot both of them and probably not even paid attention and I'm sure they taste the same too.
I love me some BLUE GROUSE though. I would shoot Blues over Ruffed Grouse any day.

Cant wait till Sept. 1st!!!!

That's funny, I'd take a ruff any day of the week over a blue!

Really??? Theres so much more meat to a blue than a ruffed. Don't get me wrong, anytime I see a ruffed grouse between sept 1 - dec 31 he's a goner....