>>1922230The taste of pheasant is phenomenal. Grouse taste depends on which type. If you’re up northeast ways you’re probably shooting ruffs. They are awesome. Midwest prairie out towards Montana you are probably talking sharpies and they are also pretty good. Sage grouse are my least favorite but they aren’t bad. I still hunt them just to get the dogs work while big game hunting in Wyo. I advise you to season heavily and cook carefully. Blue grouse I have little experience with. Have tried them but I don’t travel that far west very often. Quail, chukar, huns, and prairie chicken overlap with those species as well and are a shit load of fun and also taste great. Quail and prairie chickens in particular. Woodcock and snipe are more swampy birds and I’m not crazy about hunting them but I’ve done it. Good for practicing shooting more than anything. Not particularly big birds, steel shot is expensive for that little meat yield, tough shooting, and muddy business.
How you hunt is going to depend greatly on location, time of year, if you have a dog, what kind you have if you do, how many people are in your hunting party, weather, and time of day. If I’m just blindly scouting around for pheasant I look for stuff like cattails, fencerows, brush piles, etc. I try to explain it kind of like fishing. Gravitate towards mass. On a cold day birds usually like to warm up on the sunnier sides of hills for their morning feed. Generally I try to sneak up on them and hunt down. If a covey or flock busts mark where they land and try to follow. Pheasant love running instead of flushing. If you have a group of five or more I suggest setting blockers on the opposite end of the field and push the birds towards them. Seriously the fuckers will run a mile sometimes before they will fly. If you get a bird bust it’s crop open and see what it has been eating to figure out where more will be.
If you can give me more info I can give you more tips. Welcome to the club.
