Grouse Shooting Quotes

“Badenoch encapsulates the dichotomy of the sporting estate. Rich southern incomers provided much-needed income and jobs, a new economic lifeline in difficult times, while at the same time riding roughshod over the last remnants of the traditional farming economy to suit their own interests - another blow to a way of life that had survived and evolved over countless generations.”
― David Taylor, 'The People Are Not There': The Transformation of Badenoch 1800 - 1863

“As these two grouse rose and came up the hill toward me, beating their way masterfully up to the treetops, I had, even while getting ready to shoot, a chance to watch their flight. It does not appear that anyone can ever regard it as anything but thrilling. In our attempts at locomotion, we improve our cars, our airplanes. But the grouse, countless centuries ago, perfected a flight that has the finality of finished art. It is graceful, swift, powerful, and yet strangely enigmatic. It attains what the finest automobile strives for: formidable power immediately available and under the most delicately adjusted control.

I do not know that it is a better flight than that of the quail, but it is far more impressive. And because the grouse is a bird of the forest and must needs do constant maneuvering while in flight, I think he handles himself more deftly than the bobwhite. In the flight of the larger bird there is endless variety. Especially interesting to me are three features: one is the occasional silent rise, the big bird taking wing with hardly a sound; one is the instinctive habit of putting an obstruction between himself and his pursuer, and the other is his love of often going almost straight up to clear the trees and then tearing away over their tops, as if he were running the hundred yards in the Olympics. Indeed, the flight of birds alone would afford a man a lifelong study.”
― Archibald Rutledge, Bird Dog Days, Wingshooting Ways: Archibald Rutledge's Tales of Upland Hunting

“It has never seemed to me that enough could ever be written about the ruffed grouse. The nature of this grand bird is so above reproach that it must always be classed among the royalty in the great community of wild life. Its romantic wild haunts, its patrician habits, its princely bearing, its cyclone speed upon the wing, the marvelous skill with which it unerringly executes its aerial maneuvers, its poise and rare distinction of carriage, its keenly bred woodland intelligence, the beauty and appropriateness of its tawny plumage—whatever aspect you may take of this noble wild thing, you will find it perfect. Without irreverence I may truly say that it took God to imagine the ruffed grouse.”
― Archibald Rutledge, Bird Dog Days, Wingshooting Ways

“When I have the approximate distance a grouse has gone, and his direction of flight, I follow him, but I try never to go straight at him. Wild game is alwavs able to recognize a hunter who acts as if he were on the warpath. As I never walk directly toward a grouse, so I never try to sneak up on him. That is a maneuver that will scare the wits out of him. My general attitude in approaching game is that of elaborate and rather goofy indifference; I try to act as if I were idly looking for posies, or dreaming of some lost love of the long ago. The hunter who is stalking, if he shows himself at all, should always try to create the impression that he is doing anything else in the world but hunt. By this sort of trickery I have often been able to walk within twenty feet of a grouse, whereas, had I stormed down at him, he probably should have kited out of cover while I was still fifty yards away.

If you want a real chance at your grouse, don’t let him say of you, “Oh, my gosh, here comes that killer!” Always persuade him to say unconcernedly, “I wonder who that booby is, wandering around vaguely?”
― Archibald Rutledge, Bird Dog Days, Wingshooting Ways: Archibald Rutledge's Tales of Upland Hunting

“A good dog, and he must be a good one, is absolutely essential to the utmost enjoyment of grouse hunting. I do not mean that it is necessary to have a dog in order to kill grouse. There are other systems whereby they may be killed just as dead and in just as great numbers; but I repeat that a good dog is essential to the utmost enjoyment of the game.”
― Burton L Spiller, DRUMMER IN THE WOODS. Twenty-One Wonderful Stories About Grouse Shooting

“If from that you infer that I believe real grouse dogs are almost as scarce as the proverbial hen’s teeth, you are correct in your supposition. My experiences have led me to believe that not more than one in twenty-five of the present-day crop would make the grade, even under the most favorable conditions. The majority of them would go part way, but the summit would still be uncrowded.”
― Burton L Spiller, DRUMMER IN THE WOODS. Twenty-One Wonderful Stories About Grouse Shooting

“Any normal man who will shoot a weekly round at skeet during the summer can learn the fundamentals of wing shooting, and can acquire a skill sufficient to kill a fair percentage of his good shots at birds within the range to which he has become accustomed; but if he wishes to hold his own with a seasoned grouse hunter he must serve a long apprenticeship in the woods. He will find innumerable angles there that can never be duplicated on a skeet range.”
― Burton L Spiller, DRUMMER IN THE WOODS. Twenty-One Wonderful Stories About Grouse Shooting