doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion DoubleGun BBS @ doublegunshop.com No Grousmas in PA this year?

Darn it! It's alot easier toting my early M37 all day than it my lefty smokepole. Oh well, if the weather allows for it, I'll just fish more. There's a fellow out of Warren, Pa who specializes in winter fishing for muskies below Kinzua dam. Between him and the steelhead up near Erie, I'll stay occupied I'm sure.

keith: i concur with most of what you post above...interesting that we both have a pa connection...

seems obvious that north east state game managers gave up on promoting upland small game hunting in favor of deer and turkey propagation...wonder why?

also seems like a bounty on predators found on state owned hunting lands would be helpful?...should turkeys be reclassified as grouse predators? and would encouraging land owners to kill predators help restore small game numbers?

We have no connection Ed. You are an anti-gunner, and I am not.

It is doubtful that we even have the same number of chromosomes.

NY is no better. At least in northern Catskills. where I hunt.
I shot at 2 birds this year. the only ones I flushed. wet nesting season didn't help. last year was far better than the year before which was 0 birds.
wet nesting season and loads of coyotes, foxes, hawks and other preds take their toll.
Had to head north to the Adirondacks for some fantastic woodcock gunning.

I am no great grouse hunter though they are the only game I am really interested in hunting. This year has been especially poor for me, discouraging, to say the least.

As far a the PGC goes, they are a curious bunch in their current form. They don't really hire game protectors anymore, but police officers instead and there is an obvious attitude that hunters are the enemy. It also seems everything they try to do goes wrong. There use to be pheasants to hunt. Now they spend 5 million a year on them and readily admit there is no natural reproduction in the state. "Extirpated" was their word. I use to hunt doves with enthusiasm then the PGC decided they needed to study them so we got an extra license. Now the only birds I see in good numbers are gone before the September 1st season. They are permitting successful turkey hunters an additional stamp for a second bird ($) so I expect turkeys to start disappearing. The only things they have been unable to screw up are deer and resident geese. They would prefer to eradicate both but so far both are holding their own.

The PGC has told us we need to get rid of the deer so the oak trees can get large enough to sustain more deer. How many years does it take to grow a large oak. The head of the agency was asked about windmills on game lands, his reply was "we have gas wells why not windmills?"!!! In a correspondence, I had with them on the issue of ticks and Lyme disease their recommended the solution "controlled burning".

It is my opinion they are just holding out till they can get their funding from the General Fund, then they can forget about the pain in the butt hunters. They refuse to require a license for bikers, hikers and others who use the game lands using the excuse these people will want a say in the land management. If they have to buy a hunting license to ride their bike on the game land how does that give them a say? Now if they issue a bike permit then I see the point.

PA has allowed 2 Ruffed grouse and two Woodcock per day for as long as I can remember. I have been hunting for 52 years in this state. We have good populations of crows still so I am looking for a good recipe and expecting a stamp soon. Oh! We can only hunt crows on Friday, Saturday and Sunday.

You seem to forget another big issue...raptors. Hawks and owls are extremely predatory on the Ruffed Grouse. Many times, I've experienced that once I scare an owl or hawk out of a tree while walking through a covert, I'll get a flush soon after. This may be a terrible thing to say from the perspective of bird lovers, but with the protection of avian predators and inability of farmers to shoot hawks predating on their fowl livestock, there seems to be an overabundance of raptors today. More so than I can ever remember. Growing up I can remember seeing a hawk every once in a while, but now driving down the road you'll see one every 10 minutes it seems like. Maybe it is just my hawk prejudice showing, but as a bird hunter, I don't really like the added competition. I suppose everything has to eat though...

I should add that I also shoot every coyote I can if I have a rifle in my hand. Two years ago I was dove hunting and a coyote came trotting near our decoys. It was about 40 yards, but with only light birdshot I would never shoot an animal I know would not be killed humanely. I guess I need to purchase and start hunting doves with a drilling!

We should be able to kill as many crows as possible. We have Turkey Vultures to eat road kills so we really don't need crows. All they do is f eat young small game and to add insult to injury take: corn, and other grains out of our mouths. Crow is about as useful as a cockroach or a rat.

Perhaps someone could come up with good rescipe for crow meat that way we could sell the meat which could end up on tables in exclusive restaurants like lobster from Maine. I mean rich love lobsters which feed on "shit" that falls to the bottom at least crows eat some grains in addition to feeding on dumps and road kills. What do you think? Good idea yes or no?

I wish we had something fast flying and good eating like European wood pigeon.
It's comforting to know that if I move to EU after retirement I can enjoy fine Pigeons Napoleon again.