We went out for grouse this afternoon. We had been out twice before to the same area. This is my first year trying to hunt them. We have been running the dog through the pines. Looking for them on the ground in the brush below the trees. Never found anything that way. Today just by chance we saw one fly so we stopped and went after it. We found it up in a tree. We couldn't get that sucker to flush. Finally we shot it out of the tree. Cooper retrieved it to hand. We looked around a little more in that same area. Found another up in a tree. That one wouldn't flush either, so week shot it out of the tree. Then we noticed another one up in that same tree. So we shot that one. Cooper retrieved both of those to hand again.
I am used to shooting birds in flight. It did not seem that sporting to shoot them out of the trees. They were a lot bigger bird than I thought. All three were blues. So my question is.... Is that how most of you guys hunt them? Do they flush off the ground sometimes or should we keep our eyes to the trees and keep doing it that way?
Here are a couple pictures.
