The ruffed grouse is to the forest what pheasants are to the grasslands. But unlike the flashier, bigger plains bird, you can’t bully a grouse around. The “we-got-’em-surrounded” mentality that often works with pheasants—big crowds pushing a section of real estate to pinch birds and force them to flight—won’t get you anywhere in the grouse woods. No, this is one bird that requires finesse.

Now, I know what you’re thinking, because I’ve been there. You’re wondering how you’ll know where the dog is if you can’t see him. The big answer is you have to have trust in your dog. You have to know with absolute conviction that he’s out there finding birds and holding them until you get to him and not just out running willy-nilly across the countryside on a, um, wild goose chase, so to speak. But trust is an earned thing, and two tools will get you there: the electric beeper collar, or, my favorite, the traditional cow bell.

I use a beeper collar almost always when bird hunting and over most upland species, especially in more open habitat, because I can hear the electronic tone from further away and often over high winds. I always use one that functions in both a running mode and a pointing mode so I can tell, generally, what the dog’s doing. But I actually like the bell better for grouse hunting.

The bell is exacting where the beeper collar is generalized. With the beeper, I only know the dog is moving or standing still. And if he’s out of sight, I don’t know if the standing-still beep means he’s on point, taking a drink of water, or peeing on a tree. With the bell, I know all of these things and much, much more, just by the way it rings. A steady clang, for instance, tells me the dog’s working the cover methodically and thoroughly. When the clattering gets a little spastic, I know he’s hot on scent. And can I hear a tiny “tick, tick tick” as I get closer to him? That’s the clanger echoing his breathing when he’s solid on point—and I can hear this even when I can’t see him, which allows me to get ready to shoot when I walk up on the point. Too, I hear the difference between a dog that’s begun to creep on his point and one that takes a step to balance his body. I also can tell if he’s lost control and charges the flush—and it doesn’t take a practiced ear to figure that out.

I actually like to use a bell in conjunction with an electric collar that has the tone turned off but is activated for stimulation, because you can make corrections to the dog without having him in your sight. The bell tells you he’s creeping? Give him a little nick to put him back on hold. Hear him charge a flush after being silent on point? Give a jolt to pull him off the pursuit. (All of this, of course, assuming your dog is at least mostly trained and understands this type of correction. You wouldn’t want to do this to a young dog just beginning his field education and have him start to blink birds, but that’s a subject for a whole separate article.)

The point of the bell is that I can let the dog do the work of finding birds instead of me. I take him off the truck, set him loose, listen for the bell, and walk toward it, either leisurely in the general direction if the dog is working steadily, or directly toward the last place I heard it ringing if the bell stops. I work less, while the dog finds more birds. Two birds in the hand … .

Flushers Count, Too!

Pointing dogs may have cornered the market, but flushing dogs certainly shouldn’t be ignored as useful grouse-hunting partners. Some basics.

Naturally, flushing dogs should perform in a manner opposite that of the pointing breeds. It’s absolutely necessary that they hunt close to the gun, as there’s not an ounce of sense in having a dog that flushes grouse 50 yards out. Finished flushing dogs should work to the front of the gun, within gun range, in a zig-zag pattern that criss-crosses the ground your feet won’t touch. They should show obvious excitement when hot on scent, so that you may move closer to them. They should sit on the flush to avoid possible injury during shots on low-flying birds (just as for pointing dogs), and they should retrieve to hand upon command. Of course, you can train your pointing breeds to do this last job as well, but it’s certainly more expected in a complete flushing dog package.

I particularly like to switch exclusively to flushing dogs when snow flies and the forests are skeletons of wood waiting to bear leaves again. Pheasants get all the credit for being “educated” by the time hunting seasons reach their late stages, but grouse get the message, too. Between the sparse cover provided during winter days, and after being shot at for the couple preceding months, grouse are less likely to hold for a pointing dog. Regardless the type of dog used, though, tighten up your chokes and be prepared for longer shots.

Author’s Bio

Jennifer L.S. Pearsall is an outdoor writer, photographer, and editor, who has been a professional in the hunting and shooting industries for nearly 20 years. She began her career by selling guns in a retail establishment in Northern Virginia in the early 1990s, before being recruited by the NRA to join its editorial staff. She has long been a dedicated sporting clays competitor, and  has also dabbled in IPSC and metallic blackpowder cartridge competitions. Ms. Pearsall is a practiced and dedicated hunter, with her fair share of big-game trophies decorating her home, but her deepest passions are bird dogs and upland bird and waterfowl hunting.

Since her tenure with the NRA, Ms. Pearsall’s freelance writings and editing work have appeared in dozens of outdoors print and online publications, including Gun Dog, Wildfowl, Whitetail Journal, Petersen’s Hunting, Waterfowl & Retriever, and various publications of the National Rifle Association and Safari Club International, among others. She has also written under the pen name C. Fergus Covey as a gun test and evaluation expert for Gun Tests magazine. Currently she is authoring the blog www.HuntingTheTruth.com.

Ms. Pearsall currently resides in San Antonio, Texas, with her two dogs, an aging Lab named Noah, and a squirrel-obsessed English pointer called Highway.