Ruffed Grouse Hunter Kills Attacking Black Bear With Birdshot

By Jackson Schmidtke

Barron County (WQOW) - Sometimes when you go hunting you come across animals you're not looking to hunt. A Barron County grouse hunter's encounter on Saturday put him and his dog in the hospital.

"It was a spot where he would have never seen this bear laying on the ground," said DNR Conservation Warden Phillip Dorn.

Phil Anderson was hunting ruffed grouse at the Loon Lake Wildlife Area when he heard branches cracking. He thought it was a deer but it turned out to be a black bear.

"I heard my dog squealing in distress and I kind of figured out what was happening," Anderson said.

Anderson's dog had encountered a mother bear and her cubs in Barron county.

"I yelled for the dog and immediately the adult bear came from that direction and charged at me and knocked me on my back," said Anderson "She batted me a few times and shook me and then she went back to my dog."

After regaining his feet, Anderson yelled at the bear hoping to scare it. The bear left the dog and charged Anderson again. This time Anderson was prepared and was able to shoot the bear point blank in the face with birdshot, a lightweight ammo that typically would not down a bear.

"Birdshot doesn't really penetrate that well from distances," said Dorn "but this was very close range. Probably within three feet."

The 275-pound bear died instantly.

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Pennsylvania Blue Mountain habitat created to help ruffed grouse, other wildlife

By Mark Demko 

Working his way across State Game Lands 127 in Monroe County, Jim Boburka watches his dog, a 3-year-old Brittany named Dash, dig into the thick cover that dots many sections of the expansive public hunting grounds. And while he's hoping to flush, or possibly even get a shot at one of the ruffed grouse in the area, the Bethlehem resident's thoughts aren't far from another public parcel closer to home -- one that will one day hopefully hold more grouse than it presently does, thanks to a partnership between the Ruffed Grouse Society and the Pennsylvania Game Commission.

This past April, Boburka and 27 other individuals, many of them members of the RGS's Lehigh Valley Chapter, planted 1,000 Norway and white spruce seedlings on a 130-acre tract of timbered land on SGL 217 near Slatington. The work on the Blue Mountain is part of a three-year habitat enhancement project bringing together the PGC and Pennsylvania's newest RGS chapter in an effort to create the young forest habitat that's so crucial to grouse and other wildlife.

According to the Pennsylvania Game Commission's Ruffed Grouse Management Plan for 2011-2020, grouse populations in the state have been decreasing since 1980. As part of its strategy for boosting the bird's numbers, the agency is working to increase the amount of early successional habitat -- the 5- to 15-year-old forests that provide ideal cover for the bird -- by more than 900,000 acres by the end of decade. One of the keys to meeting this goal is developing new partnerships and enhancing existing ones, which is where conservation organizations such as the Ruffed Grouse Society play an important role.

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Video Maine Grouse Hunting 2013 with Bird Dogs Afield

Video of Ruffed Grouse Hunt in Maine.

For More Bird Hunting Videos Visit BirdHunterTV.com

Hunting Ruffed grouse in the winter.

Winter can be a great time to hunt ruffed grouse. Okay, anytime is a good time to hunt grouse (maybe – maybe – no so much in the early season) but winter can be particularly good. If, as always, you find where the birds are. 

Many hunters have trouble finding ruffed grouse during late season, even with the aid of snow. Since ruffs are usually grouped around the available food sources, it might take a bit of walking to find them.

It is usually to a late-season grouse hunter’s advantage to hunt at a fast pace until tracks in the snow indicate a group of grouse has been feeding in the area, and then slow down and hunt that territory thoroughly.

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The 'Passion for Grouse,' and the triumph of the thick book - Book Review

By Dave Orrick

You can call it a "book."

Like you'd call a grouse a "bird."

But at 560 pages, 6 pounds and $100, "A Passion for Grouse: The Lore and Legend of America's Premier Game Bird," is something more.

Like the bird itself.

The volume, by Washington-based Wild River Press, is a compendium of, an ode to, and an offering before the likeness of the ruffed grouse, that dun-shaded bird of the woods that is a symbol of both the hunting proletariat and the Scotch-drinking class, and whose pursuit might often land a hunter from each caste side-by-side as equals.

Read the full Pioneer Press book review