Jessica’s First Grouse
It was early December when Jessica finally mustered up enough courage to take her Hunter Safety Class so she could go hunting with her dad just like her big brother did so she reluctantly agreed to sign up for the class. This was also the final class that I would be teaching after twenty-five years and almost a thousand students. I decided to retire from teaching because finding close areas to do the field day of the class were becoming increasingly difficult. My son and oldest daughter had already taken my class when they were younger so Jessica said she could do it too.
Demonstrating safe Zones of Fire 
Demonstrating safely loading and unloading 
Demonstrating how to use the safety 
Demonstrating the safety basics 
Reloading for the next shot
The class is a two-day class with the first day being the classroom learning day and the second being the field day where the students had to demonstrate that they could safely handle firearms using all the basic safety skills they learned. It also included some live firing too to further test their safe firearm handling abilities. The basics of marksmanship were also covered briefly as there isn’t enough time in class to go beyond the very basics of rifle and shotgun shooting. Jessica had grown up learning firearm safety and shooting so that wasn’t a concern but she was afraid of the written test for some reason only known to her. She studied the student handbook throughout the evening and practiced by taking all the quizzes in the book and was still nervous. On the test day she passed the field and written tests without any problems so she was worried over nothing. The class is good in nearly all 50 states so I am glad she took it, now we can hunt out of state if we ever feel inclined to do so.
Jessica is an enrolled Indian with tribal treaty rights, but the tribal regulations would not allow her to hunt because of her age, regardless of passing Hunter Safety. She had to wait to buy a state license to go hunting as there were only a couple weeks left for the grouse season and all the big game seasons had already closed. She was disappointed and unenthusiastically agreed to wait before buying the state license. Unbeknownst to her the waiting would help her become a better hunter by giving her many opportunities to hone her shooting skills and by learning more about the game animals that she would be harvesting.
By the following fall the anticipation coupled with all the target practice leading up to a hunt was almost too much for her. I must confess that I too would have been extremely exasperated putting all that time, effort, and determination into passing the class just so I could wait nine months before actually being able to use those skillsets to go hunting. In hindsight she was a very patient girl in that regard. She was so proud walking up to the license sales counter to present her Hunter Education Card to the clerk and telling him that she was there to buy a hunting license. It was one of those picture-perfect moments and I really wish I would have had a camera ready if I had only known. She barely waited for the ink on the license to dry before strutting out to the pickup to show her mom. All that was left now was to actually go hunting for her favorite eating game bird, the tasty grouse.
Finally, the time had arrived to put her skills to the test on a crisp fall morning when she had her first chance to actually hunt a grouse instead of just spotting them for dad to shoot. Grouse are not the smartest birds, but what they lack in brain power is made up for with excellent camouflage markings. That in itself makes up for a good portion of their lower cranial abilities. Oftentimes they are difficult to spot unless you see their silhouette or movement and the movement usually requires a quick shot as they often fly off shortly afterwards. The berries are out in the late fall so we hunted areas near their food sources in hopes of finding one before it spotted us and flew off. It is never possible to know what the grouse will do as some appear to be smarter than others and immediately fly away at the first hint of anything while others just sit there and look at you forever even if you shoot and miss a few times. This is all part of the fun and excitement along with memory making experiences in the great outdoors with your children.
We started our hunt along the edges of the wetlands and prairies where the berry bushes have more sunlight and were still bursting forth with berries. These areas provide lots of food for grouse and other game. Usually water and good cover are located nearby too making it very good hunting habitat. The weather had been unseasonably dry for several days so there was no way to move silently through the brush. Every twig and leaf on the forest floor had become dried out making every step sound like a big branch snapping and echoing throughout the forest alerting every creature to our presence. It didn’t matter how carefully we walked or watched our steps because a freight train would have probably been quieter.
About an hour into the hunt, we spotted a nice fat Blue Grouse who we could tell by his movements had spotted us long before we spotted him. The Blue Grouse do tend to be smarter and not stick around long once they figured out that they may have been spotted so I was hopeful this one would be curious enough to let Jessica get in range for a clean shot. Jessica tried quietly sneaking into shotgun range but the grouse didn’t want any part of that and flew away across the swamp that neither of us were willing to go through for a grouse. She was disappointed but did take it in stride as she had seen the same thing happen to her dad and brother many times over the years. After reassuring her that she did the right thing by trying to get in range for a clean shot we looked over the area to see if any more grouse were nearby before moving on.
As we continued on another grouse that neither of us saw flushed beside us and flew onto the branch of a tree about thirty-yards away in a thick patch of brush. I followed Jessica to look for it and let her lead the way. Once we got into the area where the grouse landed, we could not see it anywhere in the tree. The thick patch of trees combined with the thick forest canopy made picking out the silhouette very difficult and the grouse’s natural camouflage did not help the situation at all. We decided to be still and wait patiently because grouse will often start bobbing their heads around after a while to see if the danger is still there making them easy to spot. After several minutes of not seeing any movement the grouse took off from the tree above us not giving either of us time to shoot it and kept flying away so we decided to let him live another day rather than spooking him again.
I could sense that her frustration and disappointment were starting to build although Jessica understood that it was not her fault and she was doing her best not to let the situations get to her. I didn’t say it but I was really hoping that the next grouse would stay around long enough for her to shoot it because she had been trying as hard as she could to get the others. Little did I know that a few minutes later she would get a chance to prove herself.
We were nearly ready to head back for lunch when a Ruffed Grouse flushed beside us and flew onto a low tree branch about twenty yards away, which was towards the end of her shotgun’s effective range. I said a prayer asking God to help her with it so she wouldn’t get nervous and miss or even worse possibly wound the grouse without killing it. It seemed like it took forever for her to get on target, although it was only a few seconds, so I was nervous for her too. She shot and I saw the grouse fall of the branch with feathers trailing it so I knew it was a good effective shot. She stopped for a second after reloading to look for more grouse in the area because a lot of times there is more than one. After a few seconds checking the area for other out she went and got her grouse while remaining ready if another flushed. She was definitely proud and was talking about how delicious it was going to be. Wild game is some of the best lean and naturally organic meat that you can eat. We don’t do the organic food thing, but we try to eat healthier when we can and you can’t get more organic than the God created wild game in the woods where there are never preservatives added.
Now it was time to clean the harvest and Jessica was determined to give it her best attempt. She is not squeamish and no problems whatsoever diving into an elk chest cavity so that wasn’t the problem. She wanted to try cleaning the grouse like I usually try to do by standing on its wings with its breast facing away from my body and pulling on its legs. That method usually works very well and separates the breast and legs from the innards leaving just the wings to cut off the breast. It is a quick method that unfortunately for her requires more upper body strength so she wasn’t able to do it. I showed her the traditional way of cleaning them where you cut along the bottom of the breast with a knife instead. It is slower, but it does not require the body strength of the other method. We pull the skin off just to save all the work of plucking it by hand. After separating and washing the meat she removed any remaining shot pellets from it so we wouldn’t bite into one. Honestly, I would rather bite into a shot pellet over finding a hair in my fast food any day.
We headed home after that and had a nice fresh grouse dinner that night. Her mom showed her how to prepare the egg wash and how much Bake & Fry and flour to mix together for the coating. We roll the pieces in the flour mix, dip them in the egg wash, and roll them in the flour again before chicken frying them in hot oil. We add fresh garlic and seasoning salt to the oil as it heats up for extra flavor. Jessica really loved the day and seeing the process from the field to the table for the grouse she harvested. Now she can’t wait to find more dinner in the woods.
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