# Not the bird I was after, but a rare sight in the mountains these days



## whitetailfreak (Mar 29, 2016)

Blends in nicely


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## turkeyhunter835 (Mar 29, 2016)

What is it???? I cant see the pic that well on my phone.


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## shane72 (Mar 29, 2016)

is it a grouse


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## whitetailfreak (Mar 29, 2016)

Yes, Grouse


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## turkeyhunter835 (Mar 29, 2016)

Oh.. Nice... I have prob seen 2 up on the chat nf in my life really is a rare bird up there.


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## sman (Mar 29, 2016)

Grouse. Use to chase em up there. Bout harder than a mountain turkey.


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## fullstrut (Mar 29, 2016)

Yes ! Sman is right. Them bad boys are tuff with a good dog . Much less seeing one without a dog. Cool Pic.


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## turkeykirk (Mar 29, 2016)

Hear them in NY in May while turkey hunting. Sure is neat to hear grouse drumming and turkeys gobbling in the morning.


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## sea trout (Mar 29, 2016)

Beautiful!!!!!!!


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## PappyHoel (Mar 29, 2016)

I've seen more and more the last few years.  Since they clear cut our property I've seen 3.


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## Miguel Cervantes (Mar 29, 2016)

Jumped one on Black Rock Mountain this past fall.


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## The Cohutta Strutter (Mar 30, 2016)

Had an odd encounter with one last season. I was standing on a ridge top a little over 4000 ft listening one morning. It breaks daylight and I look out the top of the ridge and see this bird flying my way. Apparently it has seen me because now it is flying directly towards me through the trees. It gets some 20 yards from me and banks to my right and lites on the ground around 10 yards from me. It was ol ruff. We give each other the stare down for a minute or so and then he just walks on off on the top of the ridge. That bugger was just curious this morning I reckon, lol.


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## 01Foreman400 (Mar 30, 2016)

That's pretty neat.


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## ripplerider (Mar 31, 2016)

Those rascals have excellent eyesight too. Got picked off by one on Chestatee wma when I twisted around very slowly to watch it. Was about 60-75 yds. from me, I was surprised it saw me. Its been at least 20 years since I killed one. I used to walk them up back when deer season closed in December. Killed the 9th one I flushed the first yr. I really tried for them with a pump 20 gauge. Killed the first one I ever jumped when I switched to a 16 ga. double barrel.


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## T-N-T (Mar 31, 2016)

I have flushed 2 on the Chat.wma.
I live in sout GA,so both times were really exciting for me.


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## Timber1 (Apr 1, 2016)

Have not seen a grouse up there in years. I did see a couple woodcock on W. Cowpen last spring.


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## Luke0927 (Apr 1, 2016)

What was the habbit around the area looks like brambles and some young growth shrub.  

I usually see few in Suchess trout fishing hoping the work on Coopers WMA helps a bunch my dogs sure would enjoy more grouse numbers.


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## goshenmountainman (Apr 2, 2016)

My son and I were turkey hunting on opening day, I heard one drumming, told him what it was and it was the first he ever heard. I told him how I use to hunt them when I was a kid, sneaking up between the drumming until I flushed them and shot them with my old 20 gauge. He saw his first one a couple years ago, it let him get to about 10 ft. of it and would walk off never letting him get any closer. He asked if we could sneak up on it and I said yes, it took about 30 minutes but we got within 20 yds. before he flushed down the branch, he thought that was way better than turkey hunting that particular morning.


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## whitetailfreak (May 10, 2016)

#2 for the year. This one was in the rd at about 3300 ft yesterday on Cohutta.


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## bearhunter39 (May 17, 2016)

I heard quite a few drumming this Turkey Season.


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## Killer Kyle (May 18, 2016)

I've been fortunate to see and hear quite a few this turkey season. I saw a bird and sometimes two every time I hunted one spot on Swallow Creek. I was wondering of their numbers were up or if it was just chance that I saw so many this spring. I even shared one story a while hack where one saved my hunt back in Feb I believe. I was scouting for turkey and hogs and had two big black hogs coming right at me in the creek bottom. I was crouched down on both knees as low as I could crouch because I had no cover to hide behind or in. Before the hogs saw me, a big beautiful male flushed right in front of me, maybe 12-15 yards ahead. It spooked the hogs and they diverted their route and I slipped away unseen. That bird saved me from being seen. I always love hearing them in the fall and sometimes sneak up on them just to get a look. Beautiful little birds!


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## Nicodemus (May 18, 2016)

I used to jump those in the Pisgah a loooong time ago. I`d like to shoot two before I`m gone from here. One to eat, one to put on the wall.

Even caught a double handful of biddies one time up there. Old hen was having a fit, dragging that wing and trying to get my attention.


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## hunter rich (May 18, 2016)

turkeykirk said:


> Hear them in NY in May while turkey hunting. Sure is neat to hear grouse drumming and turkeys gobbling in the morning.



Yup. They sound like an old tractor trying to fire-up on a cold morning.  Love to listen to them when I was growing up on the farm in NY.

Used to love hunting them too.


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## jbogg (May 18, 2016)

Cool pics!  I have never seen one, but have flushed two over the years while walking in during deer season.


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## jbogg (May 18, 2016)

Meant to say I have never heard one drum.


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## M Sharpe (May 18, 2016)

Whitetailfreak, here is a story Mr. Herb asked me to post about grouse back in the early years! It is an interesting read about one of the grouse hunting greats, Arthur "Fats" Truelove.


IN THE GOOD OLD DAYS
Georgia Grouse Hunting 
Herb McClure
      My acquaintance  of hunting Georgia's Ruffed Grouse began back in 1956,  which was the same year I was introduces to wild turkeys. The hunter whom introduces me to both was none other than--- Arthur (Fats) Truelove, of Hall County Georgia. Ask any veteran Georgia Grouse Hunter from years past and they probably knew or had heard of Fats Truelove and his grouse hunting.

      Arthur was born into a hunting family back in 1923. This family raised cotton in the summer and hunted quail during winter mounts. Arthur related to me that his family made more money from killing birds, and selling them, than they did from raising cotton. This family of shooters consisted of Arthur's dad and grand-pa. The bird hunts they did were done on foot from their homestead.

      Going to the Truelove's home when I was just sixteen year old and then listening to their bird hunting stories of their hunts was better than reading Sports Afield when Nash Buckingham’s bird hunts were in print. Gun handling and  shooting was instilled in Fats as a very young age. When Fats started hunting grouse in the late forties, his gun handling and shooting was already superb. Learning from shooting live birds caused Fats to develop a style of shooting known as snap-shooting. He was not a follow-thru type shooter like today’s gun range shooters are. In other words, Fats shot at a spot out in front of were a crossing grouse would be. Snap-shooting at a spot was a faster way to shoot if you can hit the bird.

      After World War II ended and the changing of times, the bird populations in Hall and Jackson Counties became diminished. The Trueloves then started hunting deer in the mountains which exposed Fats to where the ruffed grouse lived. Fats switched from bird hunting to grouse hunting in 1947. Fats had all the talents needed to become a grouse hunter. Arthur said one time grouse were a lots easier to shoot than birds because they flushed much slower, although they made much more noise.

      When I first started grouse hunting with Fats, he had a black and white pointer who's was named Kate. Kate only had one pup. This pup's name was Dot, she was born in 1959 and lived till 1970. Dot was Fat's favorite grouse dog. She worked to hand-signals and hunted wherever Fats wanted her to hunt.  She would hunt up high on a mountainside or down on creeks in the roughest thickets. One of several lessons learn while hunting with Fats was to be quiet. He did not allow any loud talking or noise because he once said: “Noise will scare a grouse and cause wild flushing”.

      I also learned that Fats liked very cold days to hunt grouse, much better than warm days. Sometimes it would be so cold that when the dogs ran across a creek and got water all over them, they would stop to shake the water off of their hair, a  rattling sound could be heard. This was the frozen ice clinging on their hair. Fat's theory for wanting to hunt in very cold times was that grouse would hold better to a dog's point when it was near zero or below. Dot would bark a yep---yep when a grouse flushed wild. This was helpful for Fats to know a grouse was in the air. He killed many a grouse sailing off mountainsides from the dog's barks when he would look-up.

      The heydays of Georgia's Grouse, in my lifetime, were in the early sixties. Why was this? The National Forest had been logged selective, causing log roads to be built. This opened the forest and caused the grouse populations to increase. Another happening, at this same time, was a Span-worm infestation which lasted three or four years. These span-worms completely defoliated the mountain hardwood trees in summer, which made the mountains look like it was wintertime with all the leaves gone. All grouse had to do to have their craws filled with these one inch worms was to pick them up. Turkeys and trout were both helped by these abundant span-worms. 
During the early sixties, Arthur and his dogs had days of flushing over thirty grouse; however, not all days or hunt places were like that. 

      One of Fats' favorite beats or hunts was down Board-town Creek and other creeks off Duncan Ridge Road in today’s Cooper's  Creek WMA. Back in those days when we hunted, there were no WMA. Other favorite hunting areas nearby was the Sea Creek drainages, and the creeks in the Jack's Gap area. Gillreath and Williams creeks in Gaddistown were very special; and, so was almost all of the Blue Ridge WMA's  creek drainages. 

      Fats taught me a lot of lessons about grouse. On one hunt when we were hunting on Board-town creek, Dot was hunting way up high on the mountainside. That's when she froze on point. Fats asked. “Herb do you want to climb up there to see what she has pointed?” Having hunted all day and being tired from a hard day's hunt, I declined. Arthur said, “You should keep your dog's points honest and you owe it to the dog”. Fats then started climbing up the mountainside to where Dot was on point. When Fats was nearing Dot, three grouse flushed, all flying away the same way. Bang, bang, bang went Fat's gun and three grouse went tumbling down. I just stood there in awe with my mouth-open. Watching how smoothly and easily his triple seemed to be. Over the twenty-years I hunted with Fats, I witnessed him making many doubles and triples. He was the best snap-shooter I ever saw. 

      A good friend of Fats and mine, named Denver Davis,  related to me a grouse hunt he and his brother William Davis had with Fats Truelove one time. Denver and Will were Game & Fish employment men, who were born and raised on Cooper's Creek. Denver was a long time attendant for the Rock Creek checking station on the Blue Ridge WMA. Those mountain boys had never hunted grouse with dogs. So, Denver asked Fats to take them grouse hunting. Fats agreed and they all three went to Knights Branch, up on Sea Creek. Denver said. “We were following Fats' dog Dot, when she pointed. Will and I only had single-barrel shotguns and didn't know what to expect. Fats hand motion for us to come on up so we could get in on the shooting.  Easing forward they caused three grouse to flush. Two flew to the right, and one flew to the left. Fat's shotgun went: Bang,bang....bang. The two grouse on the right turned flips first, and the grouse going to the left then did likewise. Denver told this:  “I never got my hammer cocked, much- less shoot, before Fats had killed all three of the grouse. I never knew anyone that could shoot like that”.

      Fats carried a shot a gun that no modern-day grouse shooter would consider. This gun was bought new and given to Arthur in the nineteen-thirties when Arthur was fourteen. An auto-loader by Remington, a model-11 in 12 gauge with a 28 inch modified barrel. These guns weighed in at over 8 pounds; but, because they could shoot 5 times when not plugged, this was what the Truelove hunters of yesteryear wanted. Now, Fats was a big man, 260 pounds; however, his weight was not all fat. There were muscles in his arms and legs. Fats was a block-mason by trade, when he worked. Climbing mountainsides toting an 8 pound gun was not a problem to him.

      During those abundant grouse years of 61, 62, and 63, Fats killed over 100 grouse each year.  Year in and year out, Fats averaged taking 70 to 80 grouse. You do not kill that many grouse just being a weekend grouse hunter. Fats Truelove did not work from September to June each year in order to have time for deer hunts, grouse hunts and turkey hunts.

      Fats taking me to hunt with him, instilled in me to become an outdoorsman, woodsman, deer hunter, grouse hunter and  most of all a turkey hunter. Just following his shadow  was a beneficial education.  I truly am thankful for having known him and the times we spent together in the outdoors. One of my greatest honors ever given to me, was when I was ask to present a Living Legend Award to Arthur (Fats)Truelove in 1998. This was at a jammed pack group of Fat's hunting friends, honoring him at  the Civic Center in Gainesville, GA., which seated near a thousand outdoorsmen  that night.

      Grouse hunting was a special part of my hunting life. Great dog companionship, very challenging wing shooting and just being outdoors in the mountains in wintertime, were all  God's endowments to me. How blessed my life has been.
Yes, the grouse is rare today, but was in abundance fifty years ago.


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## ripplerider (May 18, 2016)

Amazing post, probably the best I've ever read on here. I know all those creeks and drainages he mentions and have deer hunted and fished most of them. Knights Branch is one of my favorite places in the world along with the rest of the Sea creek system. Saw a momma grouse use the old broken-wing trick to lead me away from her brood while speck-fishing on Boardcamp. I moved to the mtns. in '73 when I was 13 yrs. old. Grouse were still pretty plentiful and it was nothing to jump 4 or 5 in a morning in the laurels along Youngcane creek. All developed now. I never had a dog and I never killed many. Heck half the time I'd be standing there with an old single shot .22 when they thundered away. I envy you for many reasons Mr. Herb.


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## The Cohutta Strutter (Jun 29, 2016)

What great stories Mr. Herb and Mark thanks for posting it. I agree, some of the best stuff I've read on here. My late grandfather was a grouse hunter and I would tag along with him when I was kid in the 70's. He was a Georgia Power man in Ellijay which helped him with access to miles of logging roads. He never got a dog until well after the grouse population thinned down and only then it was just a dog to keep him company while trout fishing mainly. His way of doing it was riding or walking them up. He had a round piece of metal welded to the floor board of his jeep and had that lined with carpet. This is where he put the muzzle of his gun.  He did Ok during the time I spent with him but certainly nothing near what Authur did.  That was some amazing shooting ! Interesting that you mentioned Arthur carried a Model 11. That's what granddad carried too. It's an early gun,I knew the date but can't recall it at the moment. I have the gun now and several years back I got it to gunsmith for a cleaning and inspection. It was filthy and the buttstock was loose on the tang. I picked the gun back up after cleaning and tightening the buttstock. He also said he replaced the recoil buffer that is located at the back of the receiver, helps keep the bolt from slamming the receiver so bad. That's all I recall he did to it. When he handed it back to me he looked me in the eye and said its ready for another 100 years ! Those were good days indeed, it was a lot easier to roam around then before all the access was taken away.


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## whitetailfreak (Jun 29, 2016)

Great stories fellas. Thanks for sharing.


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## Gaswamp (Jun 29, 2016)

enjoyed reading that Herb


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## nrh0011 (Jun 29, 2016)

I thoroughly enjoyed reading this post. I've never grouse hunted but it reminds me of quail and pheasant hunting with my dad. Fat is right, upland birds will hold tight in cover and on point when it's cold as the dickens outside. Some of mine and dad's best days in kansas and south dakota are when the weather is just about unbearable. There's just something about driving a thousand miles plus to see that first rooster or covey of quail erupt beneath your feet. I just hope the good lord allows me to do it a few more times, especially with my old man. God bless


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## nrh0011 (Jun 29, 2016)

I've got a model 11 I recently inherited from my great grandfather. tore it completely apart and cleaned it from top to bottom. Checked serial number with Remington, and the gun was made in 1948.


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## sman (Jun 29, 2016)

Nice story!

Gun is a beaut!


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## nrh0011 (Jun 29, 2016)

Thanks sman! I appreciate it


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## herb mcclure (Jun 30, 2016)

*Not the bird I was after*

Sincere thanks, to Whitetailfreak, for sharing his photos of Georgia's rare grouse in today's world, which brought back memories of my late friend and mentor Arthur (Fats) Truelove. Thanks to all who have made "hits" on this thread, which now number in the thousands now.

Those old Remington model 11's were very popular back several years ago.Since so many have posted of their remembrances of those model 11's;  I would like to share with all,  the fate of Arthur's model 11.   

Back in 1967, Arthur and I left his home before daylight to go turkey scouting. When arriving back at his home late in the afternoon we saw soldering smoke coming from the home place and it was burn-down, along with my car, which I had parked in the front yard. Two young school boys about ten years of age, walking home from school; set fire to the house and burned it down. Arthur lost his guns, his trophy's from all his hunting and everything he had, but the clothes he was wearing and old pick-up truck.     

For you turkey hunters, Arthur killed the very first legal Spring gobbler in Georgia, back when Spring gobbler hunts first began, this was on the B R wma. In his later years he quit  hunting mountain gobblers and consecrated on trying to kill the very first gobbler, when a new WMA would open.  Arthur actually did kill several very first gobblers on new wma's when they first open to turkey hunting. 

I can never say enough good things about Arthur Truelove's hunting and being thankful for having him to instill the woodsman-ship he had; about Georgia's Big Game Hunting.
herb mcclure


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## nrh0011 (Jul 1, 2016)

That was an unexpected fate to say the least. According to my grandfather, the gun I inherited spent many a day pheasant, grouse, and duck hunting in the mountains near Narrows, Virginia. He has often told me of his childhood where they spent many days wondering those mountains picking wild raspberries and hunting.


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## whitetailfreak (Jul 1, 2016)

Thanks for contributing to this thread Mr. Herb. It's always a pleasure to read of your and Mr. Truelove's adventures. When men like you speak or write, it's best for my generation to keep our ears and eyes open, and our mouths shut. Thanks again.


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## Timber1 (Aug 15, 2016)

If you have never seen one here's what they look like according to Lynn Bogue Hunt.


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