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up early, pack our ge&r and disapptearfor the day. Duringfi,shing season zue'd remoue the lacesfrom. our Chuck Taylor All Stars and tie rods to our bikeframes and ride to the ponds. During hunting se&so7l zae'd grab a dog, a shotgun and sonte shells and hit the coaerts. We'd return around sunset slap zuore out, and our p&rents seldotn, if eaer. zporried. 32 RGS/AWS I www.rufedgrousesociety.org
t's different these days for a lot of reasons,with electronicsbeing the main reason for the change. PewResearchreports that 9l percentof Americans own a cell phone, and according to Forbes magazine, 170 million people, which is over half of the United Statespopulation, spent $20.5billion on video gamesin 2013.lf you're like me, you're prone to say"kids thesedays" so hold on a second;74 percentof gamersare over 18 yearsof age,and that meansthey are adults. That our televisionshang from walls like paintings in an art gallery is ironic. Thanks to our new world order, ours has become an indoor society,and that means conservation,habitat managementand open-spaceinitiatives havenever beenmore important than they are today.Raisinga bumper crop of new bird hunters is Mission Critical. Due to the challengesinherent in our sport, recruiting
new grouse and woodcock hunters is especially difficult. Turn that frown upside down, for there are two groupsthat offer a solution: those who currently bird hunt but do so for difierent species,and those who havenever hunted before. Of course we can give up, and if we do then our coverts will become commercial zones like malls or office parks- My momma didnl raise no quitter, so every year I try to recruit three new grouse and woodcock hunters, and after I get even a glimmer of interest I move on to three different approaches.Sometimesit works and when a new hunter buys a license,a dog, and some spreaderloads,I am inspired. The ringing ofthe bellsafterwe cut the dogslooseneversoundedassweet.
METHOD ONE:THE TRADITIONAL APPROACH The way most of us learned to grouse hunt was by tagging alongwith a bird hunter. Most of the time the person was an oldeq experiencedfamily member but more recently they have become mentors such as family friends, athletic coachesor friends from church. A normal processstartswith shooting BB or rim-fire rifles onfixed targets and then moves on to a small bore shotgun and a moving target. Gun safety,gun mechanicsand cleaning are covered along the way, and hunter safetycoursesare studied. Dog work is significant,an they are fed, trained and conditioned, and the kennelsare cleaned-Gear and techniquesare reviewedin the field. Topo maps point the way to new coverts and they lead to the discussionof flora and fauna. On opening day, apprentice hunters walk behind seasonedveterans,oftentimes practicing safetyby carrying an unloaded firearm. Ultimately the day arrives when the new comer walks up on a point and fires on a flushedbird. After a string of misses,a bird falls from the sky and a new hunterjoins our fraternity. This proven approach is the best approach,yet Ive found it works better with pre-technology adults of any age or gender. Theyre usually ones who have experiencein the outdoors but just not in grouse and woodcock hunting. Culturally speaking, thesefolks are processoriented, and they prefer mastery over a subjectbefore moving on to the next step.Someyoung kids also sharethis view, and they are the ones I've found to be lessconnectedto technology.
METHOD TWO:NEWSCHOOL I havent had much successusing a traditional approachwith those immersed in the new age,so I was forced to build a better mousetrap.In studying the aptitudesand attitudesof the younger generation, I arrived at a different approach that is working. Improvise, adapt, overcome and survive. What I learned is that technologybreaksour world into small, customized packages.Their attention spansare short. They are entertainment oriented. They learn visually more than ever before. And so I broke the entire bird hunting processdown into bitesizedpackagesand reorderedthem basedon mygroup'sattention span. Sometimeswe shoot at a gun club while other times we head to the gravel pit. Holding their attention is easily accomplished by changing shooting games.And it's better to go more frequently and for shorter periods of time becausethat's what they can absorb. I did learn that technology has some advantages.I allow my son to play a few video games and his hand-eye coordination from the electronicbox resultedin a consistentskeetscorein the low 20s . . . with a 28 gauge.I took me yearsof hard work to get to that level. When it comesto dog work and hunting, I createda team that taps into their social nature. My daughter loves animals so she naturally gravitatedto the setters.Shequickly learnedabout the bells,beepersand handling commands,and becauseshe'susedto multi-tasking she preferred to work a brace of dogs to a single. My son likes the dogs, but het really into strategy. He likes to navigatecoverts,he rememberswherewe found birds during our previoushunts, and he likes finding new areas.So I let my son figure out how to work the covert and my daughter then takes over Calling AII Grouse Hunters, continuedonpage34
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to run the dogs. They go back and forth throughout the process, and in the end they are teaching each other. A fresh voice can work wonders, and I encourage them to bring along friends, my not-so-subtle approach towards new hunter recruitment.
METHOD THREE: INTRODUCING HUNTERS TOTHEGROUSE AND
wooDcocK wooDs
Many bird hunters havea bucket list that included grouseand woodcock. Hunting conditions for many other birds involves open space,lots ofwalking, all-agetypesofdogs and soft grasses. When you havean opportunity to introduce a pheasantor quail hunter to our sport, give it some thought. To bring one into one of your thickest upland coverts (which is where the birds are) meansthat hdll get beat up enough to not want to return. That'sa missedopportunity and not such a good thing. Sincethis group alreadyhunts, your job is pretty easy.Easethe potential new grouse hunter into the sport through proper positioning. Let him work the open edgesso he can see the dogs work and watch the birds flush. Make sure his technical game is appropriate(more open chokesand lightea spreaderloads). Pack gearthey may not havebut might needlike an extra pair of chaps, shooting glassesor gloves.Adjust your pace; much of the time this group walks though flat fields of fohnson and wire grass,and humping over deadfallsor crashing through Haws or briars gets tiring. They'll ultimately rise to the challengeif you dont treat their first exposureto grouse hunting like football two-a-days. You can do that after they routinely come back
THOUGHTS TOTAKEAWAY: Once the fire is lit, the remaining parts will fall into place.Use the off-seasonto fortifr your position and to expand your reach. For the dog lovers in your group encouragetraining seminars, handler'sclinics, testing programs,field trials or pet first aid. For shooters,hit the rangeon a regular basisbut move acrosslots of different disciplinesfor variety (like skeet,modern skeet,wobble trap and the like). Hunter's clays are particularly helpful as the studentimmediately recognizesthe flight pattern he'sseenin the woods. Over time the dog handlers will pick up shooting, and the shooterswill pick up dog handling. The new generationis a socialone so post appropriatepictureson any of the social media outlets, or work with your techies to assemblea self-published book that chroniclestheir progress. What is important is to engagenew hunters.It doesnt matter if the traditional method works better than the modified, social approach.In the end, everyonecoversthe samematerial that we did askids, the only differenceis how it is presented.Keepa winning gameplan, changea losing gameplan and wdll build our number of new hunters in no time. In this way we'reall be as happy as a grouseduring the off-season.f 34 RGS/AWS I www.rufedgrousesociety.org
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