Westsylvanian: 10/15/2011

Location: Somerset/Cambria County border

Temp: mid - 50's

Wind: 25 MPH sustained, 50 MPH gusts

Weather: Beautiful day other than the wind, partly cloudy. No rain.

Opening day of grouse season in Pennsylvania. I was pretty excited to be home to be able to hunt where there is actually a population of the bird. Beaver County seems to have grouse few and far between, but we have a couple of hot spots in Somerset/Cambria county.

I met up with Sam and his Dad just after daybreak, around 7:45 AM. We went to the first good spot. Rocko was running to my right and I heard his bell stop at about 30 yards. I went to look over his direction and a grouse flushed from the ground from underneath a pine tree. I could only watch as he flew "up" the pine tree and over the treeline because Sam as in that general direction and I didn't want to spray him with 6 shot BBs!

That happened around 8:30 AM.

Around 9:30 Rocko must have ran over another grouse, that scared him as it flushed, and he decided to chase after it and bark. Not really what I have in mind for him but on a ridiculously windy day I don't blame him. This happened at about 70 yards and I was a little mad that he was that far out in front. The problem was that my E-Collar was not working properly and hasn't been for about 2 weeks. The battery on his end shuts off sporadically.

DO NOT BUY SPORTDOG brand collars!! A week later I purchased a Dogtra 2500 Train and Beep collar with a 1 mile buz range and 400 yard audible beeper range. So far so good with the new collar.

Anyway, we decided to hit another two spots that usually hold grouse but we were unsuccessful. I wanted to hit up my one hotspot but there were 3 cars parked near the entrance to the trail...probably hunting deer as I think it was the first day of doe muzzleloader and archery was also in.

Took a break, went to Sheetz for some hot dogs (still 2 for $1).

Early afternoon Sam and I decided to take a ride on the mountain off Crum road to check out some of the new timber cuts. Not only did they cut timber within the past 5 years here, but they also fenced in the area to study how the woods grow without the interacation with deer grazing. Well, I can tell you it's so thick you can't walk through it! No luck here, plus the wind was unreal. Probably 40MPH, constant.

So finally to end the day we checked out my spot where there were 3 vehicles prior. It's an old logging camp or farmstead. We thought we weren't going to have any luck and were about to call it a day when we got a flush. Sam followed the bird with his 20 guage and it led right to bright orange (me). He yelled my name and I saw the bird from the corner of my eye, raised my 12 guage but did not have time for a shot as it entered some thicker saplings. We went into the saplings but to no avail. Rocko couldn't pick up a scent as it was still very windy.

So 3 flushes, no shots. I've had better days but I've also had a lot worse days. Can't wait to get out to this area again but it might now happen until Thanksgiving time.

Pictures from opening day (From Sam's Droid [oldwaysnewways]):