The one area where gauge does make a difference is the payload of shot put into the air, and the quality of the pattern.
Ruffed grouse aren’t by any means hard to kill. You don’t need a lot of shot, the pellets don’t need to be large, and they don’t need to fly unduly fast. Anything from a ¾-ounce 28 gauge to an ounce from a 20, 16, or 12 will do the trick nicely if you put it in the right place.
In my own case, I especially like Federal’s Extra-Lite trap load, which shoots 11/8 ounce at 1,100 fps. I get it with #7½ shot, and here’s why: Shooting in the brush, you have to expect some of your shot to be absorbed by obstacles, or to shoot through leaves and pine needles. This size will do it, and the extra eighth of an ounce adds a few more pellets to the cause.
This isn’t to say that other loads don’t also work. An ounce of #8s or 9s from a 16 or 20 gauge has killed many a grouse, and as you move to smaller gauges, ballistic limitations dictate that you also use smaller shot.
If I were going grouse hunting with a 28 gauge, I would probably use #9s, but then I would modify a lot of other things at the same time. The gun would be choked at least modified to increase the pattern density with the reduced number of pellets. Frankly, I don’t consider myself a good enough shot to use a 28 gauge on ruffed grouse under normal conditions. As for the Model 42 and its half-ounce of shot, I’ll leave that to the experts.
More important than charge weight or shot size, really, is the confidence a hunter has in his gun and load. If you have practiced with your grouse gun and know it will practically swing itself when the time comes, and that whatever you have your eye on will come down with a thump, then you will be relaxed and let the gun do its work.
Elsewhere in this issue, in an article about hunting grouse in Ontario, I describe several shots we made under a variety of conditions, and in every single case where we hit the bird and brought it down, the swing of the gun was a critical factor.
For many years, I have read breathless descriptions of the “ideal” grouse gun, usually a 20 or 28 gauge, always with 26-inch barrels, and weighing five pounds or a little more. I have shot such guns, and 25 years ago I even had one made in Spain. I was bitterly disappointed to find that, while it carried as comfortably as a walking stick, in my hands it was just about as effective.
It certainly came up quickly, but it stopped just as quickly when I didn’t want it to. A visible obstacle out in front, such as a tree, will cause you to involuntarily slow or stop your swing unless the gun has enough momentum to carry on. This is where the extra couple of inches of barrel, that extra half pound of weight, will pay dividends.
It may mean the difference between dining on roast grouse, that most succulent of game birds, or eating salmon out of a can.
Wieland’s understanding of grouse guns may have evolved, but the birds themselves remain a riddle. He still takes a case of canned salmon on every trip.
Photography by Terry Wieland
