CO Grouse hunting

I'll be in northern Colorado in two weeks, and will most likely have Sunday-Thursday available to fish, hike, camp, and maybe try seeing if I can find an elk on my own before jumping in to hunting them. I'm not tied down to any area, and I plan on skipping around, mostly fishing.

Then I did some looking around and noticed grouse season will be open. So I might try to add a grouse hunt in there before a Ft. Collins wedding on Friday.

Question is- would it be worth it to take a bow or shotgun 16 hours across country, to try finding a bird I've never hunted? How do you find them, and how plentiful are they? I don't know anything about them other than what they look like, what the season is, and what I need to hunt them. Past that, I'm a clueless Midwesterner.

They look fun and tasty, though, and that's what counts. I appreciate any advice you can give me- might be able to repay you with a beer while I'm out there.

Unless you're bringing a dog and want to hunt "worked" birds (pointed or flushed) just carry an extra arrow with a judo or blunt point. Youll probably kill a couple of blues with your bow while hunting. Keep your eyes peeled around sharpe changes in elevation (ridges, etc) and you might see them running around. They can be Wiley with a dog on the ground. With humans they appear to be kinda dumb...aka pine chickens.

Good luck.

I would guess 98% of all forest grouse in co and wy are killed with a bow or .22 while big game hunting.

I'm not planning on hunting at all this trip, other than grouse. This is more of a scouting trip for next year, to prove to myself I can handle elevation and terrain, and find an elk.

So the question is- do I bring a weapon, and which one?

If you want to shoot on the wing, bring a shotgun. If you are OK w shooting them on the ground or a tree limb, a 22 or bow will work. You'll need a CO small game license.

If I was going to casually "hunt" grouse while on a fishing and hiking trip I'd bring a .22 pistol or revolver. Bringing the shotgun with the idea of spending the day upland hunting for grouse will most likely underwhelm you. I've burned a lot of shoe leather hiking my shotgun around looking for grouse. Generally speaking Colorado grouse are in widely distributed pockets. If you find a pocket then you will do well but finding them all day is not a normal occurrence. In a week of elk hunting last year I found one pocket one day and did well bringing home supper. Would have done better with a .22 or a flu flu arrow.

Talk to the people in the CPW office. I hunted grouse last weekend near Hayden, CO and the Steamboat Springs office had an information sheet on local grouse hunting that included locations and the type of cover in which to find them. They might have a similar sheet for the Fort Collins area.