Not a Purist
Full disclosure: Insider Online is not a “grouse purist.” In the Pacific Northwest, we have a long tradition of shooting grouse on the ground with rifles or pistols. It’s legal and it’s effective. It’s not terribly “sporting,” according to some of the bird dog folks I’ve encountered over the years, but nobody put them in charge of my hunting habits.
It’s okay for them to look down their noses at my game bag, though. I’ll be the one dining on fresh wild fowl, cooked in a cast iron skillet over a low flame, with potatoes and onions. Or breast the grouse and prepare it with pasta as Grouse Parmesan. Or maybe take the breast, wrap it in a slice of bacon, barbecue it and plate it next to corn on the cob.
Yes, us “ground sluicers” are an incorrigible lot, but we occasionally eat rather well. All it takes is a bit of skill with a rimfire pistol.