[tjwilhelm]

I've not done this myself, nor have I seen it done. One of my cohorts at work, however, swears that this is how he field dresses a grouse.

He said the bird MUST be warm -- this must be done ASAP after the kill.

He lays the bird down on the ground...puts one foot on each wing, near the body...grabs 1 leg in each hand, and then slowly, evenly, and gently pulls straight up.

He claims that the head and wings break off, that the skin and all the feathers are stripped off the bird, like removing a shirt, AND that all the entrails/offal exit the bird via the neck.

He said the whole process only takes a minute or two, and the bird is ready for the fire.

Has anyone ever heard of this technioque before? Does it really work? Does it work with other fowl, like pheasant?

Whaddaya think?

[Ron Fontaine]

Yes, this does work. Wildlife always skins out better when the kill is fresh.

Here is a somewhat related technique for dressing birds

[heysmithy]

Nice video Ron! That inspired me to try to find the exact technique that TJ described. I present to you 2 different ways to gut a grouse! Very useful info here.

Technique 1 is exactly as TJ described:


And technique 2 is the same thing in reverse (rather than holding down the wings and pulling the feet, hold down the feet and pull the wings). I also noticed that the first thing he did when he kills this grouse is pop the head off.

[stairman]

Ive never cleaned a grouse but I skin out turkeys and chickens and dont bother pluckin nuthin. Ive heard of people skinning out deer by making all the normal surface cuts and putting a golf ball under the skin behind the neck, then loop a rope around the ball, and hide, and pulling the hide loose with a 4-wheeler. My luck the deer would plop down in the dirt so Ill do mine the ole fashioned way. Cool meathod for grouse though.

[Dick]

I thought that was the only way to breast a grouse...but I take both feet in one hand.

When I was a kid I shot a grouse with a pellet gun. Up to that point I had never shot one...but I had killed, plucked, and gutted chickens. So I went to work with what I knew. It was a lot of work plucking and gutting that bird!

[Pat/Rick]

I generally just skin birds and bone them out. Alot of folks breast them like that and it works well, but some folks leave the rest of it lay.I prefer to get all of the meat I can. I do not want to upset the animal spirits.

[garret]

i used to shoot a lot of pheasant, grouse and ptarmigan in the uk and all i ever took was the breast and legs, everything else was pointless.

but in a survival situation i would be taking everything bar the ofal and feathers and boiling the bugger for bird soup/stew

[Pat/Rick]

Remember however that the feathers could be used for insulation during cold weather. Also check their craw, contents could lead to a food source.