Similar to pheasant but most people would consider them even better.

I was at a WDFW meeting last week when they talked about the reasons behing raising the limit. As I recall (I was only mildly interested in hearing the response and it was hard to hear) is the extra bird in the bag limit will likely do nothing to the overall population. Sounds like something we have heard in fishing.

But the big concern was harvesting them too early, like when the hen is still taking care of her young. There has been some discussion about moving the opening day back to allow mothers to get their young raised to a certain point, but the long standing tradition of grouse hunting on Sept. 1 won out.