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Campfire Outfitter
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OP
Campfire Outfitter
Joined: Dec 2002
Posts: 13,087 |
Alaska's regulation book is a little different in the layout compared to most but way I read it , there is no weapon restriction for grouse and Ptarmigan?? I am assuming that I can hunt them with a 22?
NRA Benefactor Member
Those who live by the sword get shot by those who don't.
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Joined: Dec 2005
Posts: 40,179
Campfire 'Bwana
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Campfire 'Bwana
Joined: Dec 2005
Posts: 40,179 |
Son of a liberal: " What did you do in the War On Terror, Daddy?"
Liberal father: " I fought the Americans, along with all the other liberals."
MOLON LABE
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Joined: Apr 2010
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Campfire Ranger
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Campfire Ranger
Joined: Apr 2010
Posts: 20,683 |
As a kid bird hunting was my fave, mostly quail hunting
After I moved to Alaska and started meeting fellow outdoorsmen I naturally inquired about upland bird hunting specifically
"Oh yeah, ptarmigan and grouse are around in fair numbers "
Just as polite conversation I'd ask what do you use figuring to hear 20, 410 or 12 ga. Maybe the odd 16 ga. Or 28 gauge mentioned
But oh no the reply I got was "either a shotgun or .22"
It honestly had never occurred to me to shoot a sitting bird at that point in my life
Knew of sluicing but thought that was for desperately poor folks that couldn't shoot worth a chit
So I'm thinking " damn these bastids are shooting birds outa the air with a .22, I'll starve trying to do that !"
I'm pretty certain when we sing our anthem and mention the land of the free, the original intent didn't mean cell phones, food stamps and birth control.
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Joined: Nov 2010
Posts: 2,321
Campfire Regular
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Campfire Regular
Joined: Nov 2010
Posts: 2,321 |
I always have a Savage 24 in 22lr-20ga in my truck, 4 wheeler and snowmobile....I'll shoot a grouse when I see them season is 9/15 - 12/31....prefer eating a head shot grouse compared to picking shot and feathers out of a taste breast....
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Campfire Regular
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Campfire Regular
Joined: Jun 2006
Posts: 2,342 |
I had the idea that it was "unsportmanslike" to kill a gamebird that was not on the wing. It took a comment by a 10 year grandson, whose interest was solely in eating whatever we could kill, to point out that my ideal as possibly foolish. After all, we didn't wait for a deer to run, or fly, before shooting.
In spite of eating around pellets and pellet holes for several decades, I have never learned to prefer it to neatly headshot bird.
Last edited by fishdog52; 03/25/17.
Imagine your grave on a windy winter night. You've been dead for 70 years.
It's been 50 since a visitor last paused at your tombstone.....
Now explain why you're in a pissy mood today.
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Joined: Aug 2005
Posts: 15,676
Campfire Ranger
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Campfire Ranger
Joined: Aug 2005
Posts: 15,676 |
I prefer whacking them with a .22. I carry a .22 pistol in the truck or 4-wheeler just for that reason.
![[Linked Image from i.pinimg.com]](https://i.pinimg.com/originals/98/b6/d8/98b6d863a5f722b551cd8e1440bd2bd4.jpg) Z
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Joined: Aug 2003
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Campfire Ranger
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Campfire Ranger
Joined: Aug 2003
Posts: 17,491 |
There are parts of the state where people will look at you crazy crazy for 'wasting' a shotgun shell to kill a ptarmigan. (But don't body-shoot one with your 22 either, you "rookie".  )
Sometimes, the air you 'let in'matters less than the air you 'let out'.
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Campfire Oracle
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Campfire Oracle
Joined: Dec 2003
Posts: 86,135 |
Old story is how dumb spruce chickens are...
One can sight in a .22 while the bird awaits the hit.
If you take the time it takes, it takes less time.
--Pat Parelli
American by birth; Alaskan by choice.
--ironbender
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Joined: Aug 2003
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Campfire Ranger
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Campfire Ranger
Joined: Aug 2003
Posts: 17,491 |
Old story is how dumb spruce chickens are...
One can sight in a .22 while the bird awaits the hit. It works less well with a 45-70...... perhaps I just need to test the theory more. 
Sometimes, the air you 'let in'matters less than the air you 'let out'.
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Joined: Feb 2001
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Campfire Kahuna
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Campfire Kahuna
Joined: Feb 2001
Posts: 50,620 |
Was caribou hunting with some old family friends from Outside many years ago. I carried a monster pack they could hardly move (little guys) and back at the trailhead we stumbled into a big flock of Ptarmigan.
Attempting to shoot the head off one with a 308Norma I managed to hit the one right behind him at the very base of the neck. The shot missed the body cleanly but removed the head leaving a tiny bit of skin fore and aft holding the head on. The crop was completely gone!
So I picked the bird up and showed them exactly where to shoot birds to make them easier to clean. They still talk about my incredible shooting... completely forgetting the running wolf I missed earlier in the trip.
Mark Begich, Joaquin Jackson, and Heller resistance... Three huge reasons to worry about the NRA.
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Joined: Dec 2003
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Campfire Oracle
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Campfire Oracle
Joined: Dec 2003
Posts: 86,135 |
Old story is how dumb spruce chickens are...
One can sight in a .22 while the bird awaits the hit. It works less well with a 45-70...... perhaps I just need to test the theory more. Trying to take down the tree?
If you take the time it takes, it takes less time.
--Pat Parelli
American by birth; Alaskan by choice.
--ironbender
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Joined: Aug 2003
Posts: 17,491
Campfire Ranger
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Campfire Ranger
Joined: Aug 2003
Posts: 17,491 |
Old story is how dumb spruce chickens are...
One can sight in a .22 while the bird awaits the hit. It works less well with a 45-70...... perhaps I just need to test the theory more. Trying to take down the tree? I guess I should be more careful. Trees out there on the western 'plains' are nearly as scarce as those black 'ptarmigan'.
Sometimes, the air you 'let in'matters less than the air you 'let out'.
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Joined: Aug 2003
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Campfire Ranger
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Campfire Ranger
Joined: Aug 2003
Posts: 17,491 |
Attempting to shoot the head off one with a 308Norma I managed to hit the one right behind him at the very base of the neck. The shot missed the body cleanly but removed the head leaving a tiny bit of skin fore and aft holding the head on. The crop was completely gone!
I can add that running a 358 Norma SP just a shade lower can quite neatly filet the breast meat out of such a bird.  But a heavy bud-filled crop has resulted in more than one bird flying off sans crop when using a 22. (Those buds can really absorb the impact.)
Sometimes, the air you 'let in'matters less than the air you 'let out'.
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Campfire Regular
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Campfire Regular
Joined: Oct 2010
Posts: 2,575 |
Attempting to shoot the head off one with a 308Norma I managed to hit the one right behind him at the very base of the neck. The shot missed the body cleanly but removed the head leaving a tiny bit of skin fore and aft holding the head on. The crop was completely gone!
I harvested many grouse with a Nylon 66 as a kid in Unalakleet. I'd like to say they were all head shots but not always. I was high school age and working in Nome one summer/fall. When ptarmigan season opened I took a guy from New York City out hunting on the tundra with me. First time he'd ever been out hunting. I was using a 20 gauge double and a flock of about 12-15 ptarmigan crossed in front of us at about 30 yards. I put a lead on the bird in front and cleanly dropped the two birds at the back when I shot. I didn't tell him where I was holding but might have mentioned that in Alaska we never shoot the lead bird, it needs to guide the others through the tough winter to come.
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Campfire Ranger
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Campfire Ranger
Joined: Jan 2001
Posts: 21,317 |
I've chest shot a few ptarmigan with my 480 using a mild load, 310 gr @ 700 fps. The first one was not knowing how much lower the mild loads hit than full patch loads, next one was just an F-up. On the upside caliber size entrance and quarter sized exit so not much lost meat.
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Campfire Oracle
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Campfire Oracle
Joined: Dec 2003
Posts: 86,135 |
Pard has provided more than a couple camp meals via his chicken gun - .410 revolver.
I'm tempted to steal the one he had engraved with ol' Foghorn!
If you take the time it takes, it takes less time.
--Pat Parelli
American by birth; Alaskan by choice.
--ironbender
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Joined: Dec 2002
Posts: 13,087
Campfire Outfitter
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OP
Campfire Outfitter
Joined: Dec 2002
Posts: 13,087 |
NRA Benefactor Member
Those who live by the sword get shot by those who don't.
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Joined: Feb 2002
Posts: 4,252
Campfire Tracker
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Campfire Tracker
Joined: Feb 2002
Posts: 4,252 |
As a kid bird hunting was my fave, mostly quail hunting
After I moved to Alaska and started meeting fellow outdoorsmen I naturally inquired about upland bird hunting specifically
"Oh yeah, ptarmigan and grouse are around in fair numbers "
Just as polite conversation I'd ask what do you use figuring to hear 20, 410 or 12 ga. Maybe the odd 16 ga. Or 28 gauge mentioned
But oh no the reply I got was "either a shotgun or .22"
It honestly had never occurred to me to shoot a sitting bird at that point in my life
Knew of sluicing but thought that was for desperately poor folks that couldn't shoot worth a chit
So I'm thinking " damn these bastids are shooting birds outa the air with a .22, I'll starve trying to do that !" Soooo... did you ever master that shot Randy? That's some funny shift there, 😀
"You've been here longer than the State of Alaska is old!"
*** my Grandaughters
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Joined: Jun 2001
Posts: 32,030
Campfire 'Bwana
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Campfire 'Bwana
Joined: Jun 2001
Posts: 32,030 |
Screw that - head shooting a sitting bird with a shotgun is the way to go.... KISS.  If it is good enough for turkey hunters, it's damned well good enough for grouse! Once "head shot" a ptarmigan at about 15 feet with the scope-sighted '06 while sheep hunting. Forgot the scope is a mite higher than the bore. Wound up with the head and the back skin all the way back to a single leg, plus a smear on the rocks.
Last edited by las; 03/27/17.
The only true cost of having a dog is its death.
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Joined: Feb 2004
Posts: 17,731
Campfire Ranger
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Campfire Ranger
Joined: Feb 2004
Posts: 17,731 |
Love my single six for handling Ptarmigan. Oh, and porky pines too.
NRA LIFE MEMBER
GOD BLESS OUR TROOPS
ESPECIALLY THE SNIPERS!
"Suppose you were an idiot And suppose you were a member of Congress... But I repeat myself."
-Mark Twain
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