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?

yes

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 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....

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.

I prefer whacking them with a .22. I carry a .22 pistol in the truck or 4-wheeler just for that reason.

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". )

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.

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.

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'.

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.)

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.

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.

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!

good to hear

Soooo... did you ever master that shot Randy?

That's some funny shift there, 😀

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.

Love my single six for handling Ptarmigan. Oh, and porky pines too.

You and Randy are a pair to draw from make no mistake 😉

That would be a pair that beats three of a kind...

I once head shot a ptarmigan with a 10/22. Wouldn't have been as noteworthy if I hadn't been saddled with a pack containing two hindquarters and a side of ribs off a big bull caribou and the bird wasn't flying.

He stepped out of the brush about ten yards in front of me and stood up on a tussock. I couldn't get the stock to my shoulder due to the padded packstrap and whiffed the gimme shot as he stood there. Swung and touched off a second round as he flushed at which point he folded. Upon inspection he had a hole exactly through both eyes.

lol no I never mastered that shot. but will say I was quite surprised when I first went grouse hunting, found some birds and damn near had to kick them to get them to fly off the road. They seemed big as a basketball.


took a spell for awhile where I did hunt them with a ruger redhawk in .44 mag. with #9 shotshells.

that was more funner.

I've uh got over not shooting them on the ground or a tree with a .22, tis my fave now, head shot bird makes for good eating.


btw how was that skin? yummy?