Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Rimfires .22 Set Up for Grouse

In Montana we sluice 'em on the ground. Mountain grouse that is.

Not considered sporting where I'm from

Yep. Just white meat on the hoof..

I've only hunted mountain chicken once. Used a .22, can't remember, either Vipers or Super-X 1330's at around 9500 feet. Probably Vipers.

Got one at about 80, or maybe 150 yards away with open sights. I didn't step it off. But it was far enough away that I wasn't sure if it was a bird or a rock. And it didn't move when I missed, low I guess, on the first shot. Second shot it fell over.
It was a chest shot, and no loss of meat.

Nowadays, I'd use a scope.

I use a .22 short from a Smith & Wesson handgun ....why? seems I always see tem while deer hunting and it's the least amount of noise one can make. I tried to throw my knife at them but am not good at it.....I never hit any of them.

You really can’t compare ruffed grouse hunting in Wisconsin to ruffed grouse in Montana. The birds are totally different.

Reminds me of the one that I shot as a kid one deer season. I'd been reading Jack O'Connor stuff about how a rifle bullet crosses the line of sight twice. Once real close and the next time out where you have the rifle sighted in for. Anyway this grouse was at the real close yardage I figured, so I went for a head shot with my .30-06. Jack was wrong about the yardage thing because that bird literally exploded in a shower of feathers and bird parts. Last time that I ever tried that.

You might not have even hit it and it was just the shockwave that blew it up.

Nice one. What rifle is that?

Thats actually a 17HMR in a Rugger 77/17 VBBZ...head shots on grouse and rabbit, doesn't ruin any meat.

In some places they're so unafraid that your German shorthair would eat all of them before you could shoot any. Except for the ones in the trees of course, and nothing says sporting like sluicing some foolhens off a limb with a shotgun.

Ruger 77/22 with a 2 3/4x Redfield with a Lee dot when I used a rifle. S&W M16-4 32H&R with 90gr SWCs loaded to about 1000fps the last few times I got to go. Shot a bunch of Ptarmigan with a Stevens M15 I chopped down to 16" and carried as a camp meat gun on fly in trips in AK

The time honored method of shooting grouse in Wisconsin is with some brand of single shot 12, 16, 20, or 410 shotgun off the back of an ATV or seat of a pick up truck. Drive around looking at the side of the road for birds and then stop and pot them on the ground.

It was said, tongue in cheek, that rifles were outlawed for grouse as the potential for injury from ricochets doing this was too high. Real reason is it took more skill to hit the bird with a rifle and educated the birds regarding vehicles stopping. Truthbe told, it seemed some dog "purists" made enough noise to pass a law against taking grouse with rifles as a start towards making grounds juicing illegal. At least that was the impression I got from talking to a couple of movers and shakers for getting the first law passed.

This tactic is pretty common in MN too, we just tried to make the shooter get off the vehicle and walk a couple steps first. That law didn't work and I think it was repealed. I won't ground sluice a grouse with a shotgun but don't begrudge most of those that do. Bagging grouse with a rifle around here is often a testament to woodsmanship and skill and is on a higher scale than stalking squirrels and rabbits if one is successful more often than not. Grouse are about the only birds one can shoot with any rifle or handgun- pheasants and Huns are 22 rimfire only, no 17 or 5mm Rimfires the last I checked.

When you can get a shorthair to climb a 100 foot spruce to push out a blue grouse, give me a call.

Ah gotcha


Wow was there much left of them after that .357? Probably shot and butchered it at one time

Where I grewup, shotguns shooting shot was the only legal means of take...

Thanks Windfall. I just assumed everyone hunted them with a .22 since they're so small. I just double checked the regs and you're right....no game bird...not even grouse.

Did you make the barrel shroud ? Or, who sells them ? Very nice back pack rifle or truck gun

some consider guns not sporting. LOL

whats a double auto shotgun?

Wish I was that handy.... The shroud was made by Longshot Mfg. Found them when I was looking for a hammer extender. They have a few other accessories available for the Badger besides the shrouds. https://longshotmanufacturing.com/t/chiappa-little-badger