Where I go hunting grouse just fly up in a tree and sit there. I've been thinking about going from a 410 to a 22 rifle. I don't think I can do consistent head shots. Does anybody use a 22 and body shots? Would shorts or longs reduce the meat destruction. I think I heard a guy say somewhere that he aimed where the wing met the body.

Anybody ot suggestions for shot placement or ammo?
Thanks

Just go shoot a shotgun at them and you realize what a huge waste of money that is over your .22 rimfire. I have killed many thousand birds here in Alaska ruffs, sagehens and pharmingen with a rimfire, just can't stand the thought of using a shotgun on them.

I use 22 Magnum solids or 22wrf solids in my S&W kit gun for potting the occasional grouse when hunting big game or around camp.

Unless they are very close I body shoot them. It works fine.

You can "eat right up to the hole".

Don't know your where abouts, but do explore the legal aspects of using a rifle on birds. I know we had a period here in Oregon when it was not allowed, and I' not sure of the current regulation.

With a close range zero on ones unit, it seems like the ideal thing for head shots.

Kla: I have killed Grouse of many types over the years.
I have actually killed them with hand thrown stones and sticks!
I have also killed them with pellet guns, arrows, sling shots, shotguns, Rifles and pistols!
I can pretty consistently strike the Grouse with my various 22 Rifles in the base of the neck - which is my preferred aiming point.
You can do it as well.
I like eating Grouse but I am often up in Grouse country during the very long archery Elk Hunting season so being quiet is important!
Speaking of being quiet I was Elk Hunting a huge basin with "an acquaintance" of mine near the end of the Rifle season here in SW Montana. We had tracked a herd of Elk into one particular drainage and we had split up - each taking a "side".
I hear four shots ring out from my "acquaintances" side of the valley. My first thought was wow he got an Elk - now the work begins!
I divert and head for him. About 10 minutes later I come upon him and he is packing 4 (four!) Spruce Grouse. The four shots from his 300 Winchester Magnum had put an end to any chance of jumping those Elk that day!
He had killed four Grouse in a tree from a flock of ten or so that were in that tree.
Needless to say I won't be showing that "acquaintance" any more "Elky" basins!
I use hollow-points in my 22's and aim for the base of the neck on Grouse.
Hold into the wind
VarmintGuy

..you guys are lucky you have the "stupid" variety of grouse...in NE they won't let you shoot them...only the ruffled grouse and when they take off they are GONE.

For .22 ammo try the CCI Small Game Bullet. It is a solid with a flatter tip to impart more shock to the target.

Bob

I dont remember the last time I shot a grouse with a shotgun...always with a .22
I prefer my heavy ruger 77/22 and head shots...but I hear 'ya

I had an uncle in Pennsylvania who was a grouse hunter...used a light 20 ga double...

Last time I got into Ruffed grouse intentionally I had a Colt Diamomdback .22 and shot four of them in the head..

Told my uncle about it and I thought he was going to have to be sedated...

Ingwe

Ingwe: On RARE occassions I love to give the "holier than thou crowd" the gears!
I and a fly fishing buddy have a third friend who is the Orvis to the max type who lives by "catch and release" credos!
He even has a "I catch and release wild trout" bumber sticker on his truck.
Even with the local game wardens and fish biologists CONSTANTLY begging us SW Montana anglers to catch and KEEP trout (to improve the fishery they say!) he won't ever do so.
SO - I and my friend will make it a point once a year to mention that he or I or the both of us went out and "caught our limits" (which means we killt a limit of trouts!) just to watch our friend go apoplectic!
Its worth the price of admission I tell ya!
In fact I next to never kill a trout and I go out of my way to handle them with the utmost care and ease.
He-he - its so much fun to yank a chain now and then!
Hold into the wind
VarmintGuy

I loooooove the trout guys....!!

You might as well run puppies and kittens through a cuisanart as catch a trout on anything but a dry fly!

I do all kinds of fishing...including dry fly...

Kinda like I do all kinds of hunting/shooting....

I Love the Blue/wood and nostalgia of hunting with my 7x57..

But I have actually had deer/lopes die in front of a stainless/synthetic rifle........


Just different kinds of " Celebrating Diversity"....

Ingwe

A 270 with 110gr TSX doing 3300 fps works also. Takes the head clean off...

The majority of grouse I've shot in the last 15-20 years have been with either a .22 pistol ,currently a S&W 422 , or more typically an old Benjamin .177 pump pistol, head shots.
It's nice and quiet , no , you can't have it!
I did get a couple this year with the bow and small game heads though.
Being quiet and not spoiling "bigger" plans is key.

...your headless grouse just reminded me the last ruff I took was with a .350 Rem. Mag..... Had time to change to the small game load with a 180 grain Hornady silhouette at about 1500 fps...just punches a nice hole...

Funny this thread should mention "catch and release". F&G here is now complaining about all the stunted trout in the lakes caused by...trauma from C&R....

I practice C&E (catch and eat)....Bob

if it's ruffed grouse you're talking about....Shoot them anywhere even close to a vital and you'll get them. be ready to shoot again quickly though, sometimes they need another if you missed the vitals, they'll just run around and need another shot.

I shoot them up here with a 22 as long as they are on the ground. I don't like launching projectiles up in the air, not knowing where they'll fall.
I use a 410 for most of my grouse hunting as they fly faster than a speeding bullet...

.223 works too.

Head and neck shots. Have shot a bunch with .44s and .45s as that is what is usually on my hip.

Wow, some expensive grouse here!

My forest grouse hunting is almost always with a rimfire - and the bulk of that with a pistol. Doesn't matter much which ammo....just use what's most accurate. Aim for the head if it's convenient, but don't sweat it if it's not. Just about everywhere I might shoot a grouse, there will be some kind of backstop in case I miss (which is rare, since the shots are usually easy ones).

A dot sight helps when shooting under thick forest in bad light.

Generally I shoot the head with a scoped rifle and go for the neck with a pistol. I prefer the CCI SGB. Have used .38 Special -- well the fired cartridge used as a tip on a cedar arrow, .22, .357, .41 and 10mm to harvest, as well as bouncing some leadballs off of some with a slingshot without killing them.

The first game my oldest son saw killed was a big blue grouse when he was seven. I was using my grandfather's old Savage single shot .22 with iron sights. Drilled it in the head at about 35 yards while it was walking. My son was AMAZED. I never told him that I was aiming for the body and the shot was pure luck or that I was significantly more amazed than he was.

The L.L. Bean Wild Game Cookbook has the best grouse recipe I've ever found. Grouse breast (any bird actually) on giblet toast. Delicious. I mean DELICIOUS. Pair it with some wild rice and a nice Pinot Grigiot and you've got a heck of a meal.

I'm just speechless . . .

Boors! Swine! Unwashed heathens!

(sputter)*gasp - wretch

If you're desperate for meat at camp, just throw in another can of Spam or Alpo. But I'd recommend instead learning the skill of wingshooting.

There, that's better.

Good luck wingshooting a blue grouse that's perched 60 feet up a spruce in May hooting through the valley in search of love.

If you let them fly...they are a LOT harder to hit!


I guess ground sluicing with a shotgun is out too?......

Ingwe

People shoot grouse with shotguns??? That just seems wrong.:)

If I can't get a head shot or its a bit far, I just aim for where the wing attaches to the body and that usually brings'em outta the tree.

My boys used to carry their .22's when we went elk hunting when we lived in Colorado. They'd shoot any blue grouse we found, and I'd shoot any elk we found with my .270.
Here in AZ the grouse are much more scarce, and the law don't let you shoot them with a .22, only shotgun. I recently got a H&R 20-ga that works just fine. Boys are grown up now, and still in CO, still hunting grouse and other stuff.
Those grouse are mighty fine eating.

Shooting mountain grouse with shotgun only...WTF?

Leave it up to Fisn-n-Game...

Ingwe

May??

I use "sub-sonics" - perfect for that!

Yep, May. The grouse pictured above with no head was shot whilst bear hunting in May.

Then that would make you a .....poacher. Sorry if I still believe in ETHICS.

FC2007

Better check your Alaska F&G regs and make fewer assumptions.

That would make you a [bleep] idiot, but no surprise there. Another [bleep] bird that don't know if he should wind his ass or scratch his watch.

Grouse in Unit 1 Alaska is open from August 1 till May 15.

Of course don't let FACTS get in your way. You should have been caught in a reservoir tip.

Looks like oldman1942 did produce one kid, cuzz FC2007 is too stupid to belong to anyone else.

Who in heck told you that lie? The only time shooting them with a shotgun makes any sense at all, is when you can ground sluice no chance of wasting money and just one bird at a time, I used to have a brother-in law (died this last year) that would just make you proud, his ground sluicing would always yield more than 10 birds at a time. I remember he once sluiced like 16 geese with one shot. A true Alaskan, it's how I will always remember him.

I enjoy the hunt. When the gun comes up the object is a dead bird, end of story it is no longer sport. On the ground or in a tree is fine with me even preferrable over a wingshot. I can hit them on the wing, I believe many many birds thought to be missed are hit only later to become fox food, this is especially true with flock birds such as ptarmys
pak

It wasn't a rimfire, but I did take a grouse with a cast bullet from my 30-30 Marlin. It was on the forest floor, running and stopping about 35 yards away. A Lyman 31141 over 10 grains of Unique took it. I had a 170 grain jacketed in the chamber. I had to lever out 3 rounds to clear the rifle, then single load the cast bullet load.

Stringiest grouse I ever had.

I have to confess, to the consternation of "traditional" grouse hunters, that a lifetime diet of various kinds of venison long ago rendered a grouse as a symbol of nothing more than white meat...and a welcome change.
Hence, when I see one, I'm just like Fat Bastid ( which I have been called... )
And have been known to pursue them with whatever weapon is in my hand, screaming " Get in Mah Belly!!!..."


Ingwe

My favorite (ruffed) grouse gun is a Smith & Wesson M-17 with a red dot scope.

I used to behead them with a .257 Roberts occasionally as well.....but the S & W is far and away the weapon of choice now.