Where I deer hunt, you see a lot more ruffed grouse (otherwise known as partridge) than deer – in any given day – during your deer hunt. People still shoot them with their centerfire rifle – aiming at the head to preserve the meat but, needless to say, it makes a lot of noise and waste a perfectly good, expensive cartridge. I think it is also, theoretically, against the hunting rules.
Obviously, an option for hunting both partridge and deer in the same outing could include some sort of a combination rifle, but the bad news there is you are limited to basically one shot from each of your shotgun and rifle barrels. This is not a great solution where I hunt – as the deer are normally flying through the bush – so good luck with a single shot of centerfire ammo from a combo gun, with compromised sights.
Time comes into this a bit, inasmuch as you are way more likely to see partridge during the midday and deer in the morning and evening. This means that, if you are carrying two guns – such as a light 22 and a deer rifle – you can have your centerfire gun ready mornings and evenings, with your 22 in a scabbard or on a sling – and reverse the arrangement midday; so that your main gun is your 22 (maybe a 22 Magnum …).
In a tight bush, any kind of an extra gun tends to get hung-up on the brush. I have thought of carrying a scoped CO2 pistol in a holster – so that I could take the occasional partridge while always carrying my centerfire rifle at-the-ready. I imagine that might be a good solution – but I have never tested this out.
One of those ultra-short 410 single shot shotguns might also be a workable solution – and I imagine you could probably rig-up some sort of holster-type arrangement for those.
The final, possible answer might be to have some sort of centerfire rifle which allows you to push a subsonic round (say, with a lead bullet and Trail Boss powder) into the top of the box magazine (ejecting the full power cartridge first); thereby allowing you to shoot the partridge with a light load without damaging the partridge meat and/ or scaring every deer out of the county. This is probably still against the rules, but not by much. I doubt a game warden would care, either way.
In places where you can use a 223 on deer, the light cartridge you sub-in could even be a 22LR - in one of those .223-to-22 LR case adapters from MCA Sp*rts. However, I mostly hunt in Quebec so that’s not an option
Does anybody have any thoughts for the best solution for this shooting scenario?
Obviously, an option for hunting both partridge and deer in the same outing could include some sort of a combination rifle, but the bad news there is you are limited to basically one shot from each of your shotgun and rifle barrels. This is not a great solution where I hunt – as the deer are normally flying through the bush – so good luck with a single shot of centerfire ammo from a combo gun, with compromised sights.
Time comes into this a bit, inasmuch as you are way more likely to see partridge during the midday and deer in the morning and evening. This means that, if you are carrying two guns – such as a light 22 and a deer rifle – you can have your centerfire gun ready mornings and evenings, with your 22 in a scabbard or on a sling – and reverse the arrangement midday; so that your main gun is your 22 (maybe a 22 Magnum …).
In a tight bush, any kind of an extra gun tends to get hung-up on the brush. I have thought of carrying a scoped CO2 pistol in a holster – so that I could take the occasional partridge while always carrying my centerfire rifle at-the-ready. I imagine that might be a good solution – but I have never tested this out.
One of those ultra-short 410 single shot shotguns might also be a workable solution – and I imagine you could probably rig-up some sort of holster-type arrangement for those.
The final, possible answer might be to have some sort of centerfire rifle which allows you to push a subsonic round (say, with a lead bullet and Trail Boss powder) into the top of the box magazine (ejecting the full power cartridge first); thereby allowing you to shoot the partridge with a light load without damaging the partridge meat and/ or scaring every deer out of the county. This is probably still against the rules, but not by much. I doubt a game warden would care, either way.
In places where you can use a 223 on deer, the light cartridge you sub-in could even be a 22LR - in one of those .223-to-22 LR case adapters from MCA Sp*rts. However, I mostly hunt in Quebec so that’s not an option
Does anybody have any thoughts for the best solution for this shooting scenario?
