- Location
- Blaster land, Okanagan BC
Nice Thomas, congrats on the buck down.
Who’s excited for sept!
- Thread starter Butcherbill
- Start date
- Location
- Blaster land, Okanagan BC
Great photos hoytcanon, good looking birds. Question for you, when you’re shooting grouse with a .22 where is your point of aim on them and what’s your normal distance you’ll shoot em at. I’ve been trying to switch it up a bit and take some out the .22 but aiming at the head from further out hasn’t been too successful, clearly I’m a shotgun grouse hunter. I shot a ruffie today with my 870 and took the head clean off, surprised me a bit haha.
Was thinking of aiming at the base of the neck instead of the head as the head seems to bob a bit as they’re thinking of flushing and I inevitably miss the bird.
Was thinking of aiming at the base of the neck instead of the head as the head seems to bob a bit as they’re thinking of flushing and I inevitably miss the bird.
My target is always the head. On sharptail I zero at 75 yards, but use a B&C reticle to also shoot at 90 and 105 yards... but this is only because tree-topped sharpies rarely let you get inside of 70 yards before they call and flush the flock on the ground... if you take out the lookout birds, you can walk up the ground birds and have them flush within gun range, or in my case, work the dog into them. I would say that on spruce/ruffed grouse a 30 yard zero would cover most shots, but I still like to zero at 50 and then learn my hold over for closer shots... remember that when the rifle is scoped and zeroed at 50 yards, the bullet is still rising from the bore into the POA, so shots shorter than 50 yards will strike "LOWER" than your POA. With the B&C reticle and a 75 yard zero (CCI Subsonics), the first stadia line was bang on at 25 yards, which made it easy to head shoot anything from 25 to 90 yards. The first two lookout sharpies I shot were exactly 90 yards (rangefinder), I use a rifle rest off the hood of the truck... one shot each and then worked the dog into the ground birds and picked up two more birds on the wing with the 20 gauge.
With ruffies, that do alot of head-bobbing you can try whistling, which will often freeze them long enough for a shot, as will an erratic hand wave (they are curious birds), but if you can tell that they are preparing to flush and they are facing away, you can square them in the back... with their body angle, you will usually take out the heart and completely miss the breast meat... personally though, I still try for the head.
I had an interesting thing happen this year on one big sharpie male, I used the CZ to head shoot it at 50 yards, but on the shot it bobbled and then took flight, I could tell it was injured so I watch it closely, it flew normally for about 80 yards and then all of a sudden started to fly straight up, flapping hard, it then stalled in place for a moment and then came flopping straight down to the ground. I sent Lexie in to get the stone dead bird, and when I had it in hand, it turned out that I had shot it straight through the head, but low, below the eye, and missed the brain... but how tough are these birds? I would have sworn that a bird hit that way would have been instantly dead, if I hadn't seen it happen. Another shot to watch for is a low hit to the throat, they usually take flight but will land fairly quickly and sit until they tip over dead, usually in one to two minutes depending on the hit, so if you detect a hit (feathers) or see the bird acting injured, watch it closely and follow up on it.
I do enjoy sniping birds with a .22, but I vastly prefer to work the dog on them and wingshoot the birds... love watching dogs work birds. One nice thing about grouse head shot with a .22 is the clean, "lead-free" meat.
- Location
- Blaster land, Okanagan BC
Cheers for the advice, I will keep at em with the .22. It’s zeroed at 50y and if I am using it on grouse they are in the 40-50yrd range, it’s always the head bob that is the problem haha. I’ll give the whistle a try, I regularly shoot it and am comfortable with it. I enjoy shooting it off a bench as well as standing. I am usually supported on something if it’s available, I’ve never had much success with grouse and a .22 haha. I’ll just have to keep at it till I find my sweet spot, a shotgun seem to be the best around here as I tend to be closer than 25y most often. The two I missed the other day didn’t leave a feather or any blood where they were standing so I’m pretty sure they were a clean miss, right as I fired they both bobbed and flew off in a rush lol.
My main 12g’s I use have a mod choke in them and it’s mainly head shots out to 25y, sometimes I get the odd pellet in the meat but not often, on range alone I always reach for the shotgun when I head out. Distance is usually the same if I’m walking trails or driving forestry roads, if they flush they end up in some thick bush a lot of the time so I like the stopping power of the 12g. It’s a bang and flop mostly or bang and flop 5-10 feet in the bush.
My main 12g’s I use have a mod choke in them and it’s mainly head shots out to 25y, sometimes I get the odd pellet in the meat but not often, on range alone I always reach for the shotgun when I head out. Distance is usually the same if I’m walking trails or driving forestry roads, if they flush they end up in some thick bush a lot of the time so I like the stopping power of the 12g. It’s a bang and flop mostly or bang and flop 5-10 feet in the bush.
