Skiing and hunting on a glorious sunny S.E. Alaska day. It really doesn't get much better.

Or course there is the trifecta, which I've never pulled off - grouse, bear and king salmon in one day.

First one up in tree. Nice and low and skylined!



. . . and of course, the obligitory bagged bird shots:







The grouse gods where looking after me on that day. The first bird was a chip shot of about 10 yds. I aimed for the neck/body junction. He jumped up and started falling like a rock, but then locked his wings and headed downhill out of sight.

I had to throw the skis down some cliffs before I headed towards where I saw him go. On the way, I ran into another bird hooting not more than 50-75 yds from the first one's tree. I found him quickly and proceded to "thread the needle" thru the branches. I finally hit him and he did the same thing taking off down the hill. NOT GOOD. I felt like crap as I had sighted in the gun in the previous week and felt it was dead-on.

As I put my skis back on, I found the blood trail from the first one I had dropped. It looked like he had piled up down below me. No, he was still alive from the prints in the snow and the blood trail. I tracked him down and finished him off. After breating and legging him out, I head off back towards where the second one went.

As luck [grouse gods?] would have it. He was sitting in snow out in the open. Head up, but not wanted to go anywhere. I finished him off and proceded to bag one more.

LIFE WAS GOOD!

MM

Man, I'm envious. There just isn't enough hunting to be done here. I did get out and shoot some prairie dogs last weekend though, I guess that counts.

On this forum we get a little carried away with big dangerous game etc but we should never forget what brought us all here and it was because we all started out with experiances like this.
Way to go MM

There were lots of grouse on the trails last year, right in the middle of moose season. I shot a couple with a Walter BB pistol that has a red dot sight, but as the moose season progressed and more hunters shot birds, they got smarter and kept at a distance. That's when I used a .22LR pistol with a red dot sight. But I only killed four grouse, since I don't enjoy their taste very much.

It got much colder after moose season, and my son and I decided to go to the same area to look around and maybe kill a grouse or two, and there were none to be found on the trail. A couple of days later it snowed a couple of inches, and I decided to walk the dog in the backyard of my home. The dog stops like a statue, and there... about 20 feet away were four grouse standing on a small shed. My wife started laughing when I told her about the grouse in the backyard. But of course, she made sure I didn't shoot them She has no problems with me shooting moose or birds while hunting, as long as it's away from home.