Load for prairie chicken and sharpies?

[Tom Flanigan]

Originally Posted by Kevin McCormack

You will have a big advantage using dogs; nevertheless sharptails even holding at point can come up anywhere from 5 to 20 yards from the gun, and they get away fast! IMO, the same thing holds true for them as for wild TX and OK quail - speed kills! Prarie chickens, not so much. If you only have these 2 guns to take, I would definitely get some copper 6's for the 20 gauge. And if you have a longer barreled 12 gauge, I would take it as a backup gun in case there are any 'surprises.' Good luck and I hope you bag some of each.

I agree with everything that Kevin said except that I never considered the sharptail a 20 bore bird. Shots can be long, even using a good bird dog. I think the 16 bore is perfect with 1 1/8 oz. of shot. I have used this load often on these birds but my go to gun for sharptails is a 12 bore DHE, modified and full shooting 1200 fps, 1 1/4 oz handloads of #6 shot. If you are going to shoot a 20 bore, I would take some shots at paper first. You may be pleased or you may not, but it is never a bad idea to shoot at paper first with a small bore 20.

[Scott Chapman]

We had a successful trip in regards to prairie chickens. Found some bonus doves using a water hole near some wild sunflowers for late afternoon diversion.

We were on the eastern edge of sharpie country. My friend has found them in past years on this ranch but after two long afternoons of running miles of sandhills we were unsuccessful in our quest.

Both Trojan 16 with RST 2 1/2"copper #6 and VH 20 with RST 2 1/2 #7 worked fine. Even shot doves with both guns.

[Bruce Day]

Shots will be between 15 and 65 yards. Wind 0 to 30 or more. Temps then 25 to 80.