Richard, does the bird have dark meat? Taste? I tagged along with some Inuit kids hunting ptarmigan with slings (David's kind, not slingshots) on Kendall Island in the Beaufort Sea nearly 50 years ago. They didn't get any so they're still a mystery to me.

(You have a beautiful aircraft. Nearly bought one. Completed last year experimental 180hp Lycoming, prop Mac 84/43, Bushmaster on new Eddy Peck 2250 floats.)

King, the ptarmigan is a dark meat,I find them much more paletable if they're cleaned (gutted )right off,the taste I would compare to snipe not as strong though but similar....I tell you what though ,when you hit one you know it ...the feather's are very loose as compared to grouse.

All the best

i sure would like to try that grouse hunting ....and richard those pictures are really good...makes me want to move to alaska...i started to in 1969 but my have the years have rolled by...but through yalls cameras eye and theeyes of you guys and your stories i have just about done it all... charlie

very nice

As Chris says King, the meat is dark... very dark, and seems very bloody most of the time. They can taste pretty strong if you don't get as much of the blood out of the meat as possible. Best way is, if they're wounded, to step on their head and pull it off and hang on tight as their heart pumps all the blood out. That works well with spruce grouse also and makes a big difference in the taste. I had two of these for dinner the night I brought them home. Excellent.

RE the plane: it is a nice one... all it takes is money and enough of a lack of brain matter and common sense to want to spend it on the plane. I'm putting an Airglas belly pod on next that will be half cargo, half fuel. I'm tired of carrying cans in the back seat.

Thanks for sharing the pictures Richard looks like a lot of fun!

Richard, you are making me jealous. I love to fly and love to shoot birds with doubles. You are doing both. I just sold my plane last year and this is the first time in 25 years I haven't had a plane. I miss it, but I don't miss all the bills that go with it. I've been to Alaska 4 times and never shot a Ptarmigan. How stupid am I! Gerry

Yeah, they must really stink up the cabin.:whistle:

It's the constant thought of having an engine failure and having to 'put it in' somewhere not particularly "pretty" and having the cans want to join me in the front seat in the process. Somehow being mushed between cans of gas and a hot engine just doesn't seem healthy under the circumstances....

It would seem to minimize one's chances of walking away from such a landing.