Fly Over Country and Sharptailed Grouse
 

Walking big country and carrying an old Parker.

The land is little changed since the Lakota ranged the plains. We and the dogs have our time.

Beautiful photos as always Bruce. Thanks for posting!

Man! Those are BIG birds. How much does one weigh fully grown? What shotguns & shot were you and the rest of your group using Bruce?

John, I don't know what they weigh, but they are good sized. I usually use a 16 or 20 for upland game, and in the Parker recommended chokes for an all around upland bird gun, IC or Cyl and Full. I usually shoot 7/8 Federals in the 20 at 7 1/2 right and 6 left. For the 16's, I shoot Fed 1 oz 7 1/2 right and 6 left. Fluid steel and Damascus. Sometimes I am given a box of RST shells and they work fine also.

I use the same guns and loads for pheasant, Huns, sage grouse, racoons, porcupines, everything. Works for me and the full choke 6's are effective out to 50 yards if you center the bird, maybe further. I'm sure everyone has their pet loads, chokes and gauges. However, what I have settled upon are exactly what Parker recommended.

We use Parkers from A to V grade.

In more recent years, with the shortage of gunpowder and lead shot, a popular gun out on the plains has been this muzzleloader. Its locally made in Kansas of the finest craftsmanship and is effective out to 70-80 yards. This one happens to be a P grade.

The environmentally friendly nature of this weapon provides that this will be one of the few guns permitted in California.

Potato launchers can be great fun but one day I brought one to work and we set up some wooden pallets for target practice. One of my employees took careful aim and the recoil broke his front tooth. That was an $800.00 lesson and the end of my launcher.:crying:

I had a dear friend (now gone) in Kasilof who used his potato gun to run off moose that were trying to eat his garden. I once saw him shoot a cow in the rump with one. The potato literally splattered into a thousand pieces. That cow probably never visited his garden again!

that was a funny john....thanks.... charlie

Well look on the brite side. If calif outlaws spud guns at least you can eat the ammo.