alaskan sharptail hunting

[Richard Flanders]

Trigg and I just spent 3 glorious days chasing primarily sharpies in a burned area near Tok, 200miles SE of Fairbanks. I never would have thought that sharpies would inhabit such terrain but they seemed to be everywhere. We saw over 100 birds our first full day out and something like 170 in 3 days. We hunted along logging roads on ridgetops and hillsides, some much clearer than others. The burn is being logged to clearcut status where the bigger trees are for fodder for a pellet factory, some of which goe to heat the school in Tok in lieu of the usual very expensive diesel, which is apparently a very successful operation so far. Much of the rest of it is open to firewood cutting. The burn covers hundreds of thousands of acres and will eventually be a real bird and moose factory when it starts growing back in with aspen and brush. The roads are great, wide enough to land my plane on at a few spots. We saw sharptails, spruce, and ruffed grouse in the area and ended up with 12 birds total. I had my 24" PHE16, Trigg a pair of Merkel 16's - an O/U and a S/S. The birds flushed so wild in many cases I'd often have done better with my 32" hammer gun and duck loads. Here are some pictures of the hunt. Some enterprising moose hunters constructed a very clever ridgetop fireplace in one spot. The sunset over the Tanana River while standing in the middle of the bridge is especially nice, I think. It was a great hunt; if there was a complaint to have it would have to be that it was a bit too warm and sunny sometimes.... what a shame!