Alaska grouse ver. 2

[Richard Flanders]

Trigg and his setters showed up on Sunday and we hunted 70 miles north of Fairbanks around Livengood yesterday in snow. We picked a good looking spot along the road and gave it a try and hit a real honey hole. I again carried my GHE 12; Trigg carried a FAIR(made by Rizzini, I think) 5.5# 28gaO/U. We found lots of birds and got three ruffies each. Neither of us has ever had a better ruffie day in Alaska ever. This place was absolutely ideal habitat. Triggs dogs did very well. The young whiter setter was on his second hunt and pointed birds solid several times from a long ways off and even honored the other setters points several times. The shot of Cai on point was taken just as the bird flushed and Trigg shot it. Perfect point. His younger setter launched off top of the bank behind Trigg to make the retrieve; I guess that was impressive to see. It was a sterling day in the woods. I got two red phase birds, one a large adult male that is a gorgeous bird. What a day. This is our first snow that will stick; winter is officially here.

Addendum: I just cleaned these three birds. One of them has more fat than I have ever seen on a grouse anywhere. Another had a crop full of clover-cranberry salad that looks good enough to eat. I tasted one of the cranberries; it's a lowbush variety, which I thought ruffies didn't eat so I learned something important from this. These guys lived in an ideal spot it seems. Turns out the far left grouse in my right hand is a spruce hen so our ruffie total was 5. It was difficult to note the difference in the heat of the action in a woodlot where the grouse outnumbered the chickadees. That's ok; I just had him for lunch....

[Reggie B]

Doesn't get much better than this! Beautiful country, good dogs and at least one good shotgun!

[charlie cleveland]

good hunt and good pictures and storey...charlie

[Big D]

Rich - Did you fly in?

[Richard Flanders]

John: no. We drove up the Elliot Hwy that is the base of the Dalton Hwy that goes up to the oilfields at Prudhoe Bay. Livengood is an old mining town that is currently being looked into being developed into a 12million ounce hardrock gold deposit. I worked up there a couple of weeks ago for a week pulling metallurgical samples from stored core.

Here's our hunt from yesterday. We hunted near my house in an area that was logged in the early 70's. The habitat is excellent and holds a lot of birds. This is where we hunted last time Trigg came up. We got onto a lot of birds but having been hunted hard, they were extremely smart and wily. We got a lot of points and a number of flushes but only managed one spruce grouse, which Trigg made a great shot on with his Abercrombie & Fitch 28ga O/U that was made for the vice president of Standard Oil Co and came to him in mint condition, cased in an A&F case and with a vintage A&F ad telling the story of the gun. It is a spectacular little Belgium-made made gun of very high quality. The snow was fresh and made for great tracking. We walked 8.5miles and were pretty bushed at the end and went to our local rec center for a jacuzzi then to the Thai restaurant for some good food.... and beer. I'm getting a break today as Trigg is off doing his lawyer thing on a local case that involves gold miners and which I am assisting him with. Perfect timing; I need the break. Trigg is going to wear me out at this rate. I don't know how he does it at 72; must be all the runs he does on the slalom course behind his new bazillion HP ski boat in the summer. It was an excellent day with nice weather in the high 20's. These old logging roads make for some good access and walking. I'm sure some of these pics look just like some New England trails.

[Reggie B]

Beautiful country! Thanks for posting!

[Dean Romig]

That picture of the curve in the four-wheeler road looks a lot like a place we call "The Shattuck Pasture" in my little section of Vermont. (And I remember very well when it truly was a pasture.) It is usually a virtual 'grouse haven' and pulls the woodcock down in the right years.

Beautiful country Rich!





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[esetter - Gerry Addison]

Looks like a great hunt. I'd love to grouse hunt Alaska. Birds in Wisconsin this year were down 50% and they are suppose to be coming to their peak in the cycle???? Nothing better than hunting grouse behind a nice setter with a pretty double. You do have to get your buddy a better hat though!

[Twice Shooter]

Hay Rich, Why do you think they call that area Liven Good? I've hunted snow shoes only a few miles from there. Cheers, Tom

[Dean Romig]

I'm guessing Trigg doesn't need to impress anybody with his headgear.





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