Prairie Chickens - Needle in a Haystack?

[J. Scott Hanes]

Originally Posted by Dean Weber

Daryl,
As a way to identify, I am shooting a GH16, Scott Smith is shooting a black diamond Model 12, and my buddy John Lowry is shooting a Citori. We all chose our guns which provided enough choke for the longer shots.

As for taste....well they do not taste like chicken. However, we coated them with olive oil after tenderizing and seasoned with Tone's garlic and pepper blend. Cooked rare-ish, they tasted more like a red meat. To be honest, I was floored how delicious they were. All commented the same.

So their meat is dark? Like a duck? I have never seen nor hunted them. Sounds like a great time!

[Dean Weber]

Originally Posted by Daryl Corona

Mark,

Don't you just love it when you can stick it to 'em like that? Reminds me of one of my first trips to SD with an outfitter who just doesn't like someone to correct him.

He liked to supply ammo to the shooters for extra cost and he believed that they needed 12ga, 1 1/4, 6's. So when I uncased my 20ga Parker and stuffed it with 7/8oz of 7 1/2's he told me that if I wounded too many birds he would have to ask me to leave the field. Yeah, right. Fast forward to the next year and more of the guys were toting 20ga guns. He almost had a stroke when I showed up that year with a 28ga. Dumped him after that year and found a great family to hunt with and this will be our 15th or 16th year I believe. Still hunting with the 20's and 28's.

Our guys told us to bring autoloaders which would hold 4 or more shots. Magazine extenders would be very helpful! We told him we would mainly be using vintage guns, which he was not excited about. However, like your story, we killed the birds in front of us. Although the shots were long, chickens die pretty easily so low weight loads were not the problem....

[Dean Weber]

Originally Posted by J. Scott Hanes

So their meat is dark? Like a duck? I have never seen nor hunted them. Sounds like a great time!

Yes, the meat is dark. When you cook it rare to med-rare it leaves some blood for moisture and tastes like red meat.

[Double Lab]

Originally Posted by Dean Weber

Our guys told us to bring autoloaders which would hold 4 or more shots. Magazine extenders would be very helpful! We told him we would mainly be using vintage guns, which he was not excited about. However, like your story, we killed the birds in front of us. Although the shots were long, chickens die pretty easily so low weight loads were not the problem....

The problem with some outfitters is they don't understand our way of thinking when it comes to bird hunting shotguns. I've never felt undergunned when using a 2 barreled gun and couldn't imagine carrying a jam-o-matic with an extended magazine walking the prairie.