# Ptarmigan adventure



## tigerpincer (Dec 5, 2009)

Ive been wanting to do a Ptarmigan hunt since I first picked up a shotgun. Had one planned for last year that fell through so this year I was determined to make it happen. I have a friend who successfully hunted them a couple years ago. The two of us decided to take a 5 day trip from Sept 15-19. 2 days for getting in and out, 3 days of hunting and fishing. Base camp was a little over 8 miles in. Neither of us have access to horses so we humped it all in on our backs. The weather reports werent looking very good as we were preparing to head out but a little luck came our way and the only weather we really saw was a good hail storm for about the last hour of our hike into base camp. The 3 days of hunting and fishing were beautiful weather. I was expecting a gorgeous high country adventure followed by a shoot of some dumb birds. I was pleasantly surprised that the birds we found were a little bit more interesting to hunt than I had previously heard. My guess is these birds had probably been hunted a few times already this year. We were able to find a few birds some great fishing. 2 of the dogs managed to take a face full of quill pig. One lake we fished held some good sized tiger trout, many were colored up and gorgeous. We also fished a small creek catching a ton of small but beautiful cutties. We enjoyed a few points from the dogs and several long days of rough hiking in thin oxygen. One of the biggest surprises for me came on Thursday. After getting into and shooting a few Ptarmigan we were hiking back to camp when I flushed a mourning dove at 10,600 feet of elevation in late September. As good a year as Id had so far with the doves this bonus bird seemed to really fit the bill and made a great addition to the fresh trout dinner we had that night. Both Friday and Saturday nights we enjoyed some fresh Ptarmigan for dinner which was quite tasty and much better than the dehydrated garbage we had packed in but luckily didnt have to eat. I was able to get a bird back to TEX that had a little neck damage so heres to hoping he's able to work a little magic. No pressure TEX!!!


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## tigerpincer (Dec 5, 2009)

*few more pics*

heres a few more pics.


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## wyogoob (Sep 7, 2007)

Congrats!! Nice report. Glad to see the flock is still doing well there.


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## hawglips (Aug 23, 2013)

sounds like quite an adventure!


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## izzydog (Jan 18, 2008)

Spectacular! Very jealous


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## Longgun (Sep 7, 2007)

Sounds like a heckova good time! Grats on scoring a few birds...


-Beautiful country-


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## N8ON (Oct 7, 2010)

Always wanted to hunt those, and you added the fishing which puts the trip over the top. Congrats on being successful.


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## Packfish (Oct 30, 2007)

Been on my list- congrats


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## Dukes_Daddy (Nov 14, 2008)

Nice!


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## madewell (Dec 8, 2008)

Winner! Coolest post I've seen in a long time.


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## ajwildcat (Mar 27, 2008)

That's one of those adventures you will remember the rest of your life. Nice Work!!


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## 12many (Apr 14, 2008)

It looks like you had a great time, what a view.


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## bamacpl (Jun 1, 2010)

I wanna go!!!


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