# White-tailed ptarmigan



## Hbarber

I don't own a bird dog but I do have a border collie. I'd like to hunt ptarmigan in the Uintas next year. Any advice on best locations? I'm in great shape and love to backpack. Thanks hb


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## wyogoob

Welcome to the Forum!!!

I love Border Collies, had 2 of them. Some dogs will fetch a newspaper; a Border Collie will read it to you!  


Ptarmigan are scattered across the Unitas from Leidy Peak to Moffit Peak. They are everywhere yet nowhere.


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## Hbarber

Thanks for the note...and narrowing it down for me. I used to work in that area and will also ask folks that I know still live in that country where birds might be. HB


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## TEX-O-BOB

Ya, those birds are a crap shoot at best. I've stumbled across them while bowhunting deer up there and thought they were the stupidest bird on the planet. I've got a buddy that's been in there on horseback HUNTING them five times and seen em twice. They are literally where you find em. It's never in the same place as the last time either...


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## wyogoob

Go up where the vegetation quits on the side of the mountain. Look for carex, geum, sheepsfoot, wallflower; learn what they eat. WTP like to stay around rocks where they can hide from the raptors. They also like willows, not those big tall things, those low-to-the-ground willows, especially where there's been sheep grazing. The grazing provides plenty of new off-shoots.

If you don't have a dog, you will walk by most of them. If you have a dog, make sure it's feet are prepped for days of running on jagged rocks. Also, the weather can be un-forgiving up in ptarmigan country the last week of August and some dogs' coats are just not ready for wet snow that early.

The birds will crawl into a pile of rocks and hide, just like a Pika. Huh Andy? :O•-:

I always related the number 11 with WTP. 11 miles, 11 hours, 11,000 feet. The few of us that know where to find them have earned our stripes, burned a lot of boot leather. It's a tough hunt; take a fishing pole with ya.

This winter I have an opportunity to go on a snowmobile trip up in the Uintas and photograph WTP. My buddy has been seeing them for the last few years and is supposed to call me when he finds them. Maybe you can tag along.


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## Hbarber

Great info. Let me know when you go on your trip. At 48 I'm not sure how many more years I can wait to get up in that country. WTP are on the bucket list as well as sharp-tailed grouse. I know just as much about finding them as I do WTP. I want to get one of them out of the way in 2012.


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## wyogoob

48, cool.

I'm 60. I didn't go this year. My WTP hunting partner cancelled at the last minute....had to get his nails done, mow the yard, or something. 8)


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## ddhunter

Let me know next year and I will make the trek with any one that wants to go. They are apart of my bucket list as well


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## Lonetree

ddhunter, hbarber

If either one of you backpack, and fish, I'm game. Backpacking, fishing, ptarmigan hunting, sounds like a well rounded trip. I've been into them several times, just not actually hunting for them. I hiked from mirror lake to spirit lake a few years ago, and saw quite a few. Wyogoobs advice is spot on, and I'll add that if you combine all of what he mentioned with, look in the very head of drainages, you have some good odds of finding some. I'd like to get back into Tungsten basin again, there is some good habitat on the way in and out of there. I know some will disagree, and I get it, but a dog is not 100% needed. I grew up hunting allot of chukars with and without dogs, with is always nicer, but it can be done without.


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## wyogoob

Tungsten Basin going in from the west, Porcupine Pass;









Tungsten Basin looking back from Tungsten Pass:









Great fishing, lots of Mountain Goats, but no place to hide when the weather gets bad.


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## Lonetree

Wyogoob

Awesome pictures! Those lakes hold the second biggest Brookies I have ever seen. The first is 24" Brookies in the Atlantic creek drainage in the Winds. We were catching allot of nice 14"-16" fish in the upper end, but when we hit the lower end we were in for an amazing surprise.


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## wyogoob

I have been to Tungsten Basin 5 times in the last 25 years, mostly just passing thru. I was there 2 years ago and it was very crowded.

It's been a long time since I've been to Atlantic Creek...the two Saddle Bags.


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## gdog

wyogoob said:


> 48, cool.
> 
> I'm 60. I didn't go this year. My WTP hunting partner cancelled at the last minute....had to get his nails done, mow the yard, or something. 8)


Oh sh#t here we go.... :roll: 

Ptarmigan....west desert. Try West Mnt and keep heading toward NV if you don't get into them :shock:


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## wyogoob

-BaHa!- 

*OOO*


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## InvaderZim

Hey, I seen his nails though...they even painted his toes too! They was purdy!


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## MWScott72

Wow, that is some good looking country, but you're right - I'd hate to be there when a big storm rolled thru!


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## Lonetree

It was blowing snow side ways when we came through from the west, but was some of the best fishing of the trip. 7 out of 9 days we had rain, hail, and snow. Yeah there were allot of people when we came through there too.

Wyogood, not far from saddle bags, Windy. The goldens in the streams were amazing also. 

Any body interested in going after ptarmigan, let me know before march. I will probably be guiding/instructing in MT ~Aug-Sept, so knowing some dates ahead of time would help me juggle.


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## billybob

Hb, I'll get you on sharpies if you can get me on the ptarmigan. I've gone after them a couple of times, but no luck. Ran into some hunters who hunted one side of a peak, while I was hunting the other side. They had dropped a couple, but no luck for me so far. So, Lonetree, I'm interested.


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## Hbarber

I will keep a trip in mind. If I draw out on sage grouse I may just concentrate on grouse for awhile.


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## Lonetree

billybob

keep in touch, like I said, I would love to go. I'm thinking of heading in day one, hunting some miles day two(circumnavigate some headwaters), heading out day 3. More days are fine by me also. Would be nice to work some fishing in while we are there, corresponds nicely with the Brookies.

Hbarber

If you get a sage grouse tag, I might be able to help there too. I used to own some property that had a few grouse on it. Been a long time since I shot a sage grouse.


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## coolgunnings

gdog said:


> wyogoob said:
> 
> 
> 
> 48, cool.
> 
> I'm 60. I didn't go this year. My WTP hunting partner cancelled at the last minute....had to get his nails done, mow the yard, or something. 8)
> 
> 
> 
> Oh sh#t here we go.... :roll:
> 
> Ptarmigan....west desert. Try West Mnt and keep heading toward NV if you don't get into them :shock:
Click to expand...

Last I saw him his nail were sure purtty.

Ptarmigan? Try the hogups.


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## wyogoob

Beam me up Scotty!


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