CONSERVATION : I hunt birds, they often outlive my shots

[mango.xero]

You are not the only one that can’t hit the side of a barn…. When I go bird hunting, I call it missing, not shooting… Even when im using my hand made Italian side by side…

That what I say, gotta look good while I'm out there missing.

 

[huntbirdz]

Howdy man! Well I think it's mainly my technique, or the lack of it that makes my shots so difficult. A component for sure is the shotgun because I can almost make perfect shots with a Benelli auto 20 ga. of a friend of mine. Nevertheless as you said we have pheasant, chukar, grey partridge, red legged partridge, all of these are resident species but the majority are raised and released in the wild during off season. The truly wild game birds that are a blast to hunt are woodcock, (which I'm particularly fond of) ducks, and the snipe, which is what I hunt the most and with most fun. Finally in the alps black grouse, rock partridge and rock ptarmigan

Sounds like a good excuse to shoot more. That way you end up missing less and bringing down more birds for the pot! Black grouse would be really fun to hunt. I am sure your ptarmigan reside in a different environment than what I have hunted the birds in Alaska. I think snipe are a totally underrated bird, at least here in the U.S. They are a bird of mystery to a lot of bird hunters, and often scoffed at - even though many do not know just how much sporting they are and how fast they are on the wing. Believe the European snipe are a wee bit bigger than ours.