Heading into a new season: Gun show season

We’re headed into that time of year again!

No, I don’t mean winter although the season does overlap the beginning of the gun show season! There are two shows this month alone: one in Fairbanks and the second in Anchorage.

If you’re headed north this coming weekend (Oct. 6-7), the Interior Alaska Gun Show will be held at the Carlson Center in Fairbanks. The Alaska Gun Collectors Association is sponsoring its Fall Gun show at the Sullivan Arena on Oct. 13-14. I always enjoy roaming the aisles of the various gun shows, but I usually don’t have any money so I’m just a “tire kicker” unless I find something I absolutely can’t live without. These two shows are nicely aligned with the PFD payout date. Coincidence? I think not!

I may not have gotten a moose this year, but I haven’t been totally skunked either! While out scouting on August 10, I lucked into a covey of young-of-the-year grouse. For once, I was prepared and had my 28-gauge shotgun with me. I was able to down three birds. They made a mighty tasty dinner later that week!

Toward the end of last week, I was walking out of the garage to check something on my boat. I brought along Lil’ Squirt, our cream-colored long-haired dachshund, because she can be trusted to stay close and not run off. She caught wind of something and ran over to the other driveway (we have two) and flushed a bird off the ground and into the huge spruce just off the side of the driveway.

When I saw her run off, I immediately followed to call her back when I witnessed the bird flush. It was a spruce grouse! I called Squirt over and, much to her dislike, took her back into the house. At the same time, I grabbed my 25-caliber PCP air rifle and went back outside.

I’ve talked about this airgun in previous columns. It has very close to the ballistics of a 22 short rimfire, so I had no qualms about trying to shoot the grouse out of the tree. Plus, the PCP rifle is much quieter than a regular 22 rimfire so I needn’t be concerned about noise in the subdivision. The problem was that I couldn’t find the bird in the tree.

I slowly circled out in the trees on the offside of the spruce from our driveway and studied the various tree limbs where I thought the bird might be sitting. I couldn’t see it. I wondered if it might have flown off while I was inside getting the airgun. I found a nice deadfall with a tree as a back rest and settled in to watch.

In a few minutes, I heard the bird calling, like they do when separated from their flock and trying to regroup. That confirmed the bird was still in the tree, but for how much longer I couldn’t be sure. I continued studying the tree limbs and watching.

Activity was starting to pick up on the subdivision street and I wasn’t sure how much longer the bird would wait before flying off. I slowly got up and walked a few steps to get a different angle for viewing. I finally spotted the bird sitting on a limb further up in the tree than where I had been looking. I snapped off the shot.

The grouse tumbled out of the tree. Upon inspection, the pellet had broken one wing and entered the body near the base of the neck. I had my first small game kill with the air rifle! To be honest, I was surprised the bird had waited as long as it had without flying off and that I actually got an opportunity to take a shot.

I went in the house and brought Squirt out to see and sniff the bird. She immediately ran over to where the bird had been and started “hunting.” I called her back to where the bird was laying, and she took several deep sniffs, at one point burying her nose in the feathers over the breast. To my surprise, she never tried to bite or chew on the bird.

For the next couple of days, when Squirt went outside, she would beeline over to the base of the spruce and start hunting, hoping for another bird. I now refer to Lil’ Squirt, the blond, long-haired dachshund as my little grouse dog. Who knows, with some training, maybe she will become a hunting companion.