Not sure how legal it was, but it's not too smart if you can't shoot good. You wind up with very little to eat. Actually, I did pretty good on blue grouse when I was living in CO and hunting deer/elk. The grouse were a bit larger than ptarmigan, so I would aim for the junction between head & body. Most times, it was either a good hit or a clean miss. A couple always made for a good camp meal.
In Texas once, I killed a Rio Grande turkey with the .264 when it decided to tease me while I was waiting for a decent buck to come out of a river bottom. It was almost dark, so I figured what the heck. We had it for dinner the next night.
Which reminds me of the REALLY, REALLY worst damage, which was on that same TX hunt. On the ranch we were hunting, the owner wouldn't let us kill two bucks unless we also killed a doe. So one day, I sat in what he called his "doe blind." It was a 4x4 dealie made of a plywood about 4' high with a bar stool in the middle. It was set up right in the river bottom amid all the brush. Deer trails were everywhere around it.
I wasn't in it more than 15 mins. when I saw a doe's head bobbing just above the brush. She was heading my way. I decided I would see just how close she would get before I shot. It was VERY close, like maybe several feet! I aimed just behind her eye. When the bullet hit, her head exploded. Chunks of brain and bone flew everywhere including on me. But man, was that meat every clean.
Sorry, no pix.
