I scaned this from a June 1970 PA Game News. I am not sure how well you can see this but it's kind of funny how we gave South Dakota wild pheasants for sharptail grouse and look at the pheasant populations in both states now.

Trapper Rick,
Years ago 4 of them walked right out on the logging road
in Indiana County where we were going to go Grouse hunt, we had to stop the Tahoe and and scare them off the road, they are not a legal game bird here in Pa.
I do not know if any of those Sharpies decendents are even still alive, we still hunt that same area and have not seen them for many years. If they were still around I do believe my dogs would have found and pointed the Sharpie Covert.
Pine Creek/Dave

4 sharptails walked out in front of you ???

Stut, that should be years ago, yep had 3 other men in the Tahoe we all saw the birds.
Pine Creek/Dave

SD wanted some of our pheasants because many of our birds roosted in trees. They thought that trait would help increase their population. Here we are 40 years later and we are getting some of them back. From what I know of shaptails, PA doesn't seem like sharptail habitat. I can tell you they are very wild out west and it's difficult to get them in gun range.

Gotcha.

Was gonna say............. I'm from Indiana County originally. Never saw any sharpies in these parts.

Just curious.......what part of the county did you see them in all those years ago ??

Strut10,
I will try to expain where these Sharpies were years ago.
Coming form Churchill on Rt 22 there is a Church setting on
the right hill side, oppsite that church on Rt 22 is a country road,
you turn left on to that country road, and drive down thru the forest, as you round the big bend in the road a hill side drops off to the left. Those Sharpies entered the old
dirt road from that forested hill side, and walked toward the blasting companies forest property, right in front of my Tahoe.
We use this old cut thru road to access the back side of the SGL in that area, where we hunt both Pheasant and Grouse.
Pine Creek/Dave

That's what I was wondering, the PGC never did say in that article where the sharptail grouse were released. All it said that they were released in "marginal habitat". I believe the days of releasing non-native game birds and animals in this state are over (although pheasants are non-native) but it would have been interesting if those sharptails took hold 42 years ago.

There is no doubt in my mind that the Pa. birds had different characteristics than those Western Ringnecks, this still holds true today in some isolated pockets.

I can remember years ago on our first trip out west we were trying to mimic our hunting style to Pa., the locals thought we were nuts.

Something we have found VERY interesting is that in some of the now older WPRA's is that these "new" birds are starting to acquire some of the characteristics of the Pa. birds of the past.