I decided that I could not let my first year of chukar hunting pass without one more try at shooting a wild chukar. I went out 4 times this year and had not bagged me a chukar. I hadn't even fired a shot at a chukar. This was due to several issues, mostly recovering from a serious knee surgury and not being able to hike the places where chukar like to be. I have taken chukar at preserves and in field trials. But those pen raised birds act nothing like a wild chukar. Heck, I have even been on hunts were everyone else bagged chukars. Somehow me actually getting a chukar has eluded me. I needed to fix this.
So late Monday I made a call to my buddy TAK to see if he wanted to give it one more go on the last day of the hunt. It was too short of notice for him to get off work. But he coughed up perfect directions to a couple of his honey holes. Thanks again Tom!!!
Then I made a call to Critter Control see if he wanted to make the trip. I told him that I had come down with chukar fever and would need to call in sick the next day. Critter Control said that even though his boss is a huge jerk, he might be able to get off work too. By 5am Tuesday morning we were on our way.
As we neared our planned hunting spot we flushed a covey of 20 or more birds with the truck right off the road. We stopped and let the dogs out and chased the covey. No luck, they flew to a spot which offered no way to get at them. We hunted the area for a while longer and moved on.
We loaded back up and moved on down the road. We found another place that looked promising, and again unloaded the dogs and gear. We covered some serious ground at this spot. Critter Control is half mountian goat, so he marched right up the mountian. I took a more round about way, but my knee felt strong and I was covering good ground. It felt good to finally be able to climb a little and not just stay on the easy stuff.
There is CC way up above me with his dog, Gur.
There wasn't much snow left in this area. The weather was fantastic. I can't believe I hunted all day in Utah on the Jan 31st, wearing just a long sleaved shirt and my hunting vest (oh, yeah and just to clarify, pants too). No need for a coat, hat, or snow boots and the other stuff that tends to slow you down. It felt like March.
The little snow that was left gave us a good opportunity to look for recent chukar tracks. One spot we stopped CC saw some tracks that looked fresh and we decided to hunt the area. As we unloaded the dogs and made ready I thought I could hear chukars. I started looking around and watch a covey of chukars running up the mountain not 30 yards from us. We hurried and let the dogs go, grabbed our guns and climbed in pursuit. The covey flushed before we had our guns ready. There was a good 15 birds in this covey. Most flew off a long ways and into unaccessible terrain. There was a few that didn't go too far.
We continued to hike up the canyon. A couple of hundred yards later I flushed a chukar that presented me with a good shot. I pulled up and shot I could tell I hit the bird, but it was still flying good. A moment later CC fired a shot from way up above me. I figure he had finished off the bird I shot at. I continued up the mountain to see if there were more birds. Then I notice my dog Cowboy coming my way with a chukar in his mouth. He made a nice retrieve to my hand.
Here is Cowboy with the retrieve.
I hollered up to CC to see if he had downed a bird. He replied that he did and Gur had already brought it back to him. I was pleased to know that I finally had bagged my first wild chukar. Ofcoarse I had to pose it with the obligatory shotgun for a photo.
My chukar and CZ Woodcock 20 guage.
I know that CC has a few more pics from his camera of me grinning from ear to ear holding my chukar. I am sure he will post them. We found a few more birds but none that let us get within shooting range. It seems that by these birds had been pretty educated and spooked easily. I guess that is to be expected on the last day of the season.
We didn't want a great day to end. We put some good miles on the hiking boots. We were tired, the dogs were tired, it was almost dark it was time to let the season end. I have some great memories from this year's upland seasons. I hunted with some great people, made new friends and bagged a few birds here and there. Yeah, just the one chukar but I will be back with a vegence next year (hopefully 50 pounds lighter).
Here is a parting shot. I liked this one. That is my dog Cooper way up there. Did you know that a nice Pointer hunts with range, but also Altitude
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