Home Forums Birds & Dogs Hunting Dogs Real Chukar Country

I wanted to post this picture to show some of you what big chukar country looks like. I hope it gives you some understanding of what a BIG running dog REALLY is.

Please notice the Chevy Duromax 1 ton pickup truck we used to travel to this location. It's way down there in the bottom and we have yet to start hunting chukar! We will end up above those rock faces before we are done.

We run up on Big Horned Sheep often.

This picture is about 1 mile away from where the pickup was parked. The parking spot is not visible.

Looks like where we used to hunt chuckar on the side of the Columbia river in WA state.

Owyhee River

Looks a lot like one of my closer spots...Ragged Top. Folks who haven't hunted wild chuckar deserve to give themselves this treat.

First time you hunt them for sport, after that, it's revenge...

mcmurphrjk,

You made me laugh!!!!!!!

You are addicted
And you come here from California to get punished. Doesn't your state have chukars? Seems to me that I've heard there are birds down there....maybe just not enough of them??

I've had a hard time getting used to shooting under chukars as they fly downhill. Many rounds at 5 stand cleared that problem.

There is no bird you have to work as hard to find and shoot as a chukar. It's very disheartening to hike so much and then when a covey errupts and you miss with both shots.....well, I just don't say "fiddle sticks".

I recently started calling coyotes in my chukar haunts this past winter after the season closed. It's a real fun way to help out the chukar population. And you can do it year round. This fall I'm throwing a 243 in my rig.

And thanks for not being specific about the Owyhee River. Just make sure your dog is snake proffed and carry lots of water.

We never hunt this area until after the first snows, because of the buzz worms.

What kind of dogs you running?

I am 65 years old and workout all year just to hunt chukar; even bought a new dog a few months ago.

You will know how tough your dogs are once they hit the lava. None of us ever have to run boots on our dogs, because they run all year on tuff ground. It is nice to have enough dogs to rotate days.

I start in Wyoming late September on sage chickens just to warn up the dogs and usually end up in AZ late in the year chasing Mearns.

Life is good.

Skeet shooting is good pratice. Sure wish we had a sporting clays setup near by.

BTW I am tuning up a custom 22-250 just for coyotes. Know a guy in J.V. that will take all the winter pelts. We have found the 50 V-Max makes a small hole with no exit and turns the insides to jello.

I also always carry a fly rod!!!!

mcmurphrjk, that IS the old saw of chukar hunters, all right. We also used to say that you needed a shotgun that "carries like a .410 and shoots like a 10", and that you could tell a serious chukar hunter by his tiny brain and huge thighs! It is not a sport for the unfit nor the really serious; if you can't laugh at yourself, how are you going to laugh along with those chukars that have just outwitted you---"yuk, yuk, yuk" from across the canyon?

I used to hunt 'em mainly along the Snake River Breaks in Whitman County WA, and down in Asotin County. Great fun; a great way to keep fit (If you don't fall off a cliff or get bit by a snake....). We even used to kill a few!

I have been lobbying the F&G to change the listing for the chuckar season to simply "vendetta" in the NV Hunt Book. Any who has hunted them once will understand...

Here is how I like the weather...no snakes, and the singles hold well after the first covey rise scatters them a bit.

Yeah, luv2--they aren't so smart once they're not flying/running in formation. It's getting close enough to them to break them up that I found the hard part. Helps if you can figure out a way to get above them and come down a finger ridge or slope onto them. Chasing them uphill is just plain frustratin'! Shooting at them GOING downhill is pretty wierd, too. I always picked the "low man in the canyon" position when we hunted big side canyons because shooting at the birds coming downhill toward me and then passing me was easier than shooting downhill and having to look out for the "low man." Just like shooting skeet. On a 45-degree slant. With rattlers and cactus.

I see why you like the snow. My problem with it was that it concealed crevasses and holes to step in. But it does get rid of the snakes and helps the dogs stay cool enough to work. Great photo!

I'm 65 also and hunt with French Brittanys. I even bought a new Rokon several years back anticipating my joints will eventually wear out. So far it's just been mostly stored as I can't hunt alone anymore and will have to carry a satelite phone. Long story I won't go into detail now.

But lava rocks where I hunt will tear pads off in 20 minutes of running the dogs. I have to carry boots for those areas. As you know there are all kinds of lava rocks.

By the description of your hunting you must be one lucky guy to travel and play like that. When the price of gas hit $4 a gallon we started packing more guys into my van in order to pay the bill.

I have a Win.243 custom and a CZ 22 mag for the coyotes. I used to be able to put pictures here but it's been so long I've forgotten.....other wise I would show you the coyote we took in one of our 'honey holes' on Mother's Day.

You've got it right about the Owyhee River and chukars. The only thing that saves the place is it's a long ways to any major city other than Boise.

Kill those yotes and their bigger cousins.

Idahochukar2,

I drive a 2003 F-250 Silver with a CAT front license plate.

Look for me after it snows. No use going at it alone.