Home Forums Birds & Dogs Upland Game Huns

I've been re-reading a favorite book of mine, Gun Dogs and Bird Guns, by Charlie Waterman. If you've not read Waterman's stuff, you should, and this book is one of his best, IMHO.

But this morning I came across this passage, and it moved me:

"I would like to get poetic about Huns, for nobody else has. I like them in Oregon in dry country when they flush from the edge of a giant erosion and swerve with the air currents caused by a ribbon of river far below. It is wonderful in Alberta when they leave the stubble and go against a backdrop of blue sky and a bright orange grain elevator. In Montana they flush from the abandoned homestead where they and their ancestors have lived half a century.

"I love to look for them in the edges of the golden stubble, but perhaps the high-grassland Huns are the best of all. The country is wilder and more lonely. Small European gamebirds making a home where the summers are dry and the winters are cold.

"Scatter the covey and look fruitlessly for it as night comes on, your dog confused by occasional shreds of scent, finding nothing. Bone-tired, unload your gun and start back toward the truck as true night closes in. There's an occasional bullbat when the first stars show and a little wind in the grass. Then you hear the faint, reedy sound somewhere on the shadowing slope. A lonely Hun asking about his friends."

This chapter in Waterman's book made me remember how often I've hunted Huns, and how much I've enjoyed it over the years, and how much I miss it. I'm going to have to remedy this problem next fall, I realize.

I still rate the Hun as my favorite upland bird at the dinner table, and have done since I was a small boy. And I think I'm not alone among bird hunters raised on the northern plains in thinking that there is no covey bird I'd rather hunt than the Hun.

Dogs running big, then locking up solid.
The dash to get there in time, watching the dog to see just how close they are.
The explosion of the covey rise with the sound of old gates creaking, a pile of smoking shells at your feet, hopefully a bird or 2 for the dog to retrieve.
Sometimes the early season birds hold so tight that they get up at your feet, or sit there thinking they have you fooled.
Running GSPs in big country is what got me hooked on dogs/birds in the first place.
Zeke and I will be out there again tomorrow, only a couple more days left in the season.

Waterman was one of my favorites.. Haven't shot many huns, but they certainly are a great game bird.. Too bad folks don't get a chance to read some of the older sporting books.. Major Charles Askins was perhaps my very favorite author.. Then Nash Buckingham.. The shooting those men had is unreal...

Good Post!

We don't have many, but I love to blunder into Huns. They're quite a bird.

WCH... if you get a chance to buy any of the Sports Afield anthologies, you'll get some of the best stuff written by guys like Buckingham, Askins, Waterman, etc. Good stuff.

I was out busting big country for blue quail on Sunday, which is new game to me... I've only shot one quail before, on a pheasant hunt on a ranch near Fredericksburg last fall, so getting a chance to work on coveys over a pointing dog was interesting and a lot like Huns. Like Huns, these quail don't necessarily hold for a point, which I find endearing and familiar.

But I've got to get up north next fall for some wild Huns. Do they range farther south than Montana, does anybody know?

There is nothing better then the "Home Covey" walking around on the step when it gets cold in the winter.

Doc. Thanks for the tip on the Sports Afield books.. I have shot a few huns in Wyoming.. Not many, but a few.. I have heard they can be quite plentiful in certain areas of the state, BUT I have never found that many...
When I retired in 1999, I spent much of the fall and early winter hunting away from southern Wy. BUT that fall and early winter there was a hun explosion here.. I missed it completely..
So they do range farther south than Mt., but perhaps not in great numbers..

Last year I was hunting all day on Huns. 2-3 big coveys, bust them up, and hunt the singles and doubles.

Havent found ANY this year....lol

WE love hunting Hungarians!
Cat

I have a nice covey, sometimes two, at my farm in South Dakota. They are interesting birds and I like having them around. when its real cold we frequently see them puffed up and sitting in the protection of the chokecherries.

We have scattered populations of them here in northern Nevada. They hang out on the alluviums at the base of large canyons at the foot of mountain ranges where there is good grassland. Elko and Humboldt Counties hold decent populations but not like in MT.

it is the only game mount I have is of a hun they are a cool bird im from nw iowa and you see them here and there Use my parker 16 vhe mod and full straight grip redone by delgrego cool gun to hunt huns with

Whitman County Washington used to have one of the largest per-acre populations of Huns in the world, when I lived there in the 1970s and '80s. I suspect that "clean farming" and development have made that no longer the case, but Eastern Washington wheat areas like the Palouse Prairie probably still have relatively large numbers of Huns.

One problem with them is the season starts in September, which is hard on dogs: snakes are still out and the heat can kill, too.

I like Huns, but we kinda considered them kind of a a "booby prize" when I lived there--phez were the real goal, with California quail the secondary.

And then there was the relentless "War on Chukars"....only Afghanistan could have spawned such beings!

I consider huns a target of opportunity when after pheasants too. They're pretty dark meated so I am not real big on eating them but they sure are fun. I've killed LOTS in Southern Idaho as well as the Palouse over the years.
Last week:

A few from last year. Only shot 3 this year.

Nice Dog...

I like Huns for their dark meat, same as I like sagehen and sharptail.

Doc Thanks for reminding me about hunting Huns will living in Alberta. They get up like little rockets, was mighty good sport.
Cheers NC

some of the best pointing dogs i have owned were started on huns, i would like to find birds like that in montana like i had found in idaho

one young pointer i had had his first hun shot over his point when he was 6 months old, by the end of the season he had 206 huns shot over his points,, phenominal dog, the next summer he got to close to my mule and a kick to the head ended his days,,,,,

Agreed
The best bird ever to start young dogs on.
Especially early season birds.

Don't like eating them though. I'll be saving mine for Luv2Safari in the future:)