Finally got back from the long Christmas vacation and am back at the computer. Thought you might like a few more stories.
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<br>Four guys and four dogs set out on the Snake River looking for chukars. We stopped at a likely spot, shut off the engine, and listened to the birds. Before we left the boat we spotted a covey climbing the hill in front of us and calling (I think taunting is more appropriate). Berlin, my GWP, and I are the first out of the boat so we circle up stream and head for a ridge. Almost immediately my normally well behaved dog starts loosing her mind. The light covering of snow is full of bird tracks. She gives me two false points before we travel the first 50 yds.
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<br>Knowing the birds come down to the water I assumed (nearly always wrongly) that the conditions would get better as we climbed. By the start of the climb we could hear multiple coveys of birds and all of the plans made while in the boat have gone out the window. The small draw my pup and I took very quickly turned into a "pick your path through the cliffs" affair. Of course the chukars are climbing in front of us and that fool dog of my is birdy'er than ever. It becomes common to see birds walking 30 yards in front of us. The cliffs are so steep I am able to out pace Berlin. Finally a covey jumps up but I miss, shortly followed by another covey and two more misses. Then we really get into the birds and see another ~70 but they are all jumping up out of range.
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<br>The canyon opens up into a basin and my pup (almost 4 years old) really looses her mind, busts out ahead and jumps multiple coveys before she comes back. Feeding her some hotdog pieces always gets her attention and I thought she would stay close. WRONG Off she goes and before she comes back I see several hundred chukars and huns as she runs all the way to the top, around the bowl, pass several herds of deer, and then back down and across several more areas. The area had been burned and the snow cover allowed us to see birds a long ways off and she just wouldn't hold point if she could see birds. Less than 45 minutes and we had jumped hundreds of birds but I wasn't carrying a one.
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<br>Back to the boat and some discussions as to where we would go next. My friend gets me off to the side and tells me he saw my dog put up so many birds that he was afraid to tell the other hunters.
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<br>The next spot we hunt is almost as good as the first and my dog does equally as well. Off she goes, hell bent for leather, jumping up every bird, and never once pointing. She did flush one bird from above that passed me doing 90 mph straight down hill. It passed with in five feet of my head and I was alerted by the roar of its wings as it passed.
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<br>Only two of us headed up at the third spot and Berlin was starting to slow down. She FINALLY locked up on a covey of chukars, I moved up slowly and she held staunchly, the birds jumped up, I emptied both barrels, and still no birds! I was pretty disappointed by now at both my shooting and my dog but went ahead and reloaded. At the sound of my gun closing a lone chukar jumped up and donated his life to my well being.
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<br>I ended the day with that one bird, a very tired dog, and more empties than I'm willing to say. Rick
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