I'm interested in hunting Huns in Montana. I've been doing done research and have been told that North Eastern Montana is in severe drought. Anyone here from the are that can give acurate report on weather in that area and likely impact on Hun populations? Thanks!

It's still early in the season and good info isn't available. Also, bird numbers vary from area to area. I'd start calling MT FWP in July and see if they can hook you up with a biologist. Some guys on this site who live in NE hopefully will chime in.

The situation looks to be real bad. MT's governor has declared a drought emergency and the USDA has authorized emergency haying on CRP lands which could really hurt brood production.
http://helenair.com/northeast-montana-drought/pdf_784bd587-6a5f-58cb-beed-dc4a6ce4170b.html

http://helenair.com/news/state-and-...f5d010a-30ea-5a26-87e5-630b52e7a1d4.html

http://helenair.com/news/state-and-...2021be9-105d-53f3-8211-e0038a2b78e5.html

The drought is also hitting ND and SD real bad, too. Friends in both states tell me crops are failing and ranchers are selling off cattle.
http://droughtmonitor.unl.edu/

I would be real worried about the UGB hunting in all 3 states, and not just due to depressed bird populations. If it stays this dry, private landowners will shut down access due to fire danger.

Any other good options?

Not sure if you're restricting yourself to Montana, but we have some out here in SE WA, If you're just vacationing and not limited as to where you can go. They're mostly on private lands up the hill from me so I haven't personally hunted them.

Maybe check here for info?

http://wdfw.wa.gov/hunting/

Might be some Hun info here, there are pretty good "where to hunt" maps showing some of the private land that is "feel free to hunt" or "hunting with permission only" including contact info if I recall.

The quail and pheasant hunting can be pretty good around here, chuckar too on the Snake River Breaks.

Good luck,

Geno

Plenty of Huns on the other side of the river too Geno.

There's better eating birds but there's no better bird to train young dogs on than wild Huns.
Especially in the early season when they hold the best.

OP.......SamOlson lives in NE MT. Send him a pm.

I lived in Steptoe, WA for a few years (Whitman county), I loved the bird hunting there. I think Huns were my favorite bird as far as eating.
CHukar were pretty sporty, and pheasants would out smart me a lot of the time. also good dove and waterfowl hunting. I didn't bother with the little quail but they were also around in numbers.

Pharmvet and Charlie, it is beyond dry up here on the hi-line. Total wreck as far as grass and crops go so I am not sure how the hatch will turn out.

There might actually be an abundance of food later this summer and fall with unharvested fields but until then???


Actually curious myself as to how the birds will respond to these conditions.


As for finding and hunting huns I would simply walk section lines(fence lines) next to stubble fields. Huns love to work the edges and run under fences.



Any info on how upland birds in general handle drought conditions would be appreciated. Maybe I should start another thread on this subject.



Should add that I have yet to see a pheasant chick on the riverbottom and that is highly unusual given that it is almost July. Obviously not a good sign especially considering we have a great population of adult birds.

Sam- I can't imagine the drought is doing the birds any favors. Seems like the less new growth would impact not only their food, but nesting success as there's not as much to hide a nest in. A quick search pulled up a bunch of reports from different states wildlife biologist about drought impacting nesting success and mortality on young birds. However, not too many spelled out the explicit causes except for nesting cover. I was hoping to do a bird trip to your part of the the state this year, but drew a bull elk permit for the north side of the lake. So, if it doesn't all burn up this summer, I plan on chasing elk and deer there instead of birds.

Sorry for your troubles Sam. We had a hard winter with plenty of snow and endless rain this spring.
I'm sure we have a good bird crop but I haven't seen any due to the 6' high wild Rye grass.
Things are drying out now though. Well go from being a jungle to a tinder box come August.
Hope you get some rain in the very near future.

SE Idaho has more damn water EVERYWHERE than I've ever seen.Thinking the upland birds may be pretty good again like last season. Feel for the guys further north.

Of all the birds I have been seeing, huns are the most prolific. Sharpies and pheasants seem to struggle more in the drought.

CRP haying won't start till the 15th of July or later for some areas. Old stands of CRP aren't that appealing to huns anyway.

I still maintain that cold and wet is harder on birds than dry.

It really is not looking too bad for birds right now. Maybe not record highs but certainly not record lows.......yet! Pretty early to count your chicks.

Better do some checking before coming out though.

My place is not posted......but if I catch you in the haylot or my shelterbelt killing huns you are sunk!

i have a covey of huns on my property in central WA. I'll drive a thousand miles to chase huns, sharpies but will not shoot them on my property. Have noticed that quail and chukar pops seem way down this year.


Called a rancher friend up by Chester MT where I hun hunt and advised a dry year. I know ND got hit really hard this winter and now is in a drought. Looks like have to cancel my annual bird hunt out there this year.

Pharmvet,

I'm not a biologist but it's so dry here that one strong fart could set the whole area ablaze.

Having traveled for birds in the past, I'd probably sit this year out.

That being said I do keep seeing sharps and Huns. But no COCK.



Dave

Not sure if Photobucket will still work, but here is a graph of the Kansas spring crowing counts. In the last ten years guess what years were during/immediately following mega droughts.

Cheesy,

He's asking about Hungarian partridge, not pheasants. They have very different nesting and habitat requirements.

I've seen this locally for many years. Last year was the best pheasant hatch ever in this particular valley in southwestern Montana--and one of the worst for Huns. The best Hun year I've ever seen sucked for pheasants.

You're right, but in spirit of the campfire nothing like a proper thread hi-jack.

There was some other discussion about pheasant/other upland birds with respect to drought that prompted me putting that graph up for my target bird. The years we had major drought that hit Texas/Oklahoma/Kansas made for high beef prices because everybody sold their herds off due to no hay, but we had no pheasants at all to shoot at. This year is shaping up to be a great year, assuming we get out of the nesting season in good shape.

One of these days I'll get north and west to hunt some of these other birds.

Yeah, nothing like "another direction" in a Campfire thread!

Upland season's going to be very interesting here in Montana, because both snow and rainfall varied so much throughout the state--and we have so many different birds and kinds of habitat. All but one of the 10 kinds of upland birds in the state lives within an hour's drive of my house, but their preferred habitat runs from open plains to high mountains to riverbottoms. It's often hard to tell exactly what really happened with the various hatches in local areas until hunting reports come in.

My BIL and 3-4 of his buddies own two pheasant hunting ranches in South Dakota. Every spring they purchase 750-1000 chukars as hatch-lings. Raise them to mature birds. They use them for practice to stay on top of their game for hunting pheasants. When I go to visit them, it's always a fun time. They have a sweet little Benelli 28g that is a blast to shoot. And it makes hunting that Huns a real challenge.

As a side benefit to the area they live, because there are birds that they have missed, the chukar population has increased significantly. All of their neighbors appreciate having more plentiful birds in their little corner of northern Utah.

AKA, "spotty."

Or "average"....

Hey Jon, do you have any plans to give a run down of the new savage "Fox a grade" that are built by galizan?

Not at the moment, but that might be a good idea. Thanks!

Huns are birds which prefer much more arid conditions than most upland birds and pheasants in particular. I would expect a "good" year for Huns in a dry year, or at least in comparison to their numbers in a "wetter" year that is beneficial to pheasants.

Of course, one would need adequate breeding numbers to begin with- if one had several years of significant decline then it may take a couple of dry years to produce a large number of birds. I've seen Hun numbers go from the occasional bird to being the dominate bird in number and back again during changes in weather.

If you want to have the best chance for numbers of Huns, hunt a couple years into a dry time. Until the next wet cycle, Huns will relatively prolific and one will see a fair number of them. Bringing them to bag may be a different matter though.

Dry for Huns, wet for pheasants. At least that's how it is around here.

So it is still a possibility that the Hungarian Partridge hunting could still be good despite the drought?

Yes, Huns multiply in a drought, at least around here.

Huns die off whenever there is high water.

Any reports on how the Huns are doing this year in Montana? Is drought going to decrease their numbers?

Everybody seems to be seeing lots of them. Myself included.




Dave

Reports like this I making it hard not to bring my dog on my elk/deer hunt SE of you this year...

Elk and deer are too much work.

Birds and coyotes are just fun.



Dave

Agreed! I lucked out with an elk permit. Thinking I can get a 2 week kitchen pass. If I tag out fairly quickly I'll regret not having the pooch along to let him get a snort full of Huns. If I take him, I'll probably be elk hunting until the last minute of the last day, with either cost of boarding him in Malta or the hassle of keeping him with me...

I have a dog. And extra shotguns.

When you get done with that stupid elk schit, just drive west.




Dave

May very well take you up on that. Still contemplating on bringing my dog. He'll be 2yo in Oct and I'm not sure if/when I'll get back to country with huns again...

I can't stand having a dog around when I'm hunting anything but birds.

But I'm kind of an ass hole about such things.




Clark

Understood. I have the contact info for a vet that boards dogs in Malta. Would probably leave him there until the big game tags are punched. Still pondering...

Get the dog out on the birds while he is still young. You only get to imprint him once. Either board him or bring him along on the elk hunt.

Its weird, but lately while driving my combine around all I have been seeing is chicks.

Juuuuust barely flying. Shapies and pheasants.

The huns still look good.

Kind of wondering why I am seeing chick at this stage.

Jim,

May have had a second hatch.

Yeah, thats what I figured.

They just seemed a little small for a second hatch. Must have been really late.

Is there such a thing as a third hatch?

If there is you're going to see my truck a bunch... grin.




Travis

Article in Great Falls Tribune:

http://www.greatfallstribune.com/st...ed-severe-respiratory-disease/559840001/