The greatest upland bird.

Man, I’ll bet I get a lot of groans out of saying what my favorite upland bird is. Chukar with a close second hungarian partridge.

Choosing a favorite upland bird depends on a lot of factors. The type of dog you are hunting with, the type of terain you prefer, range of your dog, your physical condition, the physical condition of your dog, the hair texture of your dog (burrs etc.), how well the dog handles extreme temperatures, water and probably many more factors I can’t think of right now. I should also mention that some hunters prefer to hunt upland birds without a dog. He/she has certain factors to deal with also.

I haven’t hunted pheasant for over thirty years, but I can remember the thrill of hearing that rooster flush from the beet fields. Tough walking, but how the heart beats as you approached a pointed dog and wait for the flush. But being honest, most of the birds were shot chasing them down a ditch. Sage grouse were thick back then. It didn’t take a dog. You head out into the thick sage by some water hole and usually a half hour later you had your three birds. It didn’t take much effort and I never cared for the taste. Quail also were everywhere. Getting a 10 bird limit of quail was usually pretty obtainable. All you needed was permission from a property owner and lots of shells. There still are plenty of quail but home owners have changed their opinion of those cute little things. I’ve never even seen a sharptail so I can’t offer an opinion on how fun they are.

That leaves grouse, chukar and huns. They all live in the type of country I like. But in different types of terrain. The ruff grouse that I find like the thicker and brushier mountain country. Usually close to a water source. For me, they are one of the toughest birds to get from behind a dog unless you don’t mind shooting them out of a tree. Other’s may not have the same experiences but I have a very hard time getting a limit of them. When I do get a shot at one I usually take off half of a limb from a tree as they fly off and then just hope my dog can find a bird I might have downed. There’s no way I could get to a bird through all that brush. As far as dog work, my boys become hound dogs and sound (tree’d bird) when the grouse flushes to the tree. Some hunters are really successful at hunting ruffs and love it. There can be a lot of fast action but it’s just not the kind of dog work I like.

Take today. In three days, the chukar season opens and I’m getting the shakes to be on the mountain. So I took the boys up to a place where I get firewood and saw some ruff grouse. I packed the gun for about a half hour and soon figured it was futile that I would get a clean shot unless I dropped one from a tree branch. The dogs would have gotten a bird in the mouth but it just doesn’t feel right for me. So I went back to the truck, grabbed a camera and went back with the dogs to film some of my frustration. Although I never got an actual grouse in flight and didn’t think I got one sitting in a tree, if you listen hard you might hear a couple of flushes. I edited my videos from over thirty minutes to 3 1/2 minutes. Not any shooting action but it kind of shows what I run into when hunting ruff gouse. After looking through the video hard, I did find two of the grouse sitting in a tree. If you watch the dogs you’ll see they are often looking up int the tree. They know where those birds are.

https://videopress.com/v/h2JM5NkD?resizeToParent=true&cover=true&preloadContent=metadata&useAverageColor=true

Then there’s the blue grouse. They like the country I like a little more. Usually they are near the timber line but out in the open brush. I went out earlier and found a good number of them but they weren’t playing too fair. A few of them flew right up into pine trees but the majority dove off the hill and flew stright down to places I wasn’t ready to follow. Once one takes off they start flushing out of range. They sometimes hold good but not like my favorite birds. The chukar and hun.

Probably, my favorite reason for the chukar being my favorite is how well they will hold. I also like the challenging country they like to inhabit as well, as the amount of other wildlife there. Huns also are fantastic pointing dog birds but don’t get quite into the country I like. But most of all it comes to the dogs. My boys like all birds, but they know how to handle chukars and huns. They know they have to get out there a little further to catch a wind of the bird, but when after grouse they stay closer and very rarely go fifty yards away in the thick cover. There’s nothing better than to see your dog on point at 200 yards and you know that he’ll probably still be on point when you arrive. With good dog work chukars might hold forever. Here’s a video of Jake and Grady that I took last year. We were on some huns and in the first part Grady was on point while Jake honored. The second part the two reversed roles. That’s what upland bird hunting is to me. I saw somewhere around fifteen to twenty grouse on that first video while carrying a gun but could have only gotten a shot or two. In this next video, which I mighted have posted before, I would have been able to empty my double barrel both times on reasonable shots.

https://videopress.com/v/EAPPmSAr?resizeToParent=true&cover=true&preloadContent=metadata&useAverageColor=true

Anyhow, that’s my reasoning for choosing the chukar as my favorite. Sometimes I wish I could be a little more versatile but I’m hooked. I just hope everyone enjoys hunting there favorite birds as much as I do.

No matter how much you enjoy hunting upland birds, dog hunters beware. It’s supposed to be a warm opener here in Idaho. 90 degrees for the opening two days and high 80’s for the third day. Over heating a dog is the quickest way to ruin a dog or even killing him/her. Be careful. Your dog will keep going until it drops. By time you notice that your dog is over heating it will probably be too late. Your dog does not know when it’s too hot. You do. So do the right thing for your canine partner. Maybe I love my dogs too much, but I can’t even imagine how I’d feel if I harmed my dog when I know there are somewhere around 135 days of season but I had to hit the opener.

If you have to get out there, get out very early and get off the hill before the damage is done. Here’s to a safe, eventful and successful upland season to all. I’m looking forward to hearing a lot of success stories this year.