Chukars 1 Team Tuckota 0

Getting up early this morning, I saw the temperature was 50 degrees so I figured on heading over for a short adventure with the boys. By the time I got to our hunting location it was 47 degrees and the sun had not come up yet.

It was looking good as the dogs headed up the shaded hill with collars on. Jake and Grady were especially happy to see a gun in my hand. That meant we were there for business. Within fifteen minutesthe Alpha alerted me to dogs on point. I moved up the hill and was shortly upon them. It was one of those special moments. I don’t think either dog was honoring and they had different birds.

At the flush of 30 or more chukars I picked the last bird swinging from my right to left and pulled the bead out front of the bird and fired. Like so many of the years in the past, the bird fell at the shot. The shotgun shell with ashes from my former three shorthairs had done it’s job. Thank you Tucker, Dakota (team tuckota) and Riley. It didn’t matter much if anything would go right the rest of the morning.

From that point on the sun was peeking over the ridge. I could see the trail of dust following the boys. Shade was getting harder to find and the gallon and a half of water I was carrying for Jake and Grady was getting drank down pretty fast. We saw more birds in this particular area than I can remember in the past, but they seemed to avoid leaving scent for the dogs until they were bumped.

It wasn’t because they were very young. They weren’t. I would say most of the birds were at least 8 weeks old so under different conditions the dogs might have done better. I only got that one point this morning but that was good enough for me. Somewhere along the hunt, Grady did something to hurt his left front foot and I could see him limping but not giving up. We had been on the mountain for only a little over an hour and it was time to get off.

When we arrived at the truck 1 hour and twenty minutes after we had started and both dogs were happy to climb up in the back seat. It was already 67 degrees. It didn’t take long once the sun poked over the hill to remove any sign of coolness. With the loss of water, my pack was much lighter but that one bird was enormous in my mind. My almost 11 year old dog with diabetes had performed far better than I had hoped and of course Grady was the enthusiastic 5 year old I have come to expect.

We moved a very good number of chukars in that short span but only had one to bring home. A win for the birds, but a good chance for Jake, Grady and myself to see what the future we have once conditions change. We’re 0 and 1 against the chukars for the 2023 season, but when we get Grady off the IR list I’m looking at a great season ahead.