Aint chukar hunting fun

Barb and I cut our 2 to 3 week hunt to 5 days. We were thinking about coming home because of the heat, but found a better reason.

First off, let me talk about the birds. For 3 days we hunted in Idaho and found good number of birds and did pretty well once the dogs slowed down. I was especially thrilled with Jake. He covered the hills better than I expected and had some great points and retrieves. Here was our best day in Idaho.

The other two days were about the same minus the blue. Jake covered about 10 miles in the 2 days he was out and Grady went 19, 20 and 20 while I averaged 4 1/2 each day. I was pretty excited about that.

Day 1 in Oregon found us chasing pretty much the same number of birds. Our trip was shortened but still came home with six.

That’s pretty much the summary of our hunt as far as most are concerned but if you’re interested in why our hunt was shortened, read on. You might enjoy this.

Barb, the dogs and I left Tuesday for our hunt. It takes about 3 hours to get to our destination. We no more than got the camper set up and I realized I hadn’t packed my hunting boots. I decided that Wednesday would be a no huntin day while I returned home for my boots. But at 12:30 A.M. I informed Barb I couldn’t sleep and was heading home for the boots. I made good time and was back at 5:30 and got about 2 hours of sleep.

Like I said, there were plenty of birds. We saw too many from the road and Grady has a good memory. The day started out with a lot of sprinting from him and birds scattering. I was fortunate to run into several chukar friends over there and we shared some good stories.

Day two found Grady and I up early and ready for chukars. You know I have a bad back. Well sometimes I don’t feel my left leg and when I stepped out of the trailer I missed the step and down I went. A few bumps and bruises but still the hunt went on and I already said how we did. Barb got a few chuckles out of that.

Day three started off much better and I had Barb drop me and the pups off up the hill and I hunted back towards camp. When I got there she said the truck was making a terrible noise. I got in it and drove it a ways and the front left tire sounded like the brakes of a freight train. I tried to find the culprit but couldn’t. I even tried my sledge hammer approach. Drive fast and hit some good pot holes, but it didn’t work. So at the end of the day we hooked up and headed to Oregon.

By the time we got to our destination, the squeel was gone. Success and ready for the next morning hunt.

We got up and the dogs and I headed off to hunt. I had my boots, the truck sounded good and I hadn’t fallen. All though we cut it short because of the heat the hunt was good to us. having hunted four straight days I decided day five would be a break day. We all took a truck drive to see some country and returned to camp. While Barb was reading I decided to take the sxs and the dogs up the mountain and plan the next days hunt. I had planned the day to be a break day but it turned out to be a brake day.

We got to the top of the mountain and saw what we wanted. The road was pretty steep and actually was better for a full sized truck than a four wheeler but I’d been on that rutty road before. About half way down the back end started to catch up to the front so I knew to give it some gas but that made Jake fall on me letting the steering wheel turn into one of the ruts. Yep, you’re right. Over comes the sxs. For some reason it just tipped. In reality it should be still bouncing down the hill.

The good news was both dogs stayed in the cab and landed on me. The bad news was the roll bar was on my arm pinning me. I can’t remember feeling that kind of pain before. Luckily my phone stayed in it’s compartment just barely in reach.I called Barb and told her to get some help because I was in deep trouble. Like the trooper she is she brought reinforcements up and drove my truck up that steep slope where they used the winch to lift the sxs just enough to get my arm out. It was swollen very bad and my fist was contracted and I couldn’t open it.

Finally I was standing with the dogs beside me. They took the front windshield off and the dogs were liberated. But it wasn’t so easy for me. As I tried to step through the opening my chest hurt trying to bend over and the guys told me to sit down before I fell down.

Wrapping it up, the sherriff from the area was there from Barb’s 911 call and he drove me down to the awaiting ambulance where they took me to Boise. I had crushed my arm but in time it will be usable again, I broke four ribs and had several abrasions and bruises. I also had some pretty good bumps on my head that they scanned and found nothing. Not even a brain cell.

One of the guys brought the sxs down (they say it’s still in good shape), and Barb and a friend loaded into the toy hauler. Barb and a friend hooked up the trailer the following morning and Barb pulled it home while I was sleeping at the hospital. Ain’t she something.

Some chukar trips are more eventful than others. But we got birds. I will be out of commission for a while, so everyone let me know how you are doing.