New way to find chukars.

My grandson, Conner, went on a deer hunt last Saturday. It was the last day of the season and he called me to see if I’d be around to give him a lift if needed. He was going to start at one point and possibly come out five miles down the road from where he would park. Sure enough the call came that he had a buck down and he needed me to meet him on the road. When he pinned the spot he was, I knew I’d beat him at the meeting point by quite a bit. So, I headed up the steep slope to find him.

About 45 minutes and 3 covey of chukars later, I found him trying to arrange his pack to possibly carry everything down the hill in one load. I think it was an impossible task, but he was going to attempt it. But he didn’t have to try any more. I was there to carry the front two quarters. I have to admit, it was fun to pack some meat again. As I mentioned, it was very steep, and I made it down without any big falls. About half way down, we jumped another covey of chukars. After asking him if he’d seen many birds on the hill, he said all over the place.

After I dropped Conner back at his rig, I did some thinking on how I might hunt that mountain with my dogs. I couldn’t see any easy way and Conner agreed.

So the next day, Grady, Layne, and I headed up that mountain. It was off and on foggy, and about a half hour after we had started, I realized Layne’s collar wasn’t fully charged. My back was hurting and I was thinking of turning back. Then the dogs were on point. They held the birds and I got my first chukar of the day. All the sudden my back wasn’t as sore and I felt we could deal with the collar. That was until it went dead completely.

I trust grady to be able to find me but am not sure about my almost 9 month old, Layne. So I swapped collars. Even at that, I was uncomfortable, but we went on. It was tough because of the steepness of the mountain along with the many ungulations. The dogs were out of sight 90% of the time. But somehow it worked out. We worked our butts off and found several covey’s of chukar and one covey of huns. Most of them were out of range quickly because of the steep slopes and my inability to move quick enough without falling. But the juices were flowing for both me and the dogs.

So we kept going until the old boy, that’s me, couldn’t go any further. Once again, I got over five miles in and 1900 feet of elevation gain. Grady’s collar which ended up on Layne was just over 20 miles. So I’m guessing Grady got about 18 miles and Layne about 22. The only downer of the trip was Layne’s retrieving. She does a great job finding and retrieving the dead bird to about 3 feet from me. Then she wants to pull feathers out of it. She doesn’t seem to hurt the meat, just starts plucking. I never had a dog that wasn’t a natural retriever. I guess I’ll have to work on that. Suggestions are appreciated.

By the time I got to the truck, I was tired and so was Grady. The pup was ready for round two, which never came. I took a picture of the dogs with their birds and headed home. I was darn tired but felt super good in what we had accomplished and also the fact that there are still plenty of birds out there. It might just take a little more effort this year.

No more whining by me. Get out there and get em. The chukars are still around acting as cocky as ever.

Garmin tip: If your reciever keeps going back to the two minute interval instead of the five seconds, it’s because the battery on the collar is low. I noticed it when Layne was never where the pointer showed and I couldn’t get the collar back tp five seconds.