Author Archives: jakeandgrady

The 2025-2026 season wasn’t as stellar as I hoped. Some had a good year, and most of them earned their birds. I put the least amount of chukars in the freezer since I’ve been keeping records for over 35 years. But it was still a fun year. I learned a lot about myself and GradyContinue reading “Good ending”

Sitting here today, I came across a question posed by another upland bird site that got me thinking. “What was your most memorable upland bird hunt”? I thought about it hard, but couldn’t come up with just one. My last two chukar hunts with Grady definitely didn’t fit. They were my 61st and 62nd chukarContinue reading “Most memorable hunt”

Besides what I’ve been seeing, there are lots of great reports of late-season chukar and hun hunting. Eastern Oregon and western Idaho are almost void of snow. It seemed earlier in the season that the bird counts were low. But now I’m thinking not as bad as I once thought. The cover or anything elseContinue reading “Cold but raining chukars”

There aren’t many days left in the season, so I decided to take the camera out and try some filming for fun again. It doesn’t compare with the videos on YouTube, but I found I can’t walk around with a hat cam and have anything come out but the ground I’m tripping over. The inversionContinue reading “At it again”

I’m sure most of you use some kind of tracking device while out bird hunting. I have been using a garmin Astro and now an Alpha since they first came out with them. It’s made it so easy to keep track of where my dogs are. Looking back now I don’t know how I huntedContinue reading “Panic”

I’m sure everyone who hunts with dogs can talk of new tricks their dogs learn to help us be more successful. No matter which upland bird we hunt. The more we hunt particular birds, the more our dogs learn how to handle them. Grady, like my past dogs has become very good at figuring outContinue reading “New tricks”

February 15th, Grady will be 8 years old. He will have 8 years of chukar hunting by the time his birthday comes. Just as my past four shorthairs, he has achieved my chukar champion status. As I look at him laying here beside me, I can already see the tiredness in him. We put inContinue reading “Grady”

When hunting with upland bird dogs there is always something new that comes up. In my case, it’s usually my dog teaching me something new on how to successfully get chukars. There are many training methods out there and all will work to some degree. My thoughts, at least on chukar hunting, is to trainContinue reading “Learning never stops”

There’s finally another rainbow forming over Grady and myself. I’ve had a couple of rough years with my back limiting my chukar hunting some. Grady has had some ear and throat issues that are now under control. Both of us have been down with the loss of Jake. But things have been changing quite aContinue reading “Excited again”

I don’t often write about a specific hunt, but this one became a special one for several reasons. First off, the number of birds that we have harvested in a year has dropped dramatically. From what I have seen and heard, the birds just aren’t out there this year. My hunts have seen fewer birdsContinue reading “Luck”