Moisture and frost

What a difference a little moisture and a good frost can make when it comes to chukar hunting. Three days ago the rain came and attitudes started getting better. Although I spent that day following Conner around, looking for that big buck that never showed, my heart was thinking about being on the mountain with a couple of GSP’s. We covered about 8 miles and watched several small bucks along with tens of does moving through the rain. They also seemed to enjoy the change in weather. I also saw a few chukars which stimulated me to come back and hunt the area with my boys.

We began our hunt today with frost still on the ground. We hadn’t made it 300 yards from the side by side when Jake locked up. Three birds flushed and I dropped one. I would have liked to see a bigger covey but was thrilled with the thoughts of what the day was going to be like. It didn’t take long for reality to sink in. The next two hours were void of birds. The dogs covered the country with new energy with the cooler temperatures but couldn’t come up with any birds.

I sadly remembered my #1 rule of chukar hunting. Usually you have to cover country for 2 hours before you get into the mother lode. Today was no difference. Sometime after the 2 hours had expired Grady was on point 150 yards away. About half way there a large covey of chukar erupted and flew down the ridge. Don’t know why but I was excited to see such a large covey. Probably about 50 birds. I watched them land not far down the mountain but wasn’t quite ready to give up my elevation yet so we headed up the ridge a little further.

My first great decision this year. Why the birds were way up there I don’t know. The country didn’t look a bit different than where I had just come from. But it was where the birds wanted to be. There was covey after covey to be pointed and Jake and Grady set out to impress me on their first good day to be on the mountain. They did and in return I impressed them with an event that hardly ever happens. 8 for 8. And we were still a long ways from the rig. So I snapped a picture of our accomplishment and than headed off toward the rig. I kept my shotgun loaded hoping we might find a covey of huns but that never happened.

We did have several more points along the way and I practiced my right side approach with the dogs. They’d give their short chase at my flush and than on to the next covey. Quite a different day compared to my earlier hunts this year.

I also wan to thank everyone for their help on finding a better chukar vest. I think I have found the answer to my problem. I’ve always like my Q5 vest because of the amount of STUFF I can carry in it but have never got it to feel real comfortable. I ordered two more sternum straps from Q5 and incorporated them onto my vest. Packing my gear and water and eventually replacing water with birds was the real test. I didn’t seem to have to adjust the vest at all. The two extra straps seemed to hold the vest tighter to my body.

Time will tell. I’m going on a two week chukar trip and hitting as many different spots as I can. Hopefully I’ll have more days like today to test my theory. I’ll let you know how it works out and if there are as many birds out there as I think there should be.

Good luck out there.