Member Details - Tips From This Hunt

Do not flock shoot, pick a bird and follow it until it drops. I even take a second shot at birds if they are hit but not dropping fast enough. I’ve lost too many birds that hit the ground running, even with a dog.
After heavy rains in areas where the ground gets saturated and mucky look for the huns and chukar to be concentrated on firmer ground much like they concentrate on melted south facing slopes after a snow.
Take someone hunting, it can be as rewarding as shooting your own birds.

Jason’s 1^st Hungarian Partridge

By Karl DeHart

I about fell over with the first complete sentence Jason said to me after harvesting his first Hungarian partridge, but I’ll get back to that. Jason just got a new job with the feds and this was a kind of an end of year – moving on hunt for Jason. He has contributed greatly to this web site and hopefully will continue to do so: check out his member page. I guess winter fishing just isn’t his cup of tea so he decided to pick up his shotgun and follow me into the hills. This would be his 3^rd trip with me in as many years, and by far, the one he enjoyed the most.

The weather had been horrible for a week; rain, rain, rain. And in Boise, Idaho that sure is not the norm. We had a break in the weather for one day and we took it. Since it could be sunny in town but raining hard just around the corner we stayed relatively close to Boise so we could return if the weather wasn’t cooperating. So, within a 45-minute drive of downtown Boise we were hoofing it up a steep slope to reach the top. I figured that is where the birds would be with no snow on the ground. As we crested the first ridgeline I told Jason to be ready for some chukar in the stretch of rock and grass ahead of us and sure enough 5 birds popped up one after another. The chukar woke us up quickly and as quickly humbled us as after many shots fired neither of us brought down a bird. Jason turned to me after all the shooting was done and asked, “Were those birds within range?” I just shook my head and grumbled, “Yep, well within range”. I reactively looked at my gun barrel…nope it’s not bent and then I moved on.

The ground we were slouching through was saturated; muck would be an accurate description. Most footsteps would sink 3-4 inches into the mud and would only rarely find solid ground. Puddles large and small were everywhere on the top of the hills. I’m telling you this because I think this is why we were seeing birds concentrated in large coveys. I saw one covey that had 60+ huns. The large number of chukar I had seen in the area had disappeared though. I think the over-saturated ground concentrated the birds in smaller areas that had firmer ground with some new grass growth for food. I’m not saying this is what happens after any rain but this area had been hit harder then normal with rain and the ground was as I said complete muck.

We hunted hard on the way in, only seeing the first small group of chukar and one large covey of Hungarian partridge. At this point we were without a bird in the bag. We had been hiking back out for a short period when I looked over to see Jason hotfooting it towards Z. They were about 75 yards from me and Z was locked up on a sweet point. I watched as Jason moved in, it was classic. Z held tight for him as he moved past her and he was 10 yards or so ahead of her when a small covey of huns erupted directly in front of him moving dead away. He picked his bird, shot and I watched as the momentum of the bird carried it in an arch to the ground. I let out a YAHOO! or something of that nature. It was the first clean kill I’ve seen him make. Congrats Jason. And just so you know he repeated the shot over another point in which we both brought down a bird.

I yelled the commands for Jason to use with Z but she didn’t need the encouragement. She marked the bird and retrieved it to him. For me this was an even bigger highlight then Jason shooting the bird. Why? Well, up until a hunt a few weeks ago with Justin Z had never retrieved a bird to anyone but me. Jason’s commands of “bring it” were enough to get her bring the bird to him and not search me out or just ignore him. I think this is a great sign that retrieving is now becoming a routine for Z. Yahoo for Z!

Ok, now back to Jason’s comment. I could tell Jason was excited before he walked over to me with his first hun. The fact that he didn’t keep hunting and had to bring the bird over to show it off, like I haven't seen hundreds, and take pictures spoke volumes of the joy he was feeling. He walked up and said something like, “Oh man, that was as exciting as catching a salmon!” I really did hesitate and look at him twice when he said that. He continued to talk about all the familiar things I so enjoy about bird hunting…the rush while moving in on a point, watching Z work the birds, the flush, and the shot. I think he caught the bug!

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