4 days of chuckars / lots o pics

The Bad Fish · 10-04-2005, 08:20 PM

I flew to Boise Idaho last thursday to meet up with my best friend from high school, (Ira) We spent alot of years hunting together till I moved away in 1992, In 2003 he married my sister and has ventured out in the ocean with me for salmon, halibut, and tuna on our boat.

I miss bird hunting and we did alot of it together, After labor day we set a date and I started planning the trip. the following is a recap of the 4 days thursday thru sunday.

Thursday my Dad and Ira Picked me up at the airport in boise, after a quick stop at larry's sporting goods I picked up my bird licence and we were off to the snake river.

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we took it easy on my dad and he walked the road. we got into a big covey of quail and I dropped 3, Ira and dad got a couple too. made it home in time for one of the kid's soccer games.

Friday we headed out to the Idaho side of Brownlee resevoir, we hiked the tops of these 2 peaks

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and got into a ton of birds, we ended up with a mix of huns and chuckars 9 birds total. we also saw 4 nice muley bucks, best part was we didn't see any other bird hunters. Most of the birds were on the tops of the ridges. Brownlee turned out to be a mere warm-up for the next 2 days.

Saturday we met up with a couple of Ira's co-workers and headed out to the owyhees south west of Nampa Idaho.
the owyhees were as steep as I remember and my legs were sore from the day before. We needed to be on the tops of the ridges and when I got out of the truck all I could hear was the "chuck" "chuck" "chuck" of the birds calling to each other in the canyons. I grabbed a box of shells dumped them into my vest, filled up my water bottle and said "see you guys on the top".

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It wasnt long and we were 3/4 of the way to the top, I was sweating and my legs were BURNING! I started to sidehill the little flat plateau and jumped a large covey of quail, I busted one and they flew up to Ira and Jeremy. they started blazing away and sent them back down to me. I shot 3 times and missed all 3. my blood was pumping then and I started to push back up towards the top and kicked up a single chuckar dropped him and kept moving up. Ira and Jeremy were going thru the shells now and They were kicking birds down to me like crazy. I had about 6 quail by now and was trying to kill some huns and chuckars but I couldent knock them down with my 7 1/2 shot. I think I needed some shooting lessons so I told myself to pick a bird and lead him, "make your shots count".
A cold front was moving in and the clouds were starting so roll in good so I started to make my way to the truck. I picked up a few more birds on the way back and met the boys at the truck,
How many shells you got keith?
I laughed and said 3,
"at least your vest looks full of birds" Said Ira.
I told Ira "your vest looks a little light" he laughed and said "this 1100 really goes thru the shells. we finished the day with 6 chuckars and 15 quail for 3 guys.

Sunday. It rained all night and we slept in, about 10:00am we headed for the desert again, the owyhees can get this really greasy mud and you can get stuck real fast so we let the road dry a little and had breakfast at shari's. I told Ira "this is the last day so lets finish this one just like old days" he agreed.
We hiked to the top of the mountain we did'nt hunt on saturday.

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yeah, thats the truck down there.
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when we broke out on top we flushed a covey of chuckars that had to be at least 50 in them, they went every direction and I managed to drop one, so did Ira

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we walked on out to the end of the ridge (that goes for at least a mile) and bagged a couple more birds

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we took our time working off the mountain and ended the day with 4 nice big birds .

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Ira and I decided to make this an annual trip, and I may get another chance to get back out there before the season closes at the end of December.

waterfowlin101 · 10-04-2005, 08:26 PM

cool scenery pics!!

Looks like some fun hunting country...thanks for the good read!!

Jon

8-guage · 10-04-2005, 08:47 PM

Awsome! Thanks for posting all the pics and the story too! I was Dreaming I was there!

duckboy · 10-05-2005, 06:11 AM

Outstanding outdoor journalism.

This is what it is all about! Good hunting, Good Stories.

Bait O' Eggs · 10-05-2005, 07:10 AM

Nice post and nice report.

Once in a while I read a thread from the bird hunters here

and just dont get the sitting in the mud and shooting flying rats thing

but this looks like something I could get into

My grandpa use to go hunt chukars all the time, and I have wanted to go give it a try, you just struck a spark in my wants list of things to go do.

Rubber Robin · 10-05-2005, 07:37 AM

Thanks for taking the time to post those great pics complete with an excellent narrative.

It's this type of story that keeps the outdoorsman excited about going back into the field. I'm sitting here at work dreaming about it!

Thanks again!!

Blue Tip Spinner · 10-05-2005, 08:48 AM

mmmmmmmmmmmm......ccccchhhhhuuuuuccccccckkkkkkaaaa rrrrr!!!!!

nice goin Keith!!!

8-guage · 10-05-2005, 12:21 PM

Just curious...Which one of the two are you?

Bait O' Eggs · 10-05-2005, 12:54 PM

Badfish is in the Orange vest

nitrobass · 10-05-2005, 01:00 PM

Awesome report and post, thanks for putting those up!

I sure miss chukar hunting

rainrshine · 10-05-2005, 01:38 PM

Keith, looks like lots of fun. I have a friend that just moved to oregon from Twin Falls and is itchin to hit the hills for some Chuckar. We do plan on taking a couple trips to eastern oregon here once the season opens

Cant wait to get out there.
Rainrshine

1 aught · 10-05-2005, 03:44 PM

I just moved from Idaho to Oregon in May. This is the time of year we all live for. Your story made me a little home sick. I am glad that you got to enjoy Idaho and had some luck.

What is nice about Idaho is that 15 min. outside of town you are into birds.

1/0

The Bad Fish · 10-05-2005, 05:01 PM

If you want to go roy lets do it,

there is a spot out by jordan valley that is loaded with them, the upland season opens there on saturday october 8th. besides, You showed me how to make a crab pot so I will show you how to lose 15 pounds in a weekend.

MORGANCREW · 10-05-2005, 11:52 PM

Im Jealous...Anyone else???

Tvfowlhunter · 10-06-2005, 11:22 AM

Nice pictures, I bet you had a great Hunt!

Trent
duckcommander71

wak'm&stak'm · 10-06-2005, 03:35 PM

Nice Kieth....I was going to lose 15# in Hells Canyon. I got to hunt 5 minutes and then drive 10 hours back home.

I did have to hike 200 yards to the 3 point though.

The Bad Fish · 10-06-2005, 04:50 PM

nice, did you see any birds In that 200 yd stroll or did you hit it with the jeep in the road?