We had a fun but strenuous chukar hunt today. We covered the country up and down and are tired and sore (the dogs and I). We only found two coveys in a lot of miles of rough hiking, but I was able to pull down three birds. One cool thing that happened today, though, was Josie a young (16 months) German shorthaired pointer I have in training had a great track and find on a wounded bird. Josie worked up a small covey of about 12 birds, which luckily flushed right past me and I was able to double. I thought both birds were dead in the air, but as often happens with chukars (Gamble’s quail are the same), one of them wasn’t.
Allie, my lab quickly found one of the downed birds and retrieved it. Then, we worked and worked, but couldn’t come up with the other bird. After about 15 minutes I found where I thought it came down, based on a string of feathers through the bush. The dogs got birdy there, but couldn’t come up with anything. After another 5 minutes of searching I decided to call it and we headed down the wash looking for the covey again. About 20 yards down the draw, Josie picked up scent and started tracking. She went 20 to 30 yards on the track then went on point. She had it! The bugger had run down the draw about 50 yards and crawled under a rock. I was just able to fit my arm up in and get the bird, which was in amazingly good shape. This event put a smile on my face, even after a lot of hard miles. It made for a memorable hunt.
