Cove Mountain Kennels

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.

I just saw another story on the news about a dog that was returned to its owner after a year of being gone because of its microchip implant. It was a neat story, and reiterated to me the importance of getting a dog chipped. It is so cheap to do, just $35 for the implant and a lifetime registration. If you haven’t done it yet, just go out and get it done. 

Of course the most important piece of safety equipment as far as getting your dog back is the id tag on the collar. All county shelters and most vets and sheriff’s deputies know about microchips and have scanners, but the person that finds your dog probably won’t. But, they can read your phone number off the ID plate. Keep it simple, just your name and phone number (not the dog’s name). Get this done today, it will be the best $2 you’ve ever spent.  (Lion Country Supply, Fosters and Smith, Scott’s Dog Supply, … .)

I took Aryia, a young brittany I have in training out chukar hunting late saturday afternoon. She is young and inexperienced, but once she got into birds, she really got charged up. In some regards, she wasn’t the most helpful, busting birds right and left, but it was really good for her to get into so many birds and fill her nose with hot scent and get so keyed up on them. I was lucky enough to pull down a limit for her.

I took the Boy Scouts camping this weekend and took Sophie with us. She was a big hit! Boy scouts are the best for socializing a puppy.  They are old enough to know to be gentle, big enough the puppy doesn’t hurt them, and never get tired of rolling around with them. (It’s probably because they are about the same development level, eh?) 

Sophie got 24 hours of hard core socialization and loved every minutes of it. Plus, camping with a puppy is great because you can relax since you don’t have to worry about them pottying in the house. Not to mention the fact that after the boys wore her out, she was sweet to snuggle up with in a sleeping bag.

(Check out our Hunting Dogs For Sale link to find out more about this puppy!)

We run our dogs two to four miles every day. There are a couple of reasons we do this. First, and most obvious, is that it keeps the dogs healthy and in excellent shape. When you go hunting, the dog can get out and cover ground like it should. Second, it really makes a difference in their mental health. Third, it clears their head and opens them up for training. Finally, it hardens their feet in preparation for hunting rough country. I noticed this the other day when chukar hunting with two buddies and their dogs. After a half-day chukar hunt, over some rough lava rock country, their dog’s feet were tender and raw and needed several days to recover, whereas our dog’s feet never had a problem; they were ready to hunt again the next day. If you were planning on a three day chukar or desert quail hunt, raw feet could really slow your dog down.  (Gun Dog Magazine had an article about a nifty dog boot made out of bicycle tube. It looked interesting. However, my dogs have never really liked boots; but they are funny to watch in them for the first few minutes.)
 

Here’s the gang. Right now we have two brittanys (soon to be three), two German shorthaired pointers, and a lab (soon to be two). The old dogs, a black lab and a wirehaired pointer (VDD), both fifteen, are slow, blind and deaf, but they still like to hunt up a bird when they can.

 

Now that our sage-grouse season is over what are you going to do with your birds? My favorite thing to do with them is to make them into fajitas. The strong, flavorful meat is really good with the diverse mix of seasonings in fajitas. The recipe below came to me from Bruce Bonebrake, a good friend and excellent bird hunter. One secret I learned just this year was to use World Harbor Fajita mix. It is a bottled sauce rather than a dry mix. Wow, does it ever make a difference.

       1 sage-grouse
       1 onion
       1 green bell pepper
       1 clove garlic
       1 tomato
       Olive oil
       World Harbor Fajita Sauce
       Flour tortillas
       Green or red salsa
       Sour cream
       Grated cheese
       Cilantro

Debone the grouse and cut the meat into strips ~1/2” wide and 2” long. Slice onion and pepper into thin strips. Dice garlic. Cut tomato into quarters or eighths (depending on size of tomato). Sauté onion, pepper and garlic in olive oil and set aside. Brown grouse strips in hot oil. Once browned on all sides, add the fajita sauce and simmer for 5 minutes, stirring occasionally. Add vegetables, then add tomatoes simmer until tomatoes are lightly cooked. Steam away as much liquid as possible. Warm tortillas 15-20 seconds in microwave & serve. Serve hot from the skillet. Top with salsa, sour cream, cheese and sliced cilantro.

September is usually too hot to really get after chukars, so I focus on grouse. Thursday I got out for a quick afternoon chukar hunt, and was able to find one covey and pull one bird out of it. Today, however was the first day I really went after chukars. I was planning a grouse trip, but it was raining here at 5300′ and snowing at ~7000′. I decided the roads would be too muddy and slick, so I went chukar hunting instead.

I love to hunt chukars in a light rain. They seem to hunker down, and don’t post lookouts, so I’m to be able to get right up on them before they flush. In between showers when the sun pokes out, they come out in swales and feed and dry off. They leave good scent trails for the dogs and hold a little better for pointers.

We (2 dogs and I) had a great day. We had to work hard and cover some rough country, but we were able to find 3 good sized coveys and scratch out a limit (5) of birds. Two things that really made the day, were that a young pointer I am working with (Morgan) was able to point a bird, I dropped it on a long going away shot, and she made a beautiful retrieve to hand; the second thing was that just after I finished my limit, the setting sun came below the clouds and cast a beautiful pink light on everything. It made for a magical end of the day.