The landscapes where the birds live dictate where you’ll hunt chukar in the West. Terrain covered in sagebrush, bunch grass, scree veins, and rocky talus outcroppings high up in the clouds is typical in this part of Idaho. You’ll encounter steep traverses and sidehilling that make you wish you had tightened your boot laces tighter. Later in the season, in December and January, it gets snowy, icy, and slick which slows you down especially if you have to posthole it. These hard-to-get places on public lands that can only be reached on foot are what the allure and fuss is all about. It is man and his dog against nature and its elements, or in my case, woman against nature.
We reminisce and think about these beautiful, wild, and remote places and will plan our hunts next season to purposely seek them out. The reality of it is, you’ll walk a lot, sometimes for hours to find them and only see one covey on good days, but it’s these special places and your attempt to put yourself into position to shoot over a pointing dog that makes you go back another day, and another day, to try again and then dream about the coming season and doing it all over again.
The video below is my form of ode to walking the chukar hills.
Beautiful video!
Thank you very much!
The solace of fierce landscapes typical of chukar country take me to the places I deem sacred. Lava outcroppings unfit for mountain goats, blowing cheat grass, white bird dung, and endless skies–these and burning lungs help me know I’m crazy as my bird dogs hunting the canyons of my Idaho home.
Whoa…that’s beautiful!
Today, I hiked up in the mountains way up on the rim in the trees. The smell of the forest was overwhelming. The sense of smell, mostly sage or the smell of dirt when it rains in the late fall is one thing that I also love about the chukar hills.