One more day left. Yesterday, Leslie and I joined Angus for a “quick” afternoon hunt not far from home (how lucky are we?). He and I had been to the same area last week and found a nice covey of chukar but I missed my three shots at them. That’s another story.
Yesterday was unseasonably warm and calm, and we found the same group of birds, pretty much in the same area. I did a much better job of remaining calm on the flush and knocked down two birds.
My two favorite creatures
The second, which you’ll see in the video, took off right at my feet, and I winged it. Angus chased that bird probably a couple hundred yards down the hill, and when I finally gained a view of his pursuit watched him chasing the bird in circles before leaping several feet into the air after it, nabbing it, and trotting back up the hill to deliver it to me. I love that dog.
So does Leslie, who took some great footage of the winter landscape in this special place.
At the risk of alienating half of my three readers, I have a confession to make: last night I ate my first road kill.
It might or might not be what you’re thinking. Our neighborhood is lousy with California valley quail, which – in Idaho for obvious reasons – they refer to as valley quail. This winter we’ve been lucky enough to be entertained by coveys numbering in the several dozens. They sweep across our yard like a dusty gray wave and scurry through the beds picking up grit and seeds. Angus stays rapt at the big window in the front, taking it all in while wishing he were out there with them. Then a car will come up the street and the quail will demonstrate their instinct for panic and bust across the street in front of the looming vehicle, half of them flying and the other, probably younger half, running.
Aging game birds
One day I went out to get the mail and saw one of the younger quail get hit by a passing car. After colliding with the bumper it bounced to the gutter, quivered for a moment, and then lay still. I thought, “Why not?”
Making sure none of my neighbors saw me, I picked it up and hanged it in the cold shed with the other birds I was aging. A few days later, I was pleased while cleaning the quail to see it was clean, and put it in the pot with the rest of the birds. While much smaller than the Huns and chukar I’m used to cooking, the meat was delicious. I’ll never look at road kill the same way again.
Here’s the recipe (thanks to Dan Herrig for this, which I’ve modified slightly and renamed):
Greek Game Bird Roadkill
Ingredients:
4 chukars cut in pieces or boned (any game bird will do, road-killed or not)
¼ C olive oil
1 C dry white wine
½ C apple cider vinegar
½ C brown sugar
4 garlic cloves finely chopped
4 scallions (or 8 green onions) finely chopped
6 fresh basil leaves
3 Tbsp finely chopped fresh parsley
2 Tbsp cracked black pepper
¾ C Kalamata olives halved
1-1/2 C diced prunes
Preheat oven to 350. Wash and dry game bird pieces. Place them in the bottom of a clay cooker or Dutch oven. Add all ingredients except one cup of the prunes. Stir, cover and place in the oven for about 1-½ hours. Check after an hour to make sure it’s not already done (cooking time will vary depending on how much meat you have in the pot). About 15 minutes before completion, add the remaining cup of plums. Stir and return to the oven. Serve with brown rice and crusty bread!
Made it out yesterday for the first time since spraining my ankle on December 2. Leslie came along for the hike and to take video and photos. We decided to try a place I hunted a decade ago in the Owyhees. Long drive, but it was nice to revisit some of that terrain, and we did find some birds.
Angus was marvelous. He found lots of birds, and retrieved the two I hit without any hesitation. With a stiff wind and snow flurries he had lots to smell, and did a great job of honing in on numerous coveys. Once again, my shooting left a lot to be desired. Still, for a 3-hour hike with a gun, we came home with supper and another great experience. It’s good to be back out there for the last days of the season.
Serious bird hunters: how many minutes of your life have you spent pulling and cutting cockle-burrs out of your partner’s hair (I’m talking about your dog)?
As a Brittany fan, I can say I’ve spent my share of time getting my dogs back to Ground Zero after a day in the weeds. Angus is a great patient with great patience, but I had long wanted to reduce the post-hunting torture we both endured to get the burrs and cheat-grass and other snarly crap out of his curly coat. Enter the Cabela’s Ripstop Chest Protector for dogs.
"I can't shake this thing!"
Sure, when this vest is on him he looks like Jerry Lewis after being mobbed by a bunch of rabid housewives at a holiday clothing sale, but the damned thing works. He hates wearing it for a few minutes but then quickly forgets about it when he gets his first snoutfull of chukar scent. It takes about 20 seconds to put on with the quick-clip buckles, and the reflective strips are great during all those hours we spend hunting illegally after dark (I just love jacking chukar with my 10 million candle headlamp, especially since it’s so easy to navigate steep, lava-slide side-hills in the dark). Duh – just kidding.
Angus reflecting…
Seriously, though, this vest allows me to see Angus much easier while he darts through the timber during a grouse hunt, and with the robust crops of cheat-grass, Medusa-head, and cockle-burrs in these parts this vest has made us both much happier campers. And, as I just checked the Cabela’s website it’s on sale as I write this for $14.99 (normally $40).
I’m not a spring chicken but I’m not dead yet, either. Still, I find lugging a heavy over-under up 2,000 feet of 60% slopes all day a pain in the butt. And the arm, and shoulder. I lift weights and try to keep a little strength going on in this aging body, but my gun was bumming me out.
I like the aesthetics of a nice over-under with some lovely engraving and beautiful wood. They’re fun to shoot and in the right hands can be deadly. But I’d always wondered about the repeaters and one day did a little Internet research on “best chukar gun” and came across the Benelli Ultra Light in some of the forums. The price tag ($1,599 MSRP) nearly ended it then and there, but I kept it in mind. Then I went out for chukar with my trusty over-under and afterward my arm felt like a lead pipe. The next day I traded it in toward the purchase of a Benelli Ultra Light 12-gauge, and have not looked back.
Angus, 6 chukar, and my Ultra Light
This gun gets light primarily by shortening the magazine to accommodate a maximum of three 3″ shells (actually 2 in the magazine, one in the chamber). It saves over a pound for me from my previous gun, which might not sound like much but it makes a big difference. My arm did not hurt after hunting all day with it the first time out.
The action is incredibly quick and, after hundreds of rounds, has never once jammed. It uses Benelli’s patented “Inertia Driven” mechanical action so there’s no gas injection voodoo there. Loading and unloading is intuitive and as simple as any other system I’ve used.
Aside from the weight savings, my favorite thing about the Ultra Light is that it fits me perfectly out of the box (I’m just shy of 6′ tall). It shoulders quickly and swings easily. As it’s my first auto loader I can’t compare it with any other guns, but being able to get three very quick shots off at a rising covey gives me a 50% advantage over my double-barrel gun, and – in one case so far – yielded me three birds with one flush. I couldn’t have done that with my 870 pump or my over-under. But then, you can get a new 870 for under $300…
Chokes and wrench for the Ultra Light
The chokes that came with the Ultra Light are fine for how and what I hunt: Cylinder, Improved Cylinder, and Modified (the latter is what’s almost always in my gun). The Benelli website shows that the Ultra Light guns (which now come in 20-gauge – 5.2 pounds – and a freaky light 28-gauge nudging the scale at a mere 4.9 lbs.) come with Full, Modified, and Improved Cylinder. I’m not sure if they changed the standard choke spec in the last year but if it matters to you which chokes you get with the gun, definitely ask your retailer.
Benelli makes a fuss over their Crio Chokes, which they claim are longer and harder (at least that’s what she said) with an engineered taper that results in much greater pattern consistency and accuracy than other chokes out there. I don’t know enough to validate this or comment on it, other than to say it sure sounds cool and I’ve shot as well or better with this gun than any other shotgun I’ve used.
Dusky grouse, chukar, Angus
The gel recoil pad is soft and durable, and nicely dampens the kick, which you feel on this gun because of its lightness. I was experimenting with some of the chukar loads recommended by folks on a forum and when I fired a Kent Ultimate Fast Lead #6 (2-3/4″, 1-3/8 oz., 1475 FPS) I was stunned by the severity of the recoil; seriously overkill, in my opinion, for any upland bird at any time of the year. I’ll stick with my cheap 7-1/2, 1-1/8 oz. shells, which have gotten me lots of chukar, a quite large blue (“dusky”) grouse at long range, and several pheasant at pretty far out, and I barely feel the kick shooting these.
The Ultra Light comes with a respectable owner’s manual, a nicely designed shim kit, and a surprisingly nice plastic case on which you can install a padlock.
