Post by: b23 on December 04, 2022, 02:47:55 PM
I grew up in the lower Yakima Valley and we used to spend more time hunting birds than anything else. Most of my friends hunted birds but it seems like now, hardly anyone hunts birds anymore. I have one friend that still hunts waterfowl quite a bit but doesn't do any upland bird hunting. When I was in school my dad would be waiting in the parking lot to pick me up after football practice so we could catch the last few minutes of light hunting pheasants in a near by asparagus or squash field. Where we hunted deer and elk is when we'd get into the chukars and huns.
Even here on HW forum, which has a very health group of hunters, I rarely read about anyone hunting pheasants, chukars, or huns so it got me to wondering why nobody hunts birds much anymore.
Post by: metlhead on December 04, 2022, 02:50:50 PM
Post by: bigdub257 on December 04, 2022, 03:12:30 PM
Post by: 10Key on December 04, 2022, 03:15:16 PM
Post by: Roughcut on December 04, 2022, 03:25:23 PM
Post by: 87Ford on December 04, 2022, 03:30:20 PM
Post by: bigdub257 on December 04, 2022, 04:23:16 PM
Post by: zwickeyman on December 04, 2022, 04:32:13 PM
Post by: huntnfmly on December 04, 2022, 04:59:22 PM
Post by: boneaddict on December 04, 2022, 05:30:34 PM
Post by: boneaddict on December 04, 2022, 05:34:42 PM
Post by: NRA4LIFE on December 04, 2022, 05:38:05 PM
Post by: boneaddict on December 04, 2022, 05:41:50 PM
Post by: Dan-o on December 04, 2022, 05:55:45 PM
But funny as heck!
Post by: bigdub257 on December 04, 2022, 06:04:48 PM
Ah yes, the old Jack-in-the-box. My buddy and I have a similar story except it was a duck.
My buddy had a friend tell him a similar story except it was a BUCK!
Post by: NRA4LIFE on December 04, 2022, 06:19:28 PM
Back on point, The most chukars I have ever seen were in a very steep, rocky area. I would see them almost every time I came through there deer hunting. Is that their normal habitat? It was exceptionally rugged. Not anywhere I would go to shoot a bird.
Post by: huntnfmly on December 04, 2022, 06:21:58 PM
I have a funny pheasant story from a couple weeks ago. I popped one with my 20 gauge and retrieved him. I brought him back to my truck and put him in one of my Ram boxes. I got to a place where I could get a couple photos and dress him. I opened the Ram box and he flew out and hit me right in the face. Off he went. He bled more than a buck. :chuckle: I swear he was limp biscuit dead. Lol
😂
Post by: boneaddict on December 04, 2022, 06:22:44 PM
Post by: full choke on December 04, 2022, 06:27:09 PM
I would pay good money to see both of those events.
Back on point, The most chukars I have ever seen were in a very steep, rocky area. I would see them almost every time I came through there deer hunting. Is that their normal habitat? It was exceptionally rugged. Not anywhere I would go to shoot a bird.
Yes. Pretty much exactly where Chukar hang out. Hence the old saying- “ The first time you hunt Chukar is for sport, every time thereafter is for revenge!”
Post by: bigdub257 on December 04, 2022, 07:06:12 PM
I would pay good money to see both of those events.
Back on point, The most chukars I have ever seen were in a very steep, rocky area. I would see them almost every time I came through there deer hunting. Is that their normal habitat? It was exceptionally rugged. Not anywhere I would go to shoot a bird.
Yes. Pretty much exactly where Chukar hang out. Hence the old saying- “ The first time you hunt Chukar is for sport, every time thereafter is for revenge!”
Very rewarding when you do get into them and hopefully knock a few down as they live in habitat exactly as you described. In my opinion, the best eating bird there is! Hunted those a lot back in the day over at WAZZU.
Post by: boneaddict on December 04, 2022, 07:11:38 PM
Post by: huntnfmly on December 04, 2022, 07:16:36 PM
(https://hosting.photobucket.com/images/v47/boneaddict/smphe.tif)
Beautiful birds and great pic Bone
Post by: bigdub257 on December 04, 2022, 07:56:36 PM
(https://hosting.photobucket.com/images/v47/boneaddict/smphe.tif)
Wow! Awesome Pic!
Post by: bobcat on December 04, 2022, 08:14:42 PM
Post by: Caseknife on December 04, 2022, 08:19:18 PM
I would pay good money to see both of those events.Yep, think Yakima Canyon, sheep country. Hunted there lots as a teenager. Used to park at the windmill that hasn't been there for about 40 years and climb, climb and climb some more. Damn birds would run uphill to the top of the ridge and just as you get up there sucking wind, they would fly off the other side of the ridge. The only bird that you had to shoot under to connect. Never did get too many, but shot lots.
Back on point, The most chukars I have ever seen were in a very steep, rocky area. I would see them almost every time I came through there deer hunting. Is that their normal habitat? It was exceptionally rugged. Not anywhere I would go to shoot a bird.
Post by: BLDtraLR on December 04, 2022, 08:31:50 PM
Post by: b23 on December 04, 2022, 08:34:35 PM
I have a funny pheasant story from a couple weeks ago. I popped one with my 20 gauge and retrieved him. I brought him back to my truck and put him in one of my Ram boxes. I got to a place where I could get a couple photos and dress him. I opened the Ram box and he flew out and hit me right in the face. Off he went. He bled more than a buck. :chuckle: I swear he was limp biscuit dead. Lol
That's crazy and would definitely be one of those wtf moments. We can all laugh about it now but I'm guessing the instant it came flying out, you probably weren't laughing to much, I know I wouldn't have been, and to make matters worse, you lost your damn bird.
Post by: b23 on December 04, 2022, 08:51:07 PM
(https://hosting.photobucket.com/images/v47/boneaddict/smphe.tif)Great pic Bone!
They're just as delicious as they are beautiful. Haven't eaten any in years but I can still remember how good they taste. I saw six big roosters on our way up to Greenbluff Saturday morning out in a snow covered field. It was fairly cold, the sun was out shining on them and all their colors were just bursting.
A little snow always helped because they can't run nearly as easy when there's a few inches of snow on the ground. We hunted a lot of asparagus fields and the weediest asparagus fields were always the best to hunt. They could be a little difficult to wade your way through but if the field was full of weeds they wouldn't run on you and they'd jump up and fly.
Post by: builtfordtough on December 04, 2022, 09:04:05 PM
Post by: pd on December 04, 2022, 09:30:16 PM
I don't know if the resource is depleted or not, haven't lived there in a long time. But it was magical, afternoons after school got out, I would go with my elder brothers.
You need a dog for upland, believe me.
Post by: buglebuster on December 05, 2022, 07:11:42 AM
Post by: full choke on December 05, 2022, 07:14:49 AM
I got this guy(https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20221205/51c26f4f073cd8c3342b14ee78b65e87.jpg)
Would you call that a phukar?
Post by: boneaddict on December 05, 2022, 07:33:53 AM
Post by: LDennis24 on December 05, 2022, 08:21:49 AM
Post by: huntnfmly on December 05, 2022, 09:18:53 AM
I got this guy(https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20221205/51c26f4f073cd8c3342b14ee78b65e87.jpg)
Would you call that a phukar?
😂
Post by: b23 on December 05, 2022, 10:24:17 AM
Hopefully more will continue to reply and Bone, if you have anymore pheasant pics I'd sure love to see them. :tup:
Post by: salish on December 06, 2022, 09:44:59 AM
I'm glad I asked about this because it sounds like quite a few still hunt birds and if nothing else it's really brought back a lot of good memories for me and it sounds like we're pretty much all in agreement, pheasants, chukars, huns are some delicious eats!!
Hopefully more will continue to reply and Bone, if you have anymore pheasant pics I'd sure love to see them. :tup:
Count me in, also. I'm primarily an upland bird hunter, and turkey. I've been hunting chukar and quail over English setters for decades. I've never seen much traffic in the upland forum here so I rarely post anymore. I'd be interested in finding another good forum for upland hunting here in Washington (other than the FB pages).
Post by: Henrydog on December 06, 2022, 10:17:11 AM
Post by: nwalpineguide on December 12, 2022, 09:42:08 PM
Post by: mossback91 on December 12, 2022, 10:32:55 PM
Post by: boneaddict on December 13, 2022, 05:26:58 AM
Post by: mossback91 on December 13, 2022, 07:54:00 AM
Post by: Iveexcaped3 on December 13, 2022, 08:20:24 AM
Post by: ljsommer on December 13, 2022, 08:58:16 AM
Summary: Hunting anything feels hard in WA so trying to hunt everything in WA seems like it would make that a lot harder
Post by: Iveexcaped3 on December 13, 2022, 09:19:22 AM
My wife and I both want to learn but we're also both new hunters and we feel like we definitely don't have our feet under us with the other things we started off trying to learn (deer, turkey, elk) and so adding other things to the list of "stuff we don't know about and aren't good at" seems premature. We want to learn duck hunting and upland bird but I feel like spreading my time researching and my time in the field even more thin won't result in more success, but will likely result in a lot less success across the board.
Summary: Hunting anything feels hard in WA so trying to hunt everything in WA seems like it would make that a lot harder
Not necessarily. When I’m hunting quail, pheasant, chukar in January February and I’m finding fresh elk signs that should tell me they shouldn’t be there in September. When snow melts in April and I’m looking for turkey sign and find some deer sheds tells me he should be there about December. All it does is makes you pay closer attention to multiple things instead of focusing on one task.
Post by: huntnfmly on December 13, 2022, 12:07:16 PM
My wife and I both want to learn but we're also both new hunters and we feel like we definitely don't have our feet under us with the other things we started off trying to learn (deer, turkey, elk) and so adding other things to the list of "stuff we don't know about and aren't good at" seems premature. We want to learn duck hunting and upland bird but I feel like spreading my time researching and my time in the field even more thin won't result in more success, but will likely result in a lot less success across the board.
Summary: Hunting anything feels hard in WA so trying to hunt everything in WA seems like it would make that a lot harder
Not necessarily. When I’m hunting quail, pheasant, chukar in January February and I’m finding fresh elk signs that should tell me they shouldn’t be there in September. When snow melts in April and I’m looking for turkey sign and find some deer sheds tells me he should be there about December. All it does is makes you pay closer attention to multiple things instead of focusing on one task.
:yeah:
Anytime out in the field you can learn about other species without even really trying
Another good example is finding elk droppings
You can tell what part of the year they are in there soft cow patty looking most likely spring and summer from eating fresh grasses
Hard and round more likely late fall and winter from eating browse
Enjoy the time
Post by: follow maggie on December 15, 2022, 02:24:16 PM
My wife and I both want to learn but we're also both new hunters and we feel like we definitely don't have our feet under us with the other things we started off trying to learn (deer, turkey, elk) and so adding other things to the list of "stuff we don't know about and aren't good at" seems premature. We want to learn duck hunting and upland bird but I feel like spreading my time researching and my time in the field even more thin won't result in more success, but will likely result in a lot less success across the board.
Summary: Hunting anything feels hard in WA so trying to hunt everything in WA seems like it would make that a lot harder
Not necessarily. When I’m hunting quail, pheasant, chukar in January February and I’m finding fresh elk signs that should tell me they shouldn’t be there in September. When snow melts in April and I’m looking for turkey sign and find some deer sheds tells me he should be there about December. All it does is makes you pay closer attention to multiple things instead of focusing on one task.
:yeah:
Anytime out in the field you can learn about other species without even really trying
Another good example is finding elk droppings
You can tell what part of the year they are in there soft cow patty looking most likely spring and summer from eating fresh grasses
Hard and round more likely late fall and winter from eating browse
Enjoy the time
100% true. Especially if you keep track of what you see, where & when & record it on some type of map or log book, whatever. This will make it easy to see how animals travel through your area & where they prefer to be.
Post by: huntnfmly on December 15, 2022, 03:05:30 PM
My wife and I both want to learn but we're also both new hunters and we feel like we definitely don't have our feet under us with the other things we started off trying to learn (deer, turkey, elk) and so adding other things to the list of "stuff we don't know about and aren't good at" seems premature. We want to learn duck hunting and upland bird but I feel like spreading my time researching and my time in the field even more thin won't result in more success, but will likely result in a lot less success across the board.
Summary: Hunting anything feels hard in WA so trying to hunt everything in WA seems like it would make that a lot harder
Not necessarily. When I’m hunting quail, pheasant, chukar in January February and I’m finding fresh elk signs that should tell me they shouldn’t be there in September. When snow melts in April and I’m looking for turkey sign and find some deer sheds tells me he should be there about December. All it does is makes you pay closer attention to multiple things instead of focusing on one task.
:yeah:
Anytime out in the field you can learn about other species without even really trying
Another good example is finding elk droppings
You can tell what part of the year they are in there soft cow patty looking most likely spring and summer from eating fresh grasses
Hard and round more likely late fall and winter from eating browse
Enjoy the time
100% true. Especially if you keep track of what you see, where & when & record it on some type of map or log book, whatever. This will make it easy to see how animals travel brought your area & where they prefer to be.
:yeah:
Post by: HereDuckyDucky on December 15, 2022, 03:59:13 PM
RW
Post by: T-Dozzer on January 14, 2023, 07:21:08 PM
Post by: DIron on March 06, 2023, 09:42:08 PM
I hardly ever hear of anyone hunting pheasants, chukars or huns in Washington anymore. Unless folks are going or just came from the Dakota's on some type of guided or pay to hunt deal I can't say that I hear much of anything about upland bird hunting. Is it a lack of birds issue, lack of access to huntable land, or is there just not much interest in bird hunting like there used to be?I do... invested in a upland Choc Lab who just turned two. Chasing Quail and Huns are my favorite but I'm happy to get after Pheasants and Chucker as well. I'm new to Washington hunting so I haven't found many birds yet. Do you hunt upland?
I grew up in the lower Yakima Valley and we used to spend more time hunting birds than anything else. Most of my friends hunted birds but it seems like now, hardly anyone hunts birds anymore. I have one friend that still hunts waterfowl quite a bit but doesn't do any upland bird hunting. When I was in school my dad would be waiting in the parking lot to pick me up after football practice so we could catch the last few minutes of light hunting pheasants in a near by asparagus or squash field. Where we hunted deer and elk is when we'd get into the chukars and huns.
Even here on HW forum, which has a very health group of hunters, I rarely read about anyone hunting pheasants, chukars, or huns so it got me to wondering why nobody hunts birds much anymore.
Post by: AL WORRELLS KID on March 09, 2023, 10:36:15 AM
[/quote]
Another good example is finding elk droppings
You can tell what part of the year they are in there soft cow patty looking most likely spring and summer from eating fresh grasses
Hard and round more likely late fall and winter from eating browse
[/quote]
Dad would have us Kids test out the "Freshness of the Deer and Elk Droppings" that we would come upon, by popping some in our mouth and chewing them up!
He would then pretend to do just that... to our amazement!
(What we didn't realize, was he had Black Licorice Gumdrops hidden in his hand and after chewing them up he would tell us "Okay,now you try it!" :chuckle:
Post by: huntnfmly on March 09, 2023, 03:16:38 PM
Another good example is finding elk droppings
You can tell what part of the year they are in there soft cow patty looking most likely spring and summer from eating fresh grasses
Hard and round more likely late fall and winter from eating browse
[/quote]
Dad would have us Kids test out the "Freshness of the Deer and Elk Droppings" that we would come upon, by popping some in our mouth and chewing them up!
He would then pretend to do just that... to our amazement!
(What we didn't realize, was he had Black Licorice Gumdrops hidden in his hand and after chewing them up he would tell us "Okay,now you try it!" :chuckle:
[/quote]
That’s funny
With my nephew I would put my middle finger in a pile of bear scat and then put my pointer finger in my mouth so he thought I put the finger from the bear scat in my mouth😂
I told him that’s how you can tell if it’s fresh so he tried it but I stopped him before he got it in his mouth😂
Post by: DIron on November 13, 2023, 12:34:31 PM
We need to get more policies like what So Dakota has done.
Post by: DIron on November 13, 2023, 12:36:51 PM
Retired until we get another Brittney...we never truly went specifically after pheasants, mostly quail.Quail… yes please :chuckle: They are my fav, but then again I haven’t chased Huns or Sharpies
Post by: Pegasus on November 13, 2023, 01:55:38 PM
Another good example is finding elk droppings
You can tell what part of the year they are in there soft cow patty looking most likely spring and summer from eating fresh grasses
Hard and round more likely late fall and winter from eating browse
Dad would have us Kids test out the "Freshness of the Deer and Elk Droppings" that we would come upon, by popping some in our mouth and chewing them up!
He would then pretend to do just that... to our amazement!
(What we didn't realize, was he had Black Licorice Gumdrops hidden in his hand and after chewing them up he would tell us "Okay,now you try it!" :chuckle:
[/quote]
That’s funny
With my nephew I would put my middle finger in a pile of bear scat and then put my pointer finger in my mouth so he thought I put the finger from the bear scat in my mouth😂
I told him that’s how you can tell if it’s fresh so he tried it but I stopped him before he got it in his mouth😂
[/quote]
Had a guy join our hunting camp and every time we returned to camp our snacks would all be gone. Bag of candy....gone, pepperoni sticks...gone, etc. So we decided to play a trick on him. We had some chocolate kisses left and unwrapped one of them and replaced the chocolate with a fresh elk dropping that was shaped just like the candy kiss. We returned from our hunt and the remaining candy was gone including the fake. We waited for something to be said but nothing was ever mentioned. After that it was safe to leave our stuff out without it being devoured. Problem solved.
Post by: pianoman9701 on November 13, 2023, 03:02:44 PM