Chukar, Red Legged partridge, I call them: Devil Birds.

Ever seen one?

They freaking look like the devil and they live in hell.

Our Saturday breaks pretty and clear, going to be a warm one. Drive around and hit some spots, nothing, no quail. It's late in the season, smart ones have moved on and we've gotten all the dumb one's.

Well time to get out and start kicking bushes. Try out the new SARPA 20 gauge, 20" pump too! Gun's a joy to carry, shoots nice, but all we are seeing is Jack's.

So up and down the washes we go, in and out of bowls and side canyons when all of a sudden....*chuck-chuck-chuck*

Freeze....

I'm 50+ yards from my partner and trying to zero where that sound is coming from. He's got a lock on it and it's on his side of this canyon so it's off to get some. We hang out at the bottom of this monster rock pile of a mountain and wait for a sign or sound. He sees one up there a couple hundred feet, then another boils out of the rocks and we are now climbing.

Unless you've ever been chukar hunting before in the California/Nevada desert mountains and basalt mesa's well, lets just say it's not super easy. They roost in the steepest, rockiest, gnarliest terrain known to man. HUGE rock slides filled with evil stuff. Mountain climbers? Avoid this terrain for a reason. Birds love it. Guns get beaten to splinters and rusted scabs, shins, knees and elbows get broken, snakes galore at times, not a chance a dog could have made this one but man are they good to have on others.....it's a peach of a hunt and you could seriously die with one wrong step. But I got this gun exactly just for this stuff, the birds are big and man are they good. So it's on.
I also left my heavy-loads in the truck because we were shopping for quail. Oops! Oh well, better get close and lett'em have it all.

We are scrambling up this 40 degree, boulder festooned mountain now on all 3's, Here come more birds bubbling up out of holes in these van sized boulders up more from us, big fat suckers and they're just merrily hopping along on massive slab faces. I'm not in range yet but my partner is. He waits for me to get up there and one busts and he pop's it twice. It's going to cross in front of me so I get ready with one foot 2 feet higher than the other standing on points, heart pounding in my ears.

It's a right crosser, 20 yards out, 10 yards up and it's starting to dive around a corner- I'm full of #8 shot, kind of light but, if I get all 3 rounds, or parts of, in this sucker I can finish him and he's dinner. So I get on it and *boom*, rack-...and mega-jamb. First bird I get on with this new gun and it double-feeds. What? Epic major malf and I go into clear-it mode. Swearing, sweating, wanting to toss the gun at the birds.

Ahhhh, the New Gun Blues.

We watch it flapping, then it tucks, rolls over and woohoo! Sucker is going down. A long way down, 300' at least. I mark it best I can and watch helplessly as more big fat birds boil out of rocks within range while I try and finagle my third round back into the magazine with my pinky, holding my gun over my head so the second round will fall out while balancing on a hillside and my partner goes off to find the flyer that took off around the corner because it looked like it was a goner. He's stoked, I'm trying not to slice my finger off in the ejection port trying like heck to feed round #3 back in the mag and not fall off the face of the planet while shaking my shotty over my head. Round #3 finally catches the magazine pawl and- doink! Round #2 finally drops out on my noggin', yippee! I'm clear.

I grab the dropped round, *snick-chack-chack* I'm back in business but the birds are trotting up this mountain like it's nothing leaving me in the dust to pick around giant boulders, massive holes they just hop over that you do NOT want to fall into or drop a leg into and snap a femur or grab a snake coming out for the sun. I quit climbing and go back down to help look for the flyer as it looked like it was a total goner. After 30 or 40 minutes going up and down this thing over and over I can only come to two conclusions. We marked his fall wrong or he got a couple wing beats in before burning in and made a ground-getaway. These birds go almost 2 pounds in a good year so, they can take some punishment. We scour the base of this mountain again and that's that, no blood, feathers, nothing. I had 6 perfect walkers within bustin' range just saunter off casually while I fiddled with my gun. Such is life w/ new machines.

So we are standing there, panting, looking at each other, that was just too many birds to not go back up after. So we do, all the way up this time. The top gets super gnarly in giant pointed red/black basalt. This stuff looks like a jagged black glacier field with van sized pointed boulders that rock when you step on them and all the stupid things land edges up when they peel off the rim above. If you've ever scrambled along on an ocean break-wall and gotten stuck and had to back-track around a hole too big to leap then you know the terrain, now, slant it all 50 or 60 degrees.
You fall? You are done. So, hop onto something solid or be prepared to take a long ride down on your new all terrain vehicle (aka: house sized rock).

We stop listen, hear some calls, get on with the chase but- as birds do, they disappeared. We summit this monster and soak in the view. I've got a picture coming from the halfway point so... it was the only place we could stop and shoot. Wicked cool climbing and serious epic views.

The rest of the day I had no issues with the new gun busting Jack's and stuff so I chalk the malf up to being a new gun, but...now I got the Devil Bird bug again, a pocket full of 1 ounce #6 20 gauge shot shells and the perfect gun for it too (yes it got scarred and scratched...).

Stay tuned for next weeks episode! Happy New Year!

BEWARE THE DEVIL BIRD!


Weeeeeeeeeeeeee!

Oh yes... we have those here and they are quite properly named "Devil Birds". This is a neat write up, I enjoyed it. Another terrible bird here are "Huns", or Hungarian Partridge. Similar to Chukkar, very frustrating to hunt.

One of my favorite chukkar pictures, came from a guy this past summer who heard a noise in a nearby abandoned mine. He snuck in with a camera to get a picture of whatever it was... and got the bejezzus scared otu of him when it was a huge flock of chukkar who dive bombed him on the way out. He was able to snap this picture as they dove past him





-DallanC

mmm they taste good too. Ive smoked a couple of these with the .410 , escapees from the game farms running free in the river bed. the chuckor have managed to hold on in the high country and we have a small population but the red legs just dont like it here and die ou t.
great picture Dallan I can only imagine the shock of that moment, pidgeons out of a barn would pale in comparison.keep at em stovie you will get there. the new gun blues are a pain in the butt for sure, I had the safety on and chamber not closed my buddy put a round in the magazine BACKWARDS boy that was funny as heck to watch him clear it .

Them cave birds are fresh outta the factory man....straight up from the depths and the paint aint even dry yet! Never seen a pic like that before, very much thank you. Incredible.

Thanks El, oh I think you know where I'll be this weekend. I hate the swing *nothing* keep swinging thing with the safety on. I do these climbs with a cold chamber. A reverse round install? Ohhh man would that suck where I was...."hmm...fillet the gun, balance the parts on the pointy rocks, puff of wind and... *ting, tating ting ting.........tink*. AHHHHH!" I had just enough oomph in my pinky to get the 3rd round back in the magazine tube and my pinky was juuust small enough to let the pawl engage and trap it- after 20 trys. Almost had to pull the barrel. Somehow the pawl that stops the rounds missed the rim on the third one and woops! Jammo. It's filleted at home and man I've tried to get it to do it but it wont so a hunk of new gun something might have gotten under the pawl letting the 3rd round in with the second. Also got some rounds stuffed in the mag now, with the barrel off and trigger out, hoping it'll soften the spring some, gonna let it sit all week like that in the safe.

Stovey, your writing reminds me of Louis L'amour. After you read the first 2 sentences, your hooked into reading the whole thing.

That's a very nice compliment sir!

Here's a shot from last week, bout 1/4 the way up.

looks very much like the cenral otago country they live in here.

A brilliant story of your hunt Stovey...a magnificent read mate. Them birds certainly sound like they are well worth the trouble...and the view in your pic shows just how desolate and formidable the landscape is mate.

That is a great pic Dallan, I reckon the photog would have had to do a pants change after he got down.

Keep at 'em Stovey, but think about an O/U...I never had a feed problem wiv one of them mate.

Cheers, Vince

stovepipe wrote:

Here's a shot from last week, bout 1/4 the way up.

No wonder you're not bagging birds. You've got to stop hunting on the moon!!! Man, that terrain is bleak. What in heck do those birds eat?

We get spoiled here in the northeast. Water everywhere, lush green vegetation. The big problem is that when a bird flushes it puts trees between you and him in an instant.

I think they feed on the carcases of hutners that passed away on the climbs.

They're Devil Birds, they live in Hell! So they obviously eat whatever they want.

stovepipe wrote:

I think they feed on the carcases of hutners that passed away on the climbs.

We have a LOT of Huns(Hungarian Partridge) here in southern Saskatchewan and they are fast and sometimes flighty to boot. Very good eating.

I want summa them....um.....what do they eat? Please dont say old slow hunters.

You would find them in terrain like grain fields and hardwoods but only in the open areas .i.e lightly treed. Along wheat fields and gravel roads for stones for their crops. They are very good roasted. They are a dark meat and you can cook them moist in a slow cooker also. Huns with pepper mushroom gravey and buttermilk biscuits and oven roast potatoes. ummmm