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Joined: Feb 2005
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Tom C Offline OP
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I will be driving with my wife and dog from Wisconsin to Oregon in early October to visit my son in Portland. I am planning on siteseeing on the way out and possibly stopping one time for a couple days to do some bird hunting. Then after spending some time with my son, my wife will get on a plane to fly home and I will bird hunt my way back to South Dakota for a week of pheasant hunting before returning to Wisconsin for some deer hunting and late season grouse. By then the dog and I should be tired.

I am looking for suggestions on what and where to hunt. On the way out, I would like a nicer lodge since my wife does not hunt. On the way back I can stay in any flea bag available. I would like to hunt only wild birds and primarily no pheasant since I will see plenty of those in SD. Hiring guides periodically would help since I have nver hunted huns, wild chukar, sharpies or blues. I should have about 1-2 weeks for a slow ride back to SD.

Any and all suggestions and ideas are welcome.


Tom C

�There are some who can live without wild things and some who cannot.�
Aldo Leopold
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I've only hunted in SD so I can't respond but give us a hunting report after you get back. smile

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Tom-
Your request is a tall order.

I'm guessing your outbound route is the hi-line across.
Not everything is , open early Oct. You'll have to check the state guides. MT is drought stricken right now in the east.

I'd ease my way across MT hunting prairie birds (huns, sharptails) DIY, using the BM guide, and then hire a guide in WA. But if your wife is along, you may wish to stay at a lodge and have a day with a guide on the way out. They can put you on Hun's and Sharptails, pretty regularly.

Of all the game available to you, the rarest is the MT Quail.
The prairie birds can be pretty easy DIY. Sage Hen's are a specimen hunt. Not much of a challenge. They are pretty parochial, so if a rancher says, "I've seen them up in that there draw..." well, that's where they'll generally be. Same as a covey of Hun's imprinting on some old pile of farm junk.

I'd stay away from Dusky and Sooty grouse without a guide. Just because of the logistics, and lack of mountainous hunting experience most people that ask this sort of question have.


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Montana..for sure...Fancy to sleep in the truck...

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My advice, and I'm a western bird hunter....make sure you know where the good vets are at in the areas you intend to hunt. Your dog is gonna get beat up. That's a lot of hunting in a short amount of time, especially for just 1 dog. The areas where Chuks are found, it's not usually a 2 hour hunt...it can last HOURS. My dogs are in excellent hunting shape and usually need at a minimum 3 days to recover after a day chasing Chuks. Hunt them too soon afterwards and injuries will start to pile on. Sharptails and boomers....same thing different terrain. It's a different kind of tough though. Lots of miles. Good luck.

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As well, if your dogs aren't snake broke, I'd have your vet order in a batch of Red Rocks rattlesnake vaccine. Bumper crop of them around here this year. Lots of vaccinated dogs here and it seems to work well.

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For this intense and short a campaign, I'd avoid chasing chukars. If you find a few at the edge of a wheatfield, whack 'em. But chasing them up into their homeland is very hard on dogs, you, and potentially your gun.

Remember that they come from the 'Stans, and the "ground" is rocks, vertical, and hot/dry where they live over here, too. The air is thin and the gravity thick up there, the rocks will eat your gun barrels, or at least take a hunk out them. Snakes like those places, too.

You know that any critter that lives off cheat grass and Russian thistle ("tumbleweed") is a mean little bastard. You just THINK they are yelling "chuck, chuck, chuck" from that distant ridge....but my linguist/hunter buddy tells me that it is really another word that they learned long ago from "Tommy Atkins," a common Anglo-Saxonism of four letters that rhymes with "chuck," and that the last part of their call--"yoo" is just too high-pitched for human ears to hear....

Kill any that don't lead you to injure yourself or your dogs or your double! Tell 'em "This one's for what's left of Mike!"

All kidding aside, I hope you have a great trip and find a bonanza of birds!

Last edited by Mike A.; 08/05/17 11:51 AM.
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ANY Chukar hunt should be preceded by an air strike....

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Good advice above re dogs. Huns are looking good this year in WY.


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