October 9th:

We were back at the shooting preserve (Squaw Canyon Shooters in Rosalia BTW) and we had to get out of town by noon or so. We woke after sleeping like loggers and decided to head out early to see if there were any roosters ranging the property. We took of and hunted for about 45 minutes. When we got back I decided we would wrangle up some chukar and plant them in the hunting area, one last chance for Chukar to get around birds and for me to get some shooting in.

I planted 6 chukar and headed back to the house to grab Chukar and load up my other gear. We arrived at where I wanted to start the hunt and I released Chukar, knowing that there were planted birds within 100 yards of our starting point. Off we went, working with the wind (which wasn't smart on my part) that was blowing 20+, this made it tough on us, Chukar to get wind and for me shooting

We got close to a thick brush patch that I knew held a dizzied chukar and I directed Chukar to the area, it seemed that the wind really was affecting Chukar's ability to scent birds...Anyways, he eventually located the bird, flash pointed and proceeded to try and catch the bird. The bird flushed and caught the wind...LATER! I shot at the bird twice (yeah, I know I shouldn't shoot at a bird flushed by Chukar, but I couldn't resist) and I missed both. Not a great experience, but better then sitting at home.

We kept on towards the next plant spot that I had dropped two birds in. This spot was two large trees that were THICK...Chukar caught scent of a bird, I was on one side, he was on the other. The bird flushed and I could not see what exactly happened, all well. Off to the next spot.

On the way over, Chukar flushed a hen pheasant that was HOT! Chukar pursued for about a 150 yards before he realized that he wasn't going to catch the bird.

A couple more plants were out there and we continued on, the next planted bird we came across, Chukar actually was able to mouth the bid before it flew...Great, I had to give him a nudge with my boot to get him to release it and allow the bird to fly. I let that bird fly back to Pullman. We worked towards the spot that I knew the first bird we worked had landed. Again, I knew exactly where the bird was, but Chukar was having a tough time with the wind. We stayed at it and Chukar was able to located it and point it! He held point for a few seconds and moved in for a bite...before he could do that, the bird flushed, I shot and dropped the chukar with my follow up at 20 yards. We went over to the bird, Chukar laid down and played with the bird a bit and I picked it up...We need to work on that retriever stuff!

So the plant hunt didn't go so well, but I was able to get some shooting in and Chukar was exposed ti hunting in the stiff wind, which was good. That ended the weekend, quail is next weekend!