After christmas chukar hunt

quail hound

quail hound

Moderator
I'm planning to head up to the NE corner after Christmas for some chukar hunting in the hills. I'll probably make my base near Susanville and hunt NE and SE from there, hell I might even by a Nevada license for a few days just to give me some options. May thrown in a little quail hunting while I'm up there. Anybody up north feel like getting out for a day or 2 up there? I think I'm leaving the 26th and coming home on the 31st.
 
i could be interested i got 10 days off around xmas but looks i could be in idaho for that week if the weather is good, i got my ep from a breeder up in susanville he told me to come up and he would take me chuker hunting!
 
Let me know. I'll be hoping for a little snow.:cheers:
 
north nevada

sorry i'll try again. the brush fires decimated most of northern nevada. the nevada dept of game closed alot of the area to hunting.go to their website for the correct info. susanville has alot of blm land. there is a pheasant hunting place there. the paradise valley is a great area,but you need to talk to the farmers for permission to hunt. they get very mad if you trespass.winnemucca is the area to hunt quail and chukars. i live in washoe valley and our fire last fall eliminated all the birds on blm land .only birds are in and around our houses.i go north of reno to palamino valley and golden valley. i am going to lone pine ca later for some pheasnt hunting. their planted ,but better than no birds. good luck.
 
Thanks for the info. Hopefully we get into some birds.:cheers:
 
QH, have you hunted up there before and if so how long ago? Things have changed at least in the Nevada area near Gerlach.
 
calamari said:
QH, have you hunted up there before and if so how long ago? Things have changed at least in the Nevada area near Gerlach.
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No, never hunted up that way but it's something I've always wanted to do. I'm not expecting to go out and limit everyday but I hope to see more chukar than I do where I hunt them in the coastal range. I know they had some fires up in Lassen Co this year but hopefully we can find enough good areas to make for a nice trip.
 
quail hound said:
I'm not expecting to go out and limit everyday but I hope to see more chukar than I do where I hunt them in the coastal range.
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Having low expectations is good because great basin Chukars are the hardest hunting I've ever done.
Some things to consider if you don't already know it but Springers may not be the best breed for Chukars out there. The slopes are extremely steep and it's very difficult to keep up with your dogs when they flush birds. That's why you'll see pointers being the preferred breed by guys who do it a lot out there. A friend in Oregon who hunts every week had one of his dogs go on point .65 miles away from him. He uses a GPS system to find and go to his dogs. He also had a total ascent of 4090' his last hunt and walked just shy of 10 miles. Like I said tough hunting.
They've had moisture out there and the roads will be wet. That means you need to get where you're going when the road's still frozen in the morning and not come out till it refreezes in the evening. Drive during the day on those two tracks away from the graveled roads and you tear the roads up for everyone. Some of them are so rutted from guys doing that you can't use them.
Everybody and his brother in Reno seems to hunt up in the Gerlach area and they apparently all use ATVs. The last time I was out there where we could walk away from people in the past there were ATV tracks and you couldn't find places that haven't been hunted. I'm not going back.
Look for south facing slopes with benches, knobs and rock outcrops waaayyy up on the mountains and start walking. If it snows they'll be at the edge of the snow line and slightly into it. As it melts they move uphill and stay in that zone. Being down low is an early hot weather pattern in my experience when they need to be around water. With the moisture the Cheat Grass has greened up and they don't need to be near water. It's all about a safe place to bail off of when pursued from below. You'll grow to hate the beady eyed little S.O.B.s.:laugh:
If you flush birds they'll often fly around a ridge line, quickly pull up and land just out of sight and just a little higher than where you saw them disappear. They'll also often walk back to where you flushed them within an hour if you feel like waiting. Kind of a crap shoot but a pattern they often follow.
Good luck and take stuff to get yourself unstuck.
 
calamari said:
Having low expectations is good because great basin Chukars are the hardest hunting I've ever done.
Some things to consider if you don't already know it but Springers may not be the best breed for Chukars out there. The slopes are extremely steep and it's very difficult to keep up with your dogs when they flush birds. That's why you'll see pointers being the preferred breed by guys who do it a lot out there. A friend in Oregon who hunts every week had one of his dogs go on point .65 miles away from him. He uses a GPS system to find and go to his dogs. He also had a total ascent of 4090' his last hunt and walked just shy of 10 miles. Like I said tough hunting.
They've had moisture out there and the roads will be wet. That means you need to get where you're going when the road's still frozen in the morning and not come out till it refreezes in the evening. Drive during the day on those two tracks away from the graveled roads and you tear the roads up for everyone. Some of them are so rutted from guys doing that you can't use them.
Everybody and his brother in Reno seems to hunt up in the Gerlach area and they apparently all use ATVs. The last time I was out there where we could walk away from people in the past there were ATV tracks and you couldn't find places that haven't been hunted. I'm not going back.
Look for south facing slopes with benches, knobs and rock outcrops waaayyy up on the mountains and start walking. If it snows they'll be at the edge of the snow line and slightly into it. As it melts they move uphill and stay in that zone. Being down low is an early hot weather pattern in my experience when they need to be around water. With the moisture the Cheat Grass has greened up and they don't need to be near water. It's all about a safe place to bail off of when pursued from below. You'll grow to hate the beady eyed little S.O.B.s.:laugh:
If you flush birds they'll often fly around a ridge line, quickly pull up and land just out of sight and just a little higher than where you saw them disappear. They'll also often walk back to where you flushed them within an hour if you feel like waiting. Kind of a crap shoot but a pattern they often follow.
Good luck and take stuff to get yourself unstuck.
Click to expand...

Thanks for the info, any help is greatly appreciated. I know my springers arent the best breed for that country but we manage a few birds every year out near Panoche where population densities are VERY low. It's more about the adventure than birds in the bag for me anyways. Last year we headed to mojave on a whim, never having been there before, and had a great time even though we only harvested a dozen birds in 3 days. I'll be careful on the old two tracks and leave things better than I found them.:cheers:
 
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