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Thread: Opening day Chukars coming soon - Kamloops

  1. #1
    Join Date
    Oct 2009
    Location
    Kamloops
    Posts
    26

    Opening day Chukars coming soon - Kamloops

    Opening day of chukars for 3-29 is quickly approaching (Oct. 1st) and in keeping with my tradition, I'll be hiking those sage brush coulees in search of as many coveys of those devil birds as I can find.
    My WPG has been going nuts hearing the clucks above my house and I think we've both had our fill on grouse so far.

    I saw a FB post on Canadian Upland Hunting that a member is putting on an "open house" for those hitting the Osoyoos Oxbows for opening day quail (small BBQ and BYOB) and thought that would be a good idea to see how many of our members would be interested for a Chukar chase?

    I'll be out on Saturday early AM in the lower dewdrop area and will bring a small BBQ and some burgers/hotdogs/pop for those who are interested.
    Be a good way to spend the hot part of the day, enjoy the beautiful scenery and give the dogs a rest before hitting the evening hunt.

    I hunt out of a small blue tracker if you are looking for me ....
    Attached Thumbnails Attached Thumbnails Tracker hunt.jpg  
    Last edited by Dubra; 09-26-2022 at 05:17 PM.

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  3. #2
    Join Date
    Sep 2018
    Posts
    42

    Re: Opening day Chukars coming soon - Kamloops

    How was the hunting? Hope you found a cool spot to lay low for the afternoon!

  4. #3
    Join Date
    Sep 2016
    Posts
    2,537

    Re: Opening day Chukars coming soon - Kamloops

    Spent a lot of time in 3-29 in the sage over the past few weeks hunting and scouting sheep didn’t see a single chuckar… but the size of some of the flocks of blue grouse is insane! Some of them had to be pushing 100+ birds.

  5. #4
    Join Date
    Oct 2009
    Location
    Kamloops
    Posts
    26

    Re: Opening day Chukars coming soon - Kamloops

    Well got to my spot for first light knowing that it's going to be a hot one out there and boy was it true to it's mark. By 10am it felt like it already hit the forecasted maximum of 27*C and the sun was nowhere near at it's highest!

    So, the day started off slow waiting for the sun to hit the hillsides and get the birds active.
    The wind was also non-existent, a dead stale hot hot day which made it hard for the pup to get the scent early enough. I would have liked some wind to help but we still managed to bump a covey of 3 birds within the first 20 minutes of the hike.
    Two quick shots and we walked away empty handed. The look on my dogs face was priceless though, like "what? I do all the work and nothing? Time to get in the game you dumb a%3" hahaha.
    By around 830ish we started hearing the chukars calling one another but it was so sporadic and miles away that I continued with my loop instead of trying to go out and chase them. We hit a few spots that I've had luck with before and 'Whamo', 2 more birds hit the skies.
    Again, two quick shots and ... well you know the drill LoL. All I can say is ... practice practice practice which I have had none!!!! Gonna chalk this up to early season rust
    Was hoping to have a few more birds within each covey but thought that it was still early in the day and they haven't had a chance to really gather up yet.
    Heard a few shots out towards Fredrick but those were the only ones I heard the rest of the day.
    Did my first loop, had a quick water break at the truck and went right back out before it got too hot to do anything.
    By this time all of the chukars stopped calling, most likely they got back into their roost to escape from the heat that was about to hit.
    Did a second loop through a few coulees, came back for lunch and both the dog and myself were fighting each other for the last bit of shade behind the truck.
    Ended up driving down to the lake so the dog could take a swim then packed it up for home .... Chukars 5 and me the big goose egg.
    But I'll be back!!! Back with vengeance hahahaha

  6. #5
    Join Date
    Jan 2022
    Posts
    1,903

    Re: Opening day Chukars coming soon - Kamloops

    good report, thanks for the update
    what is your dog?
    Glad to say I have hunted Northern BC

    Simon Fraser had pretty good judgement on what he found in BC

  7. #6
    Join Date
    Sep 2018
    Posts
    42

    Re: Opening day Chukars coming soon - Kamloops

    Thanks for the update Dubra, sounds like you had a blast! I went out there for a stroll on the 2nd but only managed an excited dog picking up some bird sign and a lot of cactus. Switched to chickens in the late morning and had more
    success and less cactus in the bush.

  8. #7
    Join Date
    Oct 2009
    Location
    Kamloops
    Posts
    26

    Re: Opening day Chukars coming soon - Kamloops

    I have a Griffon named ZeeZee Top

  9. #8
    Join Date
    Oct 2009
    Location
    Kamloops
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    26

    Re: Opening day Chukars coming soon - Kamloops

    Yesterday afternoon was a hard one for me at work .... was thinking of those missed shots on opening day so I got my sh*t together and decided to go for a quick evening hike around Battle Bluffs, hoping to redeem myself.
    Got to the trailhead and found that there was another hunter who had the same idea as me and was just unloading his two pups. I've met him before (not sure if he's a member on this board) and we had a good chat about the area and our dogs.
    Decided to move on, not to crowd him and his dogs so went down the road a few more km's to the Fredrick area of the bluffs.
    Between Fredrick and Battle is real steep down towards the lake with a few deep coulees that you need to side hill before getting to the few flat spots way up high.
    Fredrick has a large swath of private land surrounding the homes, so I decided to have a seat out on a small knoll overlooking the lake, waiting for the chukars to start "chucking" and covey up.
    By around 5pm, the birds began their songs. It's always tough to tell how far they really are from you as their calls carry a fair distance and seem to bounce around off of the rock faces and coulees. Again, it was still pretty warm out and there was little wind as the lake was like glass.
    The dog definitely perked up hearing the calls so we continued to wait to see if we could pinpoint something closer to us.
    About 15min later, my pup stood up with her nose to the sky .... game was now on!
    We made our way down trying to keep the little wind there was to our faces.
    Zee started vibrating and was on a full cat crawl towards a small flat that held some large sage brushes surrounding a big juniper dead in the middle of the draw.
    While we were slowing working our way to the juniper, maybe 60yards away still, a small covey broke which started a mass exodus of at least 20+ birds to hit the skies.
    Both of us froze in shock of what was happening .... and two shots later, dog takes off after the swarm and to my surprise, three birds hit the ground!!!!
    I shoot a 12g 'over under' H&R, so quickly ejecting the two spent rounds and jamming two more shells into the chamber, I waited to see if any birds decided to hold up.
    Zee does a quick lap and comes back to my "Dead Birdy" call and sends another few birds into the air. No luck for me on these ones as they were a bit out of range for my gun but I still sent two more shots off. Unload again and as I was reloading two more rounds, another covey pop up and I couldn't resist the pull of the trigger (even though they were poor sight lines).

    All in all it was great to redeem myself after a weak opening day showing (and the dog was happy )
    Last edited by Dubra; 10-22-2022 at 07:04 PM.

  10. #9
    Join Date
    Jul 2011
    Location
    Victoria/Port Alberni
    Posts
    100

    Re: Opening day Chukars coming soon - Kamloops

    Great report, add some pics if ya can. Keep it up!
    Quote Originally Posted by warnniklz View Post
    well they aren't scissoring... so at least one is male

  11. #10
    Join Date
    Oct 2009
    Location
    Kamloops
    Posts
    26

    Re: Opening day Chukars coming soon - Kamloops

    I've tried to add the pics that I have but I keep exceeding the KB limit.
    Any suggestions?

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