Thread: Chukar Season Opens Saturday!

Our Nevada chukar season opens this Saturday, and we have a bumper crop, lots of young great-eating birds. My grandson is out mule deer hunting in central NV, and he texted me he is seeing an average of 500 chukar a day. It's hot here, hasn't cooled off yet, and deer hunting is tough. His dad and their friend have settled for a couple of forkies, great eating! Owen is holding out for a big buck this season. All our deer tags are on a draw, and he doesn't want to burn his tag on a dink. It's his first tag in three years. I'm a late 70's aged Nevada native and haven't drawn in five years. When I was a kid we bought over the counter and could often get a doe tag or two some seasons.

Back to chukar...If he's seeing 500/day while deer hunting, he would see significantly more if chukar hunting, since the deer hunting involves a lot of sitting and glassing. Chukar hunting is an all day hard walk up and down volcanic mountains.

I can hardly walk anymore, but there's enough birds I can road hunt a bit, something brand new to me. This is my favorite month every year, Sept 15 to Oct 15. I call is Septober, the month when the weather cools, and hunting seasons open. Chukar season will run through the first Sunday in February.

Excellent!
I do miss Sharpies and Huns. ( well acually you cant miss Sharpies, they're like punted footballs!!) but that was MT.

How'd it go?
What do they say - the first time chukar hunting is for the experience, after that, revenge.

dont see many of the wee buggers anymore.

Nevada chukar is definitely a bucket list item for me

Bit of a rear species around here,should be a closed season on them for a few years.Let the numbers build up.

The numbers down this way ain't moving at all have 3 coveys round here same numbers now as the were 10 yrs ago when we got here been trying to find someone with a breeding pair to get some eggs off and start a breeding program but yet to find any1

I know of a couple of small groups,4-8 but not much increase in population either over the years.Yet there's plenty of quail about in the same areas.

Good luck! We have oodles of Quail but I haven't seen a Chukar in years. There was a good population of them in Marlborough (Awatere Valley) when I was a rabbiter back in the '60's but I don't know if they are still there in numbers.

I was seeing coveys of 40+ birds when I was working in the head of the Awatere in the mid 90's. Apparently they rarely get hunted so would be interesting to see how many are there now.

Originally Posted by Trout

I know of a couple of small groups,4-8 but not much increase in population either over the years.Yet there's plenty of quail about in the same areas.

I just had a resident covey of about 100 Valley Quail walk by my house, coming for a drink and raid on the dicki-bird feeders. The season closed two weeks ago.

Our chukar were way down for several years and might crash this summer. Our drought this winter has been about the worst I've seen in my 77 years here. Our birds depend on grasshoppers to survive the summers, and with no grass or weeds they'll be starving in droves. Also, chukar lose nests if spring is wet and cold. The eggs don't hatch, or the young chicks die from cold or respiratory ailments. That might be what limits your bird populations.

I know the bird well and shot my first 70 seasons ago.