Chukar Hunting Guide and Tutorial

That's a question I don't answer. It's not a competition and its not about limits for me. I'm a chukar hunter, not a meat hunter. If I was a meat hunter, I'd pay some farmer to drive me out to the back 40 and shoot one of his buffalo. With one bullet, I'd have a freezer full of enough lean, flavorfull meat to feed my family for years. I LOVE chukar hunting. One and done holds no appeal for me.

I will tell you is this. In the big three chukar states (OR, NV, ID), I expect to move between 1 to 3 coveys per hour of hunting. Coveys range in size between a half dozen birds to hundreds of chukars in the super coveys but 12-20 is usual. There are huntable populations in the lesser states, but you will probably see fewer chukars. There are pockets where the hunting can be outstanding, but unless you spend a lot of time hunting these states, you will be fortunate to stumble across one.

As a comparison, in the Mojave Desert, the coveys are smaller and farther between, typically 8-12 chukars and I usually move less than a handful of coveys per day. You should see something in between in northeastern California, Utah and Washington. I have not seen reliable statistics from any of the fringe states.

I am not fortunate enough to live in chukar country. I would love that, but I live in Sacramento. Most people do not think of California as a good bird hunting state, but it really is.

There is good pheasant hunting on public land just 15 minutes from my house. The turkey population has exploded in the sierra foothills over the last 20 years; there is public land with turkeys (and mountain quail) for the savvy hunter only 45 minutes away. Valley quail and dove hunting are close too, 15 minutes to 2 hours or so, depending on where I go.

I am smack dab in the Pacific Flyway and waterfowling here is outstanding. Most of the time, I duck hunt on a Sacramento Valley river out of my duck boat; the boat launch is 25 minutes from my garage door. There is also terrific snow goose hunting in the rice fields north of Sacramento. Access, though, is difficult without hiring a guide, joining a club or leasing a pit. For honkers, I have to drive to the northern part of California. The Klamath basin is a 4-hour drive and has lots of public land and first rate goose hunting.

But for chukar hunting, I have to drive at least 3 hours no matter where I go. I usually drive about 5 hours but often 9 hours or more, one-way, to get to areas with more chukars and fewer people. There aren't many chukar hunters where I live, but none of us are "casual" chukar hunters.

When I first answered your question, I said

I don't know of any chukar video on the market. There isn't a lot of solid info on chukar hunting out there. That is why I wrote this article. I've given some thought to making an amateur video myself, but that is as far as it has gotten.

Yes, I absolutely think so, although I have not read anything that scientifically supports this contention. I once observed chukar in a valley between two mountain ranges in the Mojave Desert. I was completely surprised by their presence in that dry valley almost completely void of vegetation. I couldn't think of any reason for them to be there. That was more than a decade ago and I have not observed chukar there since. I have given the encounter a great deal of thought and the only explanation I can come up with is that they were migrating between the mountains.

I have also observed chukar fly across river canyons many times to escape hunters and several times for no apparent reason. Perhaps the grass just looked greener.

I have not hunted chukars in B.C. and have traveled within B.C. very little. However, I have read in several sources that there ARE indeed chukars there! The south central portion of the province is rumored to be the best.

I suggest you call your Ministry of Fish and Game and ask to speak with a biologist. I have spoken in the past with wildlife biologists in many states and have found that they are very willing to talk to you and are very knowledgeable. I am confident that they will be able to point you in the right direction.

I've never hunted that area but my educated guess is that the chukars there behave much the same way as they do in the Mojave, which I have hunted extensively.

I don't think the springs will be very productive for you this late in the season. The chukars have spent all summer and a portion of the fall hanging out near the springs, as there probably wasn't water anyplace else. This time of year, now that we have had some precipitation, the birds will scatter to find food. They have probably eaten most of it around the springs by this time. They can get enough water from acorn sized pockets in rocks so don't think there needs to be pools of standing water for them to move away from the permanent water sources.

I would definitely start at the rimrock and hunt just above and just below it to begin with. If that isn't productive, working parallel to the rim 100-200 yards below. Keep moving down until you find the birds. But I don't think you'll have to go down much, if there are birds in the area, they're going to be near the rim. I don't think it will be enough snow or cold to drive them downhill.

I'm not familiar with the Victorville area. I've only hunted the northern Mojave Desert. There are more chukars in the northern part. There may be some where you hunt quail, but you have to get up on the mountains, not down along the river where you're likely to find quail.