So I'm starting to get into bird hunting, but know next to nothing about it. I got a decent shotgun and my friend wants to go dove and chuckar hunting for starters. We tried chuckar a bit last year and did find some, but most were far away when they jumped, so we just beat ourselves up with the hiking and only got one bird.
Anyway, any tips on how, when, where, etc for either doves or chuckars would be greatly appreciated.
After that, we may start looking into the bigger birds.
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I just wish we still had pheasants around here like we did when I was a kid.
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Doves, find water or sunflower fields to sit on. Chukars, I have no advice. I would suggest hunting ducks as we have a lot of public land for that with a pair of waders and $35.00's worth of duck decoys and you're set!
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The Great Salt Lake marshes hold millions of birds each year and are one of the most important stops for waterfowl on their yearly migration.
If you live on the Wasatch front farmington bay, ogden bay, the bear river bird refuge and four or five other freshwater impoundments hold plenty of ducks to shake your stick at. As was recommended, buy some waders, a dozen dekes and jump on your bike and find some good spots! Oh, and LEARN YOUR BIRDS! Half the people out there have no idea what they're shooting at and that's both bad ethics and could be illegal...
If you're not on the Wasatch front, find a river or pond and the ducks will find you [
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If you have tried chukar hunting you probly should try gouse hunting. Its a blast and from what I've been told way more worth it then chukar hunting (which I am intent on trying this year). I love grouse hunting and they taste great. There are plenty of them around as well. Look for heavily wooded slopes up canyons and you will run right in to them. Shoot me a PM if you are interested.
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Ok, so we tried chukar hunting again. Unfortunately the dog wasn't having anything to do with actual hunting. We saw far less birds than the last time we were out, but did manage to see a few. It took me several days for my legs to recover.
It's time to try to find doves. Any thoughts or pointers, especially for the Tooele area? I drove quite a bit around the Tooele valley, just along the roads, and didn't see a lot that I thought looked promising that wasn't posted as private property. However, I really have no experience hunting them. Any pointers are greatly appreciated.
Yes, and grouse hunting sounds like a lot of fun, if I could find somewhere for that as well. The only times I've seen grouse were on accident.
I need to get out and de-stress, and learn a bit more about the bird hunting, so any advice is appreciated.
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You won't find many doves this late in the year in northern Utah, definitely not enough to pursue them in my opinion.
Grouse are still plentiful and accessible. Drive up to the top of either daniels canyon or payson canyon, find some pines and ideally a stream on some good vertical country and start hiking. You'll need to go a couple miles for each grouse you shoot, but at least it's not chuckar country.
In the mean time there are about a million ducks sitting on ponds within an hour of wherever you live along the Wasatch front...
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