Toughest Bird Hunting?

No grouse? No pheasant? No shambling up and down hills of brush and burrs and ticks in dry Wyoming heat looking for invisible ground birds with a white Lab that would rather digest the birds than retrieve them?
 
re:ginshun

Your snipe catching advice could cause some folks in California to get in trouble with the law. They need to be sure that the sack isn't black and is lead free too. I thought I needed to clear that up.;)
 
Eastern wild turkey. Their eyesight, wariness, and absolute intolerance of mistakes makes them a very hard quarry. If they had a nose that could smell bug spray it'd be absolutely impossible.
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I agree. I grew up hunting them in WV. They always seem to be a couple steps ahead.
 
Ruffed Grouse. You get to hike through mountains trying to jump them and they always find a way to put a tree between you and them.
 
Chukar hunting and Blue Grouse expend the most energy where my experience is concerned. You simply must keep walking, in steep rough country. All day long.

Then again, waterfowl hunting, while it doesn't sound tough, is possibly the worst, because of all the work it takes to get set up. Put out dekes, pick em up, move, put em out, etc. Through mud is exhausting. Very enjoyable when you get into your lay out boat and just wait. It'll be sunset before you know it. Even without the naps.:D


At least chukar hunting is hiking and enjoyable with your dog working out front and seeing plenty of country, but only after you get up the steep stuff to get to the high ground.

Himalayan Snowcock. You can find them in NV, NM, and UT. They are the larger cousins of chukar, almost the size of a turkey. And they don't stick around to see what you want, either.
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I have a friend who hunts them in Nevadas' Ruby Mt.s, and the several hours it takes to hike up to where they're at (at the top near ridges) is Mt. Goat country. Way up there. He's yet to score, but he keeps trying. I haven't personally hunted them or they'd be #1 on my list of birds I've hunted.
NOTE: Snow Cock are tough birds, they'll take on a large hawk and likely come out the winner.
 
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ostrich!!!!! they tend to fight back
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Don't be so silly. You sneak up on 'em when they have their head stuck in the sand or down a hole. They won't know what hit em.

But you young whippersnappers never think about having to carry out the huge critter afterwards:cool:
 
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bkcraun has it. The ruffed grouse or Hungarian partridge has those beady little black eyes for a reason. If they don't give you a coronary when they take off just at your feet they will always try to put wood between your bead and their butt.
 
I also vote for Chukar. They run uphill then just when you get to them, they laugh at you and fly back down the mountain...Then laugh, again...
 
One of the best selling points for the house we live in was all the quail and chukar that run around it like a barnyard.

I wake up to the call of the mountain quail every day. The baby quail are growing up and there must be a flock of at least 50 that I see running around.

Last week the Chukar started coming down the mountain. Saw a flock of about 12 juveniles and parents strutting around.

I keep the area around the house as a 'Closed Zone'. Once the season opens, I'll be hiking up in the hills behind the house to give a little chukar hunting a try...
 
Aside from the great emu chase I was involved in when I worked for animal control, the toughest birdhunting I've ever done was hunting quail in scrubby, thorny forest without a dog.

In my family when we hunt birds without dogs the youngest member of the hunting party becomes "the dog". Being the dog is a tough hunt indeed. By the end of the day you are covered in dirt, burrs, torn clothing, and more cuts and scrapes than you can shake a stick at.
 
hunting ducks in the mississippi river bottoms without a dog and during terrible weather and freezing and strong winds its terrible. the mallards that come from canada are so smart if you blink they are gone. They circle the

blind about 5 times before landing and then you have to go walk out in the water when you get a duck and the mud under that is like quick sand and you sink and fall on your back. Then your friends come out to help and they fall twice it really

stinks:mad: BUt it is challenging and i will keep doing till i cant.:rolleyes:
 
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