# Chaser's and Bax*s Multi animal hunt



## Bax* (Dec 14, 2008)

Chaser and I headed down to Southern Utah early Friday morning to hunt ducks, chuckar, ECDs, rabbits and anything else.

On the way down, Chaser's truck blew a tire which slowed us down a little, but because we are master NASCAR pit crew guys :lol: we got the tire changed out pretty quick and were on our way.

We finally hit the first area that we planned on hunting ducks, and didnt see a single one on the river, so we started plugging along to other areas with water and didnt see a darn thing.

Finally we decided to try looking for some chuckars up on the hills. And after climbing a miserably large hill and wandering around for a while, I saw a chuckar's head peeking over the hill at me. So I called Chaser over to assist with the chuckar's assassination, but it flew off before we could get within range to shoot :twisted: (and seeing as this was our first real effort with chuckars, we quickly learned why they were referred to as devil birds). Finally after chasing them up a ridge, I got a single shot off and got my first chuckar ever! I was pretty dang excited about that. We kept chasing them up the hill but never got a shot off at them again that day.

Later on we decided to try finding some chuckars in another area, and noticed that there was some water off in the distance. So we emptied all the lead from our vests, and loaded up with our steel and headed toward the water. Once we were about 1/2 mile from the water, a jack rabbit jumped up and we took a couple poorly placed shots until I finally clipped his head and brought him down. 

As we continued on toward the water (now only a few hundred yards away from the water), another jack busted up in front of Chaser and he shot at him and missed. Just as he shot, the water erupted with ducks whose panties were in a twist from the gunshot. We waited for the ducks to calm down and land back on the water and slowly crept toward the small reservoir and split up. Seeing as we didnt have a dog, and the water was far too deep to wade more than a few feet out into, we had to wait until the ducks were pretty much over land to take any shots. After a while a pretty ring neck flew over head and Chaser stoned him mid air and he dropped to the ground like a cantaloupe falling from 50 feet. It made quite a thump when it hit. Then it was my turn, I dropped a green head but unfortunately only winged him and he swam away (much to my embarrassment). I later got one last shot off and got a blue winged teal to add to my bag and now I am wondering if I can even make an appetizer with how little meat is on that bird!

Unfortunately we didnt get any other shots off on ducks that evening, so we ended up heading back to the truck with a duck each in our bags.

The next morning we planned on waking up early to try calling in some coyotes before we worked on ducks again, but unfortunately Chaser caught a nasty cold that laid him up for a while so we didnt get a chance to call in any yotes. 

We ended up trying to find some more ducks that morning, and only found some geese on posted private property, and one duck that flew before we were in range off of the river. So the duck gods didnt want us going after any more that day I guess.

Once again we set our sights on chuckars and headed to the rocky hills near an irrigation pond. While Chaser was pooping in a wash, I noticed a jack rabbit jump up in front of me and run over the hill 30 yards away from me. Before I could take a shot, he was gone. BUT the area he ran through made a few chuckars stir and walk out of the sage brush. I took a shot and missed (at a friggin' standing chuckar!) And the whole hill came alive with birds! Around 15 - 20 birds exploded from the surrounding brush and of course, flew to the highest hill near by. The chase was on! As we headed toward the last known location of these little satanists, another jack jumped up and scared even more birds up. As we chased these birds to each new hill, I took a few shots and missed miserably each time (and at this point Chaser still hadnt even had an opportunity to shoot because they kept busting up by me), and one strange thing we noticed about each sighting of chuckars was that before we would see the birds, we would see a jack rabbit first. I dont know if that is normal or not, but almost every sighting had a jack rabbit in the mix too. After wearing our feet raw we decided to head back to the truck and yet again, a jack jumped up followed by two chuckars. Chaser pulled up and slapped one out of the sky while I had my finger in my nose oblivious to where the birds were. So Chaser finally got his first chuckar too!

Unfortunately we were out of time, so we ended up having to head back home. And even though our bird count wasnt as high as we would have liked, we had a lot of fun. So out final count was 3 ducks (one MIA), two chuckars, and a faceless jack rabbit.

On a side note, we found a ton of chuckars on private property. Why are they always on private property?! :twisted: But it was nice to see the upland population was thriving where we went, and we even saw a couple roosters!


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## toomeymd (Sep 21, 2009)

That sounds like an awesome hunt man! Good job on the Devil Birds, they're kicking my a$$ right now.


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## #1DEER 1-I (Sep 10, 2007)

Good, for you Bax and Chaser, looks like you went through a lot of work to get those two chukars (i know the areas) but usually especially where Bax got his, I leave one outfit up by the towers, and one outfit down by the old trash pile and walk down the ridge, its much easier to chase chukars down hill than uphill and usually when you coming down on them they don't tend to run as much, from my experience they like to run up and fly down, but at least you caught up to them a few times.


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## Al Hansen (Sep 7, 2007)

8)


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## cornerfinder (Dec 4, 2008)

WOW. sounds nice. good luck next time as well. may the bird gods alwase smile on you.


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## Nor-tah (Dec 16, 2007)

Great work on the ducks!! And the Chukars! I have been craving a Chukar hunt lately.


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## HuntingCrazy (Sep 8, 2007)

Bax* said:


> While Chaser was pooping in a wash, I noticed a jack rabbit jump up in front of me and run over the hill 30 yards away from me


 -BaHa!- -_O- *OOO*


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## sittingbull (Feb 1, 2008)

Good job guys. Now you know why they call them devil birds and I call them something inappropriate for this forum.


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## Size Matters (Dec 22, 2007)

Its great you found a few to shoot thanks for the report.


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## sawsman (Sep 13, 2007)

Good job guys! gotta love them multi hunts.. It sounds like you would have more shooting if chaser would poop more though... :lol:


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## Artoxx (Nov 12, 2008)

Good job, but I think that is a Cinnamon Teal, not a Blue Wing. Judging by the red coloration. Blue wings don't have that.

Don't feel bad though, the freaking F&G don't even have separate lines on their record keeping sheets for the two different species, since THEY are as incompetent at duck ident as too many hunters.
hehe


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## Bax* (Dec 14, 2008)

Artoxx said:


> Good job, but I think that is a Cinnamon Teal, not a Blue Wing. Judging by the red coloration. Blue wings don't have that.


I thought the same thing but then I compared it to a cinnamon teal I shot the week before and the cinnamon was quite a bit more red in color and this one was much more brown. But I still could be wrong


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## Artoxx (Nov 12, 2008)

Check the bill length, the Cinnamons bills are longer than the Blue Wings, and also have a bit of the wedge head effect you see on Canvasbacks.
But I repeat, Blue Wing Teal do NOT have red on them, even in full breeding plumage. One of them is probably immature.
But like I said, even the F&G mis-identifies them more often than they don't. We had both Blue Wings and Cinnamons on opening day, and we had to pull them all out and show them side by side and bill next to bill to convince them that we knew what we were talking about. THEN they told us that they were all lumped together on their forms, no separate entries. sigh


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## Packbasket (Oct 29, 2009)

good for you fellas, keep getting after them, you won't get better sitting on the couch. 
great photos.


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## Chaser (Sep 28, 2007)

Artoxx said:


> Check the bill length, the Cinnamons bills are longer than the Blue Wings, and also have a bit of the wedge head effect you see on Canvasbacks.
> But I repeat, Blue Wing Teal do NOT have red on them, even in full breeding plumage. One of them is probably immature.
> But like I said, even the F&G mis-identifies them more often than they don't. We had both Blue Wings and Cinnamons on opening day, and we had to pull them all out and show them side by side and bill next to bill to convince them that we knew what we were talking about. THEN they told us that they were all lumped together on their forms, no separate entries. sigh


I still think it was a blue wing. The red on it comes from blood. When Bax* made it over to me, and I pulled it out of his game bag, we found it still alive, so I had to ring its neck. It had been bleeding from its head pretty badly, so I must have smeared some of the blood down its neck and onto its breast. Had this bird had ANY red on it like that before I rung its neck, I would have said the same thing- Cinny. I guess its still a possibility though, could it be a juvie hen cinnamon? Would it be possible that they don't have any red color to them because they are still young? It was a very small bird. I was surprised at how small it was, even for a teal.


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## Ryfly (Sep 13, 2007)

I could say hen Cinnamon.

Chaser, that looks like a toad of a Chukar!


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## Artoxx (Nov 12, 2008)

If you got it all bloody then I would have to see it in hand to form an accurate (hopefully) opinion. It is possible that the color is strictly blood, though it looks a little uniform in the pic to me. It is quite possible that if it IS a juvenile Cinny it would not have any color.
So you may be right about the blood factor. The only way to tell for sure is going to be to compare it side by side with either a Cinn or a BLue that you KNOW for sure what it is. 
Strange that you would mention how small it is though. Greenwings are actually the smallest of the teal in my experience. Most if not all of the Blue Wings and Cinns that I have shot have been at least half again the size of your average GW. So it may very well be a young of the year of EITHER species.
Nice little hunt either way.


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## Bax* (Dec 14, 2008)

Artoxx said:


> I
> Strange that you would mention how small it is though.


I hear that alot!  JK

I was pretty ashamed of the little guy when I retrieved him. They always look bigger when they are in the air!

PS: he tasted TERRIBLE too


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