Chukar. Is this normal?

I've been hunting chukar for 17 years and 25+ times a year for the last 4 or 5. Have you die-hard chukar fanatics experenced this?

My GWP has, probably a dozen times in the last 3 years, winded coveys from 300-400 yards. An example is last Saturday. We were headed to the truck bout a mile away. She was tired and had been basically hunting straight towards the truck for the last 3/4 mile. She turned into the wind without a hint of being birdy. I've learned the hard way to follow. After about 200 yards, she put her nose up a couple of time and I knew from experence that she was on birds but that they were a ways away. the next 100-150 yards, she checked me everytime she got to a dropoff and waited til I caught up. The last 100 yards she was having trouble on their exact location cause she tossed back and forth but slowed way down, waiting for me. The wind was bout 8-12 miles an hour and shifted depending on where you were on the hill. Finally she nailed them and the covey only had 7 birds in it. They hadn't run cause they were in a little south facing cut out of the wind with pretty high brush and the covey was scattered, not like when they've been pushed plus they had to be flushed instead of flushing when I topped out above them. Another example was hunting in a blazzard last year, she got birdy for at least 400 yards into the storm. When the covey flushed, there were no tracks in the snow. They had been holed up in tall brush, waiting the storm out I guess.

Just wanted to know if this is usual for dogs that have alot of experence on chukar.

Sounds to me like you have one heck of a dog. If you are asking if dogs get birdy when the birds are 3-400 yards away I would say yes. If you are asking if birds hold completly still until flushed I would say yes. I have seen that quite a bit. When the winds blows hard enough my dog will put it's nose in the air and you can just tell she is birdy. There may not be a covey for a couple hundred yards but you can just tell. One thing I have noticed when chukar hunting, you have probably noticed this to, there are almost always birds on the hike back to the pickup. I would say 75% of the time when you are on your last leg and trying to just survive the day, your dog locks up when you are almost back to the pickup.

The key is the point, if your dog will point birds at 40-50 yards that's awesome, sometimes mine does and sometimes she is within 10 yards of the covey when she points, not so awesome.

Anyway good luck for the rest of the season, I look to get out 3-4 more times.

I would have to say that you do have a special dog. I have a GSP that is like that. In the pic below he picked out some birds that were at the creek bottom while we were on the ridge. I hiked through the huge bolders and finaly jumped them. I shot two birds out of the flock and only saw the last one fall. Max kept pointing down a deep three foot wide hole. AFter looking for a while I went in the whole while telling him that I was going to pound him if the bird wasnt there. When I reached the bottom I saw the red beak Almost out of reach in another hole. After that happen I never second guessed him.

Nevada, Thats awesome looking country. It also looks like it could be a frustrating one when they fly across instead of along the rim. Good luck these last 3 weeks.

Hunting in a good wind can be fun but a lot of work, My GSP's have taken me 300-400 yards down a steep hill into a stiff wind for one bird that flushes wild more times than I care to recall. I'm going to give the Snake River one last try this week, it was pretty poor in October but better than SE Oregon was last weekend.

The chukar numbers are way down this year. A month ago I said the numbers were down 30-40%. Now I'm thinking the numbers are down 60-70%. My dog only pointed 2 coveys in about 4 hours of hunting this weekend. Usually you will stumble across a single or two, but I sure haven't. If your not seeing birds every 15-20 minutes it's not real fun. I might just have to call it a year and hope the hatch comes through better next season.

In2, I think you are spoiled. I figure a covey an hour is awesome. Those are guarenteed short days. A covey can mean no shot or it can mean a busted covey and limit. Early I regularly take a limit out of one covey but this late its harder to stay in them and get quality shots. Some people go to the gym and get on a treadmill for less of a workout than a chukar hunt. Rather chase a good dog around and maybe kill something.