Bird Hunting season is officially underway here in Nevada and has been since the beginning of September. No, chukar, huns, and quail are not open yet, but Blue Grouse, which is a new favorite of mine is open, and in parts of the state the short Sage Grouse season opens this coming weekend.
In appreciation of bird season I posted the picture above. Cash is on point, and Porter is backing.

Jay

Our shipping manager, Don, and myself spent a few days last weekend in the Eastern Nevada mountains hunting mule deer with muzzleloaders and living out of back packs. We looked at a lot of different bucks every day, but nothing that we would consider a “shooter”. We hunted basically from the valley floor all the way up to about 9000 feet, and there was deer spread out the whole way. Our camp at 9000 feet was a lot of fun because we were surrounded by mountain goats. All day long there were goats around us, and all night long you could hear them walking around the rocks just above us. It was a very fun experience. All in all we had a great time. Proof once again that hunting is about the whole experience and not just about killing an animal.

Jay

I had a great three days of Blue grouse hunting last weekend. By the time we arrived in camp on Saturday, got camp set up, and drove the ATV up to where I was going to hunt, I only had about an hour of hunting time. (I actually had much more than that, but I do not like to hunt late into the evening for two reason; One, if I lose track of a dog I want to have time to locate him before dark. Two, I don’t like to push birds right before dark as that is when they are preparing for evening/night and pushing them into places that they wouldn’t ordinarily be or busting up coveys makes them more susceptible to predation.) So, I hunted for about an hour and was very pleased to get two grouse.
The next day Lisa and I drove the ATV up again to where we had hunted the night before. This time we hiked one level higher and quickly shot a limit of birds.
On the third day we drove back to the same general area. This time Lisa brought her lawn chair, her cup of coffee, and a book. She was able to sit on a big knoll right at the bottom of the big north facing bowl that I hunted. We also had radios so that we could keep in touch. This way she could relax and watch the whole hunt from the comfort of a chair. She loves to watch the dogs hunt. I hunted even higher than I did the day before and was again able to get a limit.
Lisa and I had a great time, and the dogs of coarse were pretty happy about things as well. Of the birds that I shot, only two were not pointed, which is pretty good for a western Blue Grouse hunt.

Jay

September is finally here and the world (in my mind) is as it should be, once again. From this point until the middle of February it is full time bird hunting. Paolo has been out the last two days on a dove shoot and got a jump start on me for this year’s bird season. I am taking off Saturday morning though for three days of Blue Grouse hunting in central Nevada. (Tasty)
As I look forward at the calendar there is nothing but hunting for months to come. The hunting itself is always fun, but it is everything that goes along with it that makes the experience whole. From the relationship with my hunting dogs, to the time spent with friends, to physically walking around in some of the most beautiful places in the world, to knowing that you ethically and humanely took an animal that you will truly appreciate eating, it is all part of the experience for me.
When I am out hunting I can’t help but think that this is how it should be done. I was raised from a little kid in a family that was surrounded by hunting and most of the meat that we ate growing up was from animals that we hunted. To this day I honestly always have a moment of awkwardness when buying meat at a grocery store. The irony is that there are people who are anti hunting that don’t think twice about buying a slab of beef at the store that came from an animal that someone else killed for them.

Jay