HunTime

[Marshian]

Had my dad and brother come in for the MT upland opener. We did well on the huns, 11 on the opener and 5 the next day, but surprisingly saw no sharpies where I usually get them. Saw a lot of pheasants and pretty pumped for that. The speedgoat pic doesnt do it justice as to how close they decided to cross the road in front of us. Id rather get mine the old fashioned way-with my gun.

 

[Huntfit]

Cool pics, love the Lopes.

 

[pointingdogsrule]

nice

good luck to all
the dog

 

[jlmatthew]

Very high on the bucket list! Hope one day I can get a job at Malmstrom and try for myself

 

[Rat Fink]

Looks like Papa needs a left handed shooting shirt. Nice bag of birds. I need to get out for some huns soon.

 

[Upland Steve]

Love chasing Huns, we get a few each year here in Wa. but overall they are not that plentiful. Looks like you have some nice wheat country to hunt. It looks similar to where we hunt.

 

[NVLongbow]

Always fun to chase birds with family.

We have some Huns but mostly Chukars.

Due to recent fires, NV Department of Wildlife has chosen to cancel this years Sage Hen season in 3 mountain ranges in the north east portion of our state.

Probably for the best. Birds were plentiful there last year (see attached photo); but will have a rough couple years after all the burning.

 

[1_pointer]

Good haul on the sage grouse!! I'm hoping to bag a few later this week in Idaho.

IMO, fires is some of the NE NV and NW UT country has been good for sage grouse, IF appropriate stabilzation and rehab (ie seeding) were done timely. Much of that was held up by the courts in NV...

 

[NVLongbow]

Good haul on the sage grouse!! I'm hoping to bag a few later this week in Idaho.

IMO, fires is some of the NE NV and NW UT country has been good for sage grouse, IF appropriate stabilzation and rehab (ie seeding) were done timely. Much of that was held up by the courts in NV...

Fire is definitely a big part of the ecosystem. The most recent Bulge has an article about Sage Grouse/Elk and states what good for one is usually good for the other. We know fire is good for elk.

Most of the sage brush in 100's of square miles was burnt to a crisp. Pray for good seeding efforts and conditions.

Can reseeding be done if fire happens in a wilderness area or are we stuck with habitat more cheat grass and feral horses?

Someday I want to hunt Huns with Upland Steve.

 

[JLS]

Hot burns are not all that good for sage grouse. A cooler, mosaic pattern that leaves different age successions of sage will provide for much better habitat. Like most species, a single age monoculture is not ideal.

 

[1_pointer]

Reseeding can be done in a wilderness area; I've planned them and watched them happen. However, unless an exemption is granted by the administering office, you are still constrained by the motorized restriction. IME, this is often not granted. The ones I was part of we aerial seeded them via plane and/or helicoptor. This method can be very successfull, but timing of the application and more importantly weather will determine the success. This method is often much cheaper than drill seeding due in part as it does not require some of the clearances needed for ground disturbing methods.

I agree that mosaic burns are better for sage grouse, but cannot understand how that would end up in different age classes of sagebrush. Care to explain?

IME with fire and sagebrush, it is very susceptible to fire and will kill it quite readily young or old. Since nearly all the sagebrush species that occur where there are sage grouse are non-sprouting (they have to recolonize an area from seed) different age classes can occur as the sagebrush fills in the burnt areas. For many of the big sagebrush species much research has shown that they will fill it at about a max of 30' per year. This happens along fire boundary of both hot and "dirty" burns, but the increased edge of the "dirty" allows for the infilling faster. I think I may have answered the question I asked of you...

PS- Sage is not sagebrush... Just a pet peeve that was drilled into my head by a graduate school professor.