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A Tale of Two Sisters in Sisters
Red, Dan Ramming’s three year-old Viszla was focused. She’d been coursing back and forth in front of the hunters staying about 50 yards out front. Now, she cut a tight pattern around a fallen juniper. Low to the ground, she suddenly froze, head cocked, body bent toward a tall sagebrush.
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Steep Terrain and Heavy Cover make Mountain Quail a Challenge to Hunt
The birds were crossing the trail as I rounded the corner. I put the gun to my shoulder and closed the distance as they scurried through the fallen leaves. Advancing, I waited for them to flush, picking a target when they did and swinging with it. The gun boomed and one bird dropped and I…
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New Hunters can Benefit from the Structure of an Organized Hunt
We boxed the corner of the standing corn. Sam in the ditch at the point, Mark forty yards to the north and me fifty yards downhill to the east. Dana, Adam and Chad, who already had a rooster in his game bag were busting up through the ten foot stalks. They whistled, they howled like…
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Beginning Birders may find Winter a Good Time to get Started
A rainbow trout drifted by, fins kicking feebly against the wind-swept ripples. The little fish rolled on its side, then righted again, dorsal fin and tail breaking the surface. As I rowed my boat toward the south shore of East Lake, I watched the little guy as he finned in the opposite direction. Sometimes a…
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Plan Now for September’s Dove Season Opener
The afternoon heat was lessened by high clouds and a slight breeze that kept the dust from our passing hanging in the air. I walked along in the middle between James and John, well away on either side. We kept hunting not because we expected to see anything, more because we were there and it…
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Four-for-Four on Blackpowder Birds
The dogs bumped the first pheasant near the fence before we had our guns loaded. Jeremy called the pointers back and we watched the rooster set his wings and scribe a half-circle in the sky to land in the tall grass near the barn.
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Hunters can try Snipe for a Change of Pace, a Different Taste
I slogged down through the boot-sucking muck in the creek bottom and up into the mud flats on the other side. I’d seen a cock pheasant fly this way and wanted to get another crack at him. I tromped around through the tall grass on the slope and pushed to the end of some low…
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Don’t Leave Your Chukar Hunt to Chance
I know who you are. You’ve got a spring in your step and a sparkle in your eye. Your most prized possession is a beat-up Remington 870 or a double gun showing its wear at the muzzle and the foregrip. There is dog hair on the seat of your truck and a half-used box of…
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Challenging Oregon’s Chukar and Huns
Half the challenge of upland bird hunting lies in finding a spot to hunt. Locate good bird-holding habitat and you have a place you can return to every season with a reasonable chance for success.
Field Guide
Birds
New to the state? One of the best ways to go hunting in Oregon is to go after birds! Whether it’s chukar, pheasants or quail—bird hunting in Oregon is a grand experience. If you’re going upland bird hunting soon, be sure to read up on Gary’s Oregon bird hunting stories and articles before you go.