2025-2026 Season Summary

Well we had quite an interesting season this year with unusual weather, for better and worse, dictating where and when we hunted. Our early season was very warm so our local Sage and Sharp-tailed Grouse hunting was limited to short hunts early in the morning. We didn’t really get serious until after we put an Elk in the freezer in early November.

We made our first trip for Chukars and Huns in mid November and were joined by our friends Fran and Frank Thompson who own Classic Setters in Missouri. Bird numbers were down from last year but the weather was spectacular, maybe even slightly on the warm side. Everything was unusually green and lush so birds were a bit dispersed but we managed to find enough to make it worthwhile. The coveys were exceptionally spooky so not many shots were taken, but it was an excellent test of the dogs’ bird handling ability. Of interest, we found California Quail in places we’ve never seen them before.

It was a real treat to hunt with the Thompsons and see some of their dogs in action – especially Mori, the male they imported from Iceland that we bred to a couple years ago. Here he is working a covey:

He didn’t know this covey had already flushed but it was nice to see his cautious approach to handling birds. We also enjoyed seeing “Beau” again, the Thompson’s’ male that was sired by our Heath. This is his first time on Chukar and California Quail.

California Quail don’t often flush wild but the little buggers have a propensity for running around in front of the dogs, as they did here.

After Fran and Frank left we switched our focus back to our own dogs, and to starting three pups we kept this year. June is out of Lacy x Talus, Klofi and Blake are from our Dusty x Birch breeding.

We managed to shoot enough Huns for our Thanksgiving dinner at camp before being chased home by incoming weather.

Our next trip was cut short after a couple days by an ominous weather forecast, with predicted winds gusting to 80 mph, so we packed up and ran for home. Not the kind of conditions you want to be out camping in. The predictions were accurate – all interstates in the area were closed because of blown over semi trucks, trees blew down, buildings got destroyed, etc.

Once the weather settled down we headed back out. By this time the coveys had moved and were much harder to locate, making it more challenging to start young pups that don’t know what they’re looking for. You need a few bird contacts to get puppies going. With spooky coveys that were hard to find, it took a LOT of walking to get the job done.

We didn’t take many photos this year but we managed a few shots of the pups.

It was still amazingly green and lush for late December. We’re usually fighting cold and hunting in snow at this time of year. No complaints from us. Or Prince.

Our final outing in January started with great weather. It had snowed a bit then melted off, spurring yet another new growth of fresh cheatgrass. Again we didn’t get many photos but here’s one of Klofi thinking about her next move.

And here’s one just for kicks – we taught the pups to eat on the chain gang, something we’ve never used before, and it worked out really well.

The mostly great weather couldn’t last forever and it didn’t. We moved to our favorite Chukar area just in time for a temperature inversion to set in. Usually this is good for the hunting, with cold and fog down low in the valleys but sunshine and warmer temps up in the hills where the birds are. Not this time. The dense fog layer stayed higher up making visibility 100 yards or less for all of our Chukar covers.

That’s what it looked like for a week, just the tops of hills poking out here and there. Every day the forecast was that the fog would start to break up “tomorrow” so we hung in, did some exploring up high and found a few birds, along with some new places to hunt, but the fog persisted. We finally gave up and spent the last couple days chasing Huns in a different area and managed to get all three pups pointing by the end of the trip. This isn’t a great shot but it’s June’s first point.

That wraps up another season for us. Now we’re back home, back to work, and waiting for pups to be born.