Chukar Hunting in Northern Nevada: A License, a Shotgun, and a Very Long Climb

Upland Game · Yerington, Nevada

Chukar are the most accessible serious hunting in Nevada and, depending on the day, the most humbling. There is no draw. There is no tag. There is no eleven-year wait for a bonus point to mature. You buy a hunting license, you find a rocky hillside, and you go get beat up.

NDOW classifies chukar as state protected upland game, and maps them into Lyon County along with just about every other county in the state. If you live in Yerington, you are already surrounded by chukar country.

The paperwork is refreshingly simple

Per NDOW, most small game and upland game species require only a hunting license — no tag, no draw, no application deadline. Chukar are in that group.

At the fees NDOW currently lists:

• Resident adult hunting license, 18 and older — $38
• Resident adult combination hunting and fishing — $75
• Youth combination, ages 12 to 17 — $15
• Nonresident adult combination — $155
• One-day combination permit to fish and hunt upland game and waterfowl — $23
• Apprentice hunting license, 12 and older — $15, available at NDOW offices only

Chukar and Hungarian partridge also have a youth season, which makes this an excellent first real hunt for a kid who is ready for the mileage. Verify current fees and dates on the NDOW licenses, tags and permits page. Note that hunting hours for upland game birds and rabbits run sunrise to sunset except where otherwise specified.

Where they live

NDOW puts chukar in dry shrubland, often between 4,000 and 13,000 feet, on rocky hillsides with a mix of brush and grass, and usually near a water source. In Northern Nevada that description translates to something very specific once you have seen it:

• Rimrock. Broken rock benches and ledges partway up a slope. This is the single best visual cue there is.
• Cheatgrass slopes. Early season, cheatgrass seed is a major food source. Find green-turned-gold slopes below rimrock and you have found birds.
• Water. In a dry year, springs, guzzlers and stock tanks concentrate everything. Birds will walk a long way to water in the morning.
• South and east faces early in the day, especially once it gets cold.

Look for sign on the rock benches: droppings, dusting bowls, feathers. Chukar are creatures of habit and they use the same terraces year after year.

The one tactic that matters

Chukar run uphill and fly downhill. Everything about hunting them follows from that single fact.

If you start at the truck and push straight up the slope, you will spend your day watching a covey trot away above you, staying exactly out of range, until they finally flush over the ridge into the next drainage. That is the classic chukar day, and everyone has had it.

Instead: climb first, hunt down and across. Get above the rimrock in the dark or the early gray, then work the contour lines back down. Now the birds have to either hold or flush downhill past you, which is the shot you actually want.

A few refinements:

• Work the contour, not the fall line. Sidehilling is miserable and it is also correct.
• Expect the covey to erupt below you and fly away downhill fast. Mount early.
• Mark the singles. Scattered birds hold much better than a grouped covey, and following up singles is where most of the shooting happens.
• If you bump a covey and they sail across a canyon, let them go. Chasing is how you burn a whole day for nothing.

The gun

You are going to carry it for six to ten miles across broken ground and then swing it fast at a bird that appeared out of nowhere. Weight and handling matter far more than gauge.

• Gauge: 12 or 20, whichever you genuinely shoot better. A 20 with good loads kills chukar cleanly and you will be happier at mile seven.
• Choke: improved cylinder to modified covers almost everything. Flushes are close and fast.
• Shot: #6 or #7.5 in a decent field load.
• A sling is not cheating. You will be using both hands on rock more than once.

Take the country seriously

This is the part we care most about, because chukar country hurts people every season.

• Boots. Stiff soles, real ankle support, and gaiters for the cheatgrass. Blown-out footwear ends more chukar hunts than bad shooting.
• Water for two. Carry more than you think, and carry the dog's water too. Early-season heat on a dark rock slope is genuinely dangerous for a hard-running dog. Watch for heat stress and know what it looks like.
• Tell somebody. Leave a plan and a return time with a real person. Cell service disappears fast out there, and a rolled ankle two ridges from the truck is a serious problem, not an inconvenience.
• Muzzle discipline on the climb. Scrambling with a loaded shotgun is exactly when accidents happen. Unload before any climb where you need both hands.
• Know your target. Sage-grouse and other protected species share this country. If you cannot identify it in the air, do not shoot.

Verify before the season

• NDOW licenses, tags and permits
• NDOW rules and regulations
• NDOW chukar species page
• NDOW Plan Your Hunt

For the other side of Nevada upland hunting, see our post on quail and sage grouse. And if you are hunting public land in fire season, our post on shooting and recreating on public land in Northern Nevada covers the fire and access side.

Dark Horse Guns & Ammo LLC is a federally licensed dealer in Yerington, Nevada. This article is general information for hunters, not legal advice and not an official statement of Nevada hunting regulations. Season dates, bag limits, hunting hours, license fees and land access rules change. Always verify current requirements directly with the Nevada Department of Wildlife and the appropriate land management agency before you hunt.