HUNTING full 400 miles, spilling over into the adjacent northern U.S. states along the border and augmenting their own attempts at stocking Huns. Further leveraged by the penetration of the railroads ever deeper into the northern prairie, it may well have represented the most successful attempt at stocking an introduced gamebird anywhere in the world – ever. In the state of North Dakota alone, it was estimated that by the early 1940s the Hun population had already reached its all-time peak of 8 to 10 million birds. Today, the grain belt of the northern Great Plains and the semiarid sage-steppe of the Columbia Plateau and the northern Great Basin high desert remain Huns’ biggest stronghold in the US. Being a fishery biologist, it isn’t lost on me that good Hun range east of the Rocky Mountains coincides with good northern pike range, and in the Northwest it coincides with the farther upstream reaches of historically good salmon range. And all of it is jackrabbit country, to boot. One can be hunting the sparsely vegetated and peopled prairie and high desert habitats for pheasants, sharp-tailed grouse, sage grouse, chukar partridge and California quail and still have an excellent chance of stumbling across some Huns as well. Indeed, probably no other American upland gamebird rubs shoulders with so many fellow species across such a wide range – and wide range of varying habitats. But like a buckeye tree, they usually are never particularly thick anywhere, and so mostly represent “targets of opportunity” for the wingshooting public, taken incidentally while primarily hunting the aforementioned more popular species. Relatively few hunters specifically key in on Huns. Yet if you were going to pursue Huns specifically, what are their seasonal patterns of habitat use along 146 Northwest Sportsman
NOVEMBER 2017 | nwsportsmanmag.com
with their related behaviors, and how might one adapt their hunting strategy to better boost their odds of success?
IN THE SAGEBRUSH country of Montana, Wyoming, Idaho, Washington, Oregon and the far northern portions of Nevada and Utah, where irrigated agriculture is more the rule, look for Huns in areas adjacent to stubble fields of wheat, rye, barley and other small grain crops. Much of the time this will be along the steeper foothills next to the flatter cultivated farm fields. Mostly grassy cover interspersed with dots of occasional sagebrush is ideal, and don’t forget to check the grassy heads of basins and especially the deeply sun-shielded and sometimes surprisingly moist creases between hills, particularly in the very warm days of the early season. The Huns can find cooler shade among the broader leafed shrubbery, and the damp conditions are conducive for attracting insects and also for growing succulent shoots and tender grass tips; Huns are partial to a meal of fresh salad greens, no matter the season. I like best the places where the border along the sagebrush and wheat stubble fields really weaves and wanders a lot, where the wheat is surrounded on three sides by sagebrush and grass, or conversely those lone, long fingers of sagebrush and grass protruding far, far into the wheat stubble. Keep an eye peeled for the places the Huns take dust baths, and the odd loose feather or two confirms that. And look for piles of droppings indicating where they have roosted; the individual droppings are pointed at one end and broad at the other, looking like a miniature green sugar cone with a scoop of white vanilla ice cream. If you shoot a double-barreled gun, a fast 20-gauge with a size 7½ load in a barrel choked improved cylinder and the other barrel choked modified with a size 6 load should do a fine job in most instances. Insects such as beetles, grasshoppers, crickets and ants will continue to be
The author has a special place in his heart for the imported partridge he’s chased around the West for decades. “The Hun reminds me of Jan Brady and the pheasant of the pretty and popular Marcia Brady of The Brady Bunch, that television show where, as Jan points out, everything is always “Marcia! Marcia! Marcia!” (DAN MAGNESON)
taken by Huns, but the carbohydrates and lipids found in grains have by now begun progressively making up more and more of the diet as overnight freezing temperatures cause the insects to die off for the year. But there are those coveys of Huns that live out their entire lives never once feeding on cultivated, domesticated cereal grains from farm fields. In the Sawtooth National Forest south-southeast of Twin Falls, Idaho, I used to hunt mule deer in a rather pristine, broad valley that was, as best I recall, either entirely ungrazed by cattle or else only very lightly grazed. I probably put up more coveys of Huns down there more often than anywhere else I’ve ever been, and they were miles and miles from the nearest agricultural areas. They were absolutely thriving out there in that desolate country. So don’t ignore those vast public lands managed by the U.S. Forest Service and Bureau of Land Management; ground adjacent to big reservoirs and managed by the Bureau of Reclamation and the U.S.