Bow hunting Chukar
Bow hunting chukar can be a great place to start aerial bow hunting for several reasons. Bow hunting chukar is cheaper than pheasant, the chukar are larger than quail so they are easier to hit, and they are a recyclable bird as they are easy to bring back to a catch pen. Besides the fun factor, lets break down each aspect of why I like bow hunting chukar.
Bow hunting chukar is cheaper than bow hunting pheasant
Chukar mature faster than pheasant, and are slightly smaller. These 2 factors mean less feed is required to grow the birds, so they cost less money to raise. Like a pheasant they are a beautiful bird with striking colors, and are fun to chase on the wing with Snaro bird points. Males and females are not identical in color, but the females are much more colorful than a hen pheasant. The whole purpose of bow hunting chukar is so you are skilled enough to take down a wild pheasant with a bow and arrow, and bow hunting chukar will hone those aerial archery skills.
Bow hunting chukar present a decent sized target
Quail are very small and hard to hit bow hunting. A chukar is sized between a quail and a pheasant making it a realistic aerial species. Chukar also tend to fly in a straight line directly way from the hunter, which is aerial archerys most doable shot. Bow hunting chukar hones your skills to the point that hitting a rooster pheasant is relatively easy.
Bow hunting chukar means recycling
Chukar have a very strong covey instinct, similar to quail. When you raise a group of chukar together, they want to regroup each night to roost, and because of this instinct, catch pens are very successful at re catching birds you miss when hunting. A recall pen is simply a wire pen with a ground level funnel that you place some ‘call’ birds in before planting the chukar to hunt. After you are done hunting the field, the birds begin calling to each other similar to what a group of fall turkey will do when separated. In order for them all to reunite, they must enter the catch pen, and that is what they will do. Come back in a day or 2 and reclaim all of your chukar to hunt again.
I have successfully used these recall pens on my farm in Minnesota, and for this reason alone I prefer chukar over pheasant. If you have an itch to bow hunt birds, I strongly suggest bow hunting chukar as a starting point.