Keep ’em cool.
Hard-earned experience, tips from the professionals, and plain old good advice:
– If you can, approach chukars from above – start your hunt at the top of a hill and only go downhill enough to find them. Bonus: you’ll have cut off their usual escape route – uphill.
– Use as low a volume to deliver your voice commands as will work in your situation. Dogs hear better than us and may construe unnecessary volume as anger.
– If you carry one of those Mylar “space blankets” in your survival kit, check it every year for age-related rips. I opened mine once and found that every fold had become a full-length tear. Luckily, it was at home, not in the woods on a cold, rainy night.
– Set out and light your camp lantern before dark. You may have a hard time finding it after the sun sets.
– Permethrin is the most effective tick spray, if you use it right. That means applying it to your clothing before you venture out. Hang, spray, and let dry for at least two hours before you put it on. In formulations for clothing, it is not appropriate for dogs.
– One of the best fire starters is a tangerine-sized ball of duct tape.
– Warm up by fueling your internal furnace. Carbohydrates burn fastest, proteins slowest. Best is a snack food that offers both for sustained energy.
– Buy a bandanna. Silk or rayon, get the big ones that real buckaroos wear, available at farm supply and western stores. Keeps your neck – and the rest of your body, in turn – warm. A multitude of other uses around camp from sweatband to oven mitt.
Scott Linden Outdoors 