Exploring a wide-open tradition of wild birds and wild places.
If you had told me years ago while I was living in the West End of London that one day I’d be living in Nevada, I’d have called you crazy. What I didn’t know then was that 87% of the Silver State is public land; land which offers 11 species of upland birds, an adventurous wing-shooter’s dream.
While September marks the opening of forest grouse across the West, it is also the opener for something more alluring and unique to Nevada — the population of Himalayan Snowcock in the Ruby Mountains. These birds were captured in the Himalayas, introduced into Nevada during the 1960s and 70s and have since established a healthy population above the treeline amongst some of Nevada’s highest peaks.
This hunt is best approached as a multi-day backpack hunt using spot and stalk tactics akin to big game hunting and offers a challenge like no other in the uplands. The terrain is treacherous and the birds are incredibly spooky which makes bird dogs a hindrance instead of an asset. These birds are so hard to bag that the success rate for this hunt is below 5% and with a limit of two birds the hunt is hardly worth the exertion, logically speaking. In love with the challenge as much as the bird itself, I have pursued this bird across alpine ridge lines with my good friend Travis for the past three years, our only company being the mountain goats that call the peaks home as well.
Our success over the past two seasons in familiar units had us hankering for a change of pace this time around. There are three hunting units in North America where you can harvest this bird and our new goal was
