Wild Sage Country

By Nico Garcia-Cid

I grew up upland bird hunting in the Eastern Mojave in California, where I chased Gambel's quail and chukar in the cactus and creosote bush covered mountains. It was remote and rugged, but the birds were plentiful if the rain in the spring were good. The spot was a spot my dad and his friends had found once one season then no one could remember where it was for the next 10 years until my dad found it again. Every year we would make the 6 hour drive, camp out and learn about chasing the coveys, what to look for to find them and how to shoot quickly before the flushing birds flew back down onto the ground.

I moved to Eastern Idaho in 2019 to pursue a career, and though the change was exciting in many ways for me and my family, I have to say that the hunting opportunities were easily some of what I looked forward to the most.  

Fast forward five years later to me on August 1st anxiously waiting for Greater Sage-Grouse tags to go on sale at 10AM. 

My job has given me the opportunity to explore more than I ever have, but the remoteness also comes at the price of cell reception. That lack of cell reception was the reason I was not able to put in for a sage grouse tag in previous years. This year, by some luck I managed to get online and secured two Greater Sage-Grouse tags, a thing previously of dreams. 

Once I got the tags, the research really started. I had already been marking areas in onX where I had seen them sunning and roosting and while hunting small game, or on my work commute. But it was now time to really nerd out on sage grouse. A deep dive on Google found me immersed in several research papers covering habitat, food and other various preferences of these birds. With this new information, I reassessed my onX pins and figured out what my top three hunt areas would be. 

I took a few days off work for opening day in hopes to fill my tags, and did a family camping trip with my spouse, daughter, and our two dogs. We got out there a day early and enjoyed a lazy day ending with a campfire and s’mores. In the morning, we got up, ate a quick breakfast, and finally headed out into the sage. 

We roamed around until at last, twenty some birds flushed—I quickly began bringing my gun up until I realized that they were Sharp-tailed Grouse (and their season was not yet open). We flushed a couple more coveys of Sharp-tailed Grouse after that, but unfortunately no sage grouse. We returned to camp, broke it down and headed home. 

Sage Grouse Droppings, with the iconic black sage oil tar.

I ran through the day in my head, considering factors including the terrain and sage brush densities and picked a new spot for the next day. When I got out there, the habitat already looked more promising.  

At this point my Germain Wirehaired Pointer, Roscoe, who proved himself with pheasants and waterfowl last year, is still frenzied from the start of the hunting season and is zooming this way and that. He gets out a little farther forward than what I like him to be and before I can recall him with a beep of his collar, he kicks up a jackrabbit and is off chasing it. The jackrabbit takes him right into a covey of sage grouse probably 80 yards from me. Birds are flushing in every direction as I’m trying to run as fast as I can in hopes of catching any leftover singles in the sage. Unfortunately, all the birds were now gone, and only Roscoe was left, looking at me with dog eyes full of chagrin. We kicked up a few more birds after that, but they were flushing 60 yards at the closest and I was running a light modified choke due to being uncertain of the distance I expected them to be. I switched to an improved modified choke this time, figuring that the birds from the previous hunt were just being skittish but that I might as well play it safe with a little tighter choke.

My vacation days over, I was still determined to get my birds and as my hunt unit ran 49 miles along the length of my commute, I figured I could squeeze in an hour before and two hours after work hunt. For my workday hunts, I would sneak my hunting pack and shotgun in the car, with care not to let Roscoe see, avoiding the drama of a hunting dog left behind. The first couple of hunts were about the same as before—the birds would flush at 50-60 yards typically flying into the sun, so I’d be blinded and not able to get a shot off. I switched to a full choke and bought myself an extra full choke. Each hunt brought new knowledge about these birds. I put all the pieces together and made a plan—considering the sun’s location, where the birds were in the morning and their flushing distance. 

Nico with his first sage grouse!

That morning, everything seemed to fall into place. I crossed over a small ridge with the sun to my back when another step forward brought a covey exploding to my right at 70 yards followed almost immediately by a second covey on the left at 60 yards. I brought up the gun on the closest bird on the left and fired a shot. The bird folded up nicely through a puff of feathers and landed into the sage. The bird was a beautiful hen. I sat for a while admiring the bird, taking my time to look it over. I continued on my way to work, feeling incredibly satisfied and content to fill my second tag with a more relaxed approach. Feeling more confident, I wanted to stretch the outings out and go on my days off to include Roscoe.  

I found a new shallow ravine on the map that looked interesting and just 10 minutes after parking, Roscoe began to get birdy. Right as we see the ravine bottom, a covey of sage grouse flushes at 50 yards. I bring the gun up, fire at the closest bird and watch as it folds up with Roscoe right on its heels for the retrieve.

Nico and Roscoe with a sage grouse. Happy human, happy dog!

This year’s sage grouse hunt solidified some key tips I personally value: 

• Spend time shooting your shotgun. Shotguns lend themselves to be easy to pick up and drop a few birds without much practice during the off season. But to achieve its best potential, you should take the time to pattern your gun, use different loads, chokes and distances until you find what works best for that gun.

• Learn about shot string and how patterning works. Though complicated, the visualization makes a world of difference the seconds before you pull the trigger. 

• Get out to the range and practice. You can find string-activated clay throwers for cheap in all the various classifieds out there. I personally shoot a tighter choke when shooting trap or skeet—if I can hit the clay with a full choke then I can hit it with a more open choke. I also tie a long roll of extra cord on the release string to the thrower. When possible, I’ll have the thrower in front of me hidden from view with a box or bush, then have someone behind me that will activate the thrower. As I walk up to the thrower the person pulling the string will pull with no warning. I could be 50 yards or 5 yards from the thrower but with this method it catches you by surprise and it builds the muscle memory to be able to bring the gun up, calculate the lead and get a shot off before the clay is out of range.

• I personally carry 6 different chokes.

• Light Modified

• Modified

• Improved Modified

• Full

• Extra Full (check if it's safe to shoot whatever shot material you’re using)

• Turkey Choke, this is in case I switch to rabbits specific (check if it's safe to shoot whatever shot material you’re using)

Through practice and patterning you should be able to find a load that performs to your liking, for me it’s Boss Shotshells 20ga 3” #7s. I’ve taken everything from doves to Canadian geese with this load, depending on what I’m hunting—all I need to do is switch the choke. And since they are bismuth, if I’m chasing upland and jump some waterfowl out of a pond or canal, I’m easily able to add them to the game bag.

Doing a ton of research also pays off. I was able to identify prime sage grouse habitat from their preferred terrain features despite never hunting them before. There is some fine tuning and not every covey will be looking for the same things, but it helped me hone in and ultimately find what I was looking for in the seemingly endless and addictingly wild sage country.