Seth O’Hare, 32, was on the first bird hunt of his life. In one hand he held a borrowed Remington 870 and in the other he held a bird. He had just made a beautiful shot on a towering rooster pheasant.

“Can you do this without a dog?”

“You can, but it’s a lot harder.”

On the other side of a strip of sagebrush, Chavis Heath watched Liesl, my pudelpointer pup, as she worked ahead, her nose into the wind.

While we walked, the dog quartered back and forth and pointed and shook her head when we missed. She trailed them when we didn’t. That’s when I thought about what it takes to become an upland bird hunter.

Earlier this year, I wrote about sheep hunting and the dedication and finances it takes to hunt bighorns. My friend Bryan Martin said, “Going sheep hunting is like going to the Ferrari dealership. If you want to own a brand new Ferrari, you’re going to have to earn a great deal of money.”

Getting set to be a chukar hunter is like shopping for a horse in grandpa’s barn. There might be a pony he’d let you ride for free, but you’ll have to buy a bag of oats to “get her goin’.”

The funny thing is chukar hunting takes a person to some of the same places sheep hunters go.

On this hunt I was with a group who does business with the Carson Company in Western Oregon. They’d driven across the mountains for a hunt with TREO Ranches. On the first day we shot sporting clays. We each emptied half a dozen boxes, about 150 rounds each. The jitters were long gone after the pounding we took on 10 stations.

A couple of guys hadn’t hunted pheasants since they were in their teens. A few more said they had never hunted birds. Several had to look at my iPad to get an idea what a chukar looked like.

It was the first real test of the new season for my dog Liesl, a 22-month-old pudelpointer. Rod Logue, Mike McMurren, O’Hare, Heath and I headed away from ranch headquarters and into the canyon; the other group hiked the opposite direction.

We traveled 100 yards and felt a slight breeze begin to build. Liesl quartered back and forth then locked up, tail rigid, one foreleg off the ground. Her eyes burned a hole through tangled trunks of sage.

The first bird was a rooster, and we missed it. The bird banked and turned and hit the ground running 200 yards away. Next we flushed out a pair of chukars and missed them both.

Hunting with the young guys caused me to reflect. It was 20 years ago when I packed a shotgun and a couple of friends along, and we walked up our first chukars with the help of a sedentary black Lab.

It’s still as simple as that. And this year’s bird numbers — valley quail, grouse and chukar — make it a good season to get started. Here’s a step-by-step, cost-conscious approach to bird hunting on a budget:

1. Pick up a copy of the 2015-16 Oregon Bird Hunting Regulations. Turn to page 16 and look at the seasons and open areas for both chukar and ruffed grouse. Go online to look at pictures of chukar and grouse to make sure you know what the quarry looks like.

2. Buy a license and an upland bird validation. This will cost $38.

3. Buy, beg or borrow a shotgun. A good place to start is with a Remington 870 pump-action. New they run $339.99, but a person can pick up a used one for a bit less.

4. Shoot clay pigeons. A box of clay pigeons costs $9.97. Shoot at least 50 rounds to get ready, and buy a third box to take hunting. Budget $22.97 for three boxes of No. 7-1/2.

5. Find a place to hunt. There are a number of wildlife areas around the state that offer public land access to good populations of upland game. Another good option is private grounds enrolled in Oregon’s Access and Habitat program, which has provided hunter access to over 7 million acres. For a list of properties, click on www.dfw.state.or.us/lands/AH/hunting.

6. Plan to visit a licensed bird hunting preserve (optional). Perhaps the guide is a bit of a shooting coach. Try to pick up a few tips on good shooting form. Hunt with a friend and keep in mind — upland bird hunting is about good manners and sport — there’s an etiquette to observe when hunting with partners.

You might need a dog if you’re headed into the chukar hills. A grouse hunter can get by without a pooch, but those of us who hunt chukar with pointers or flushers can’t imagine it any other way.

— Gary Lewis is the host of “Frontier Unlimited TV” and author of “John Nosler — Going Ballistic,” “Fishing Mount Hood Country,” “Hunting Oregon” and other titles. Contact Lewis at www.GaryLewisOutdoors.com.