Innehållsförteckning för August 2020 från Gun Dog

WE ask more of our dogs than most, and they do it willingly and without question. A good bird dog has a drive that we can only ever wish to have. They will push themselves until they can’t go any deeper—and then keep pushing. It’s on us—as trainers, handlers, and most importantly, guardians—to recognize when our dogs need rest, and to protect them from needless injury. I was on a hunt last fall when I had to make the tough decision to hunt without my dog. We were coming off two excellent days of chasing wild birds in southern Idaho. Lincoln had been hunting as our sole dog on night one, finding us a covey of California quail, retrieving all three birds that were shot, and then rewarding us with…

SHARPTAILED grouse and sun-chokes are both foods of the Great Plains. Native Americans and early settlers relied on this upland bird for meat, and historically, indigenous peoples of North America cultivated Helianthus tuberosus as a form of carbohydrates in their diets. The sunchoke is the starchy, edible tuber of this sunflower species. Its high sugar content makes it a beautiful candidate for roasting; turning golden-crispy on the outside, and creamy and tender on the inside. While I can’t say for sure how Native and early Americans might have prepared these two ingredients, I like to think that on some fall night by a campfire, some many moons ago, this upland bird and the potato-like tuber were enjoyed on the same “plate.” It’s a match made upland: Dark, richly flavored sharptail…

FUNDAMENTALLY, the end result of training a flushing dog is quite simple to understand: A trainer seeks to produce a dog that quarters in range, follows scent aggressively to induce a flush, and then sits/hups on the flush, the whistle, or the shot. Assuming the bird is killed, the trained flushing dog should make a straight line to the fallen bird upon being released, and should then return the bird directly to the trainer’s hand. Pretty simple stuff when you think about it. The challenge for a flushing dog trainer is to create the shortest educational pathway possible for the dog to master each of these component skills, and then put them all into practice consecutively. Creating this pathway has been the lifework of many trainers and many dogs, and…

MY LEGS WERE BURNING AND MY BREATHING WAS LABORED AS I BEGAN CLIMBING ONCE AGAIN. This hill was similar to the previous hundred hills I had scaled that morning, and would be much like the next hundred I’d crest before the rising temperatures would shut our hunting down for the day. I was joined on the hilltop by three of my closest bird-hunting brothers: Steve Snell, Wes Carrillo, and Brandon Moss. We had all traveled a combined 3,000 miles to meet in this magical place known as the Nebraska Sandhills for a few days spent chasing sharptail grouse and prairie chickens. “I thought the hills were like the hills of Montana, but they’re nothing like that,” said Moss, as he wiped the sweat from his brow. “You get to the…

LEAD has been king of the uplands since the dawn of black powder. There are some inherent disadvantages of lead, but for the vast majority of bird hunters, it still reigns over the rest. In the past few decades, there have been many pushes to move away from the hard-hitting element due to environmental concerns. Steel shot is another option, but due to the lack of density, it doesn’t pack nearly the punch of lead. As a waterfowler, I had always seen steel shot as a necessary evil, mostly because other nontoxic shot options were far too costly to shoot upwards of three cases of shells per year. However, when I went to the uplands, it was a treat to fill both barrels with lead-packed shells. I would spring for…

LET’S cut to the chase. I prefer owning small dogs—whatever the breed—more than large dogs. My take is this: Small dogs can do just about anything a large dog can do, and it costs less to feed them. Mind you, I’m talking about pointing breeds here, not the retrieving breeds, where size may well be an advantage. By way of clarification, let me give you a general rundown on the types of birds I hunt, and just as importantly, where those birds live. I’m primarily a hunter of blue grouse, ruffed grouse, Hungarian partridge, and sharptails. Except for ruffed grouse, the birds I hunt live in relatively open to wide-open country. A big-running dog isn’t necessarily an advantage in that kind of habitat. In fact, I’ve presented my arguments in…

THERE’S A DEEPLY ROOTED AND EQUALLY MISINFORMED NOTION THAT VETERINARIANS ARE DRAWN TO WORKING WITH ANIMALS BECAUSE WE DON’T WANT TO DEAL WITH PEOPLE. While it’s true we’d rather spend the workday covered in dog hair amid the stench of anal glands than confirm whether your new, itchy rash is ringworm, veterinary medicine is as much a people profession as any other job involving scrubs or a white coat. In fact, many veterinarians would argue that a solid foundation in people skills is a prerequisite for success, because our patients can’t verbalize what’s wrong with them. The pet owner, not the patient, often holds the critical information to help their vet crack a medical puzzle. Many times in practice, myths and misconceptions held by the pet owner form a barrier…

IF you’ve ever given a dog mouth-to-mouth resuscitation, then you know a human’s rounded mouth cannot possibly cover that elongated canine snout, and even baffling the jowls with desperate hands doesn’t come close to making a seal. But it’s also an exercise in tragic necessity; this vain attempt to breathe life back into a limp, clay-cold dog, lying lifeless on the stabbing stubble of frost-killed alfalfa. A dog that until a half-hour ago panted hot as she vaulted from the pickup for what was supposed to be a quick close-to-home hunt. A dog that carried with her the accumulated knowledge of hundreds of pheasant retrieves, and which shotgun means ducks, and which one grouse. Five minutes ago, this yellow Lab, that’s name is Willow—Will for short, W for shorter, and…

Ducks in the water? It doesn’t matter that it’s February in Massachusettts, Ruger is going in! He loves the water and loves hunting birds even more. —Brian and Dawn Barnes, Upton, MA Willow is a driven four-year-old Brittany spaniel. She loves to run the rolling hills in Sussex County, seeking out birds. —Mark Niemynski, Hackettstown, NJ English setters Pippa (left) and Frank (right) eagerly waiting for the release command to start the hunt. —Kelly Hays, Swanton, VT…

FOR years, Fabarm has been building top-quality Italian over/under and semiauto shotguns, but the brand has only recently begun receiving the attention it deserves from wingshooters and waterfowl hunters. Fabarm’s guns stack up well against competing firearms and offer a long list of class-leading features at a very competitive price point, and that’s why I was thrilled to have an opportunity to test the company’s new XLR5 Composite Hunter semiauto 12-gauge. Although it’s certainly the least flashy of all the semiauto Fabarm shotguns, the XLR5 Composite Hunter is a no-nonsense scattergun that’s equally suited for the competitive clay shooter, upland hunter, or waterfowler. What it lacks in Turkish walnut and engraving, it more than makes up for in build quality and refinement. And although it’s a bit of a dark…

WHEN I WAS GROWING UP, AN HOUR-LONG TRIP TO IOWA FROM MY HOME STATE OF MINNESOTA WAS A BIG DEAL. A lot of people thought my buddies and I were nuts to cross state lines to hunt roosters back then. Today, it’s much more common for upland and waterfowl hunters to strike out to new areas in order to extend their season, hunt bird species they can’t find at home, or simply show their dogs some new ground. All three (and more) are solid reasons to take a road trip. Traveling to hunt has never been easier, but that doesn’t mean it’s easy. This is especially true if you’re a do-ityourselfer who will first decide on a state, and then rely solely on unfamiliar public land to provide all of…