Three Sporting Dogs That Will Rock Your World

The West Highland White Terrier cast back and forth around the broomstraw and Johnson grass. It caught a whiff of scent and moved rapidly in a manner customary with all short-legged dogs. That Westie smelled a covey of quail as I do a morning plate of biscuits and gravy and he was looking for a way in. A gust of wind must have pushed the scent around for suddenly the pup found the entrance to a maize.  In an instant it zig zagged to the covey and the birds busted every which way into the air. His owner, the noted sporting artist Gordon Allen, took a crosser. The Westie is now immortalized in a line drawing and might reappear in an oil painting or in an etching.

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Shotgun Life in Gardone Val Trompia: Part 8, Bottega Incisioni C. Giovanelli

In late March and early April of 2017, Shotgun Life visited the legendary Gardone Val Trompia in the province of Brescia, which is the heart of Italy’s shotgun manufacturing. We spent time with shotgun makers Perazzi, Beretta, FAIR and F. illi Poli as well as master engravers Stephano Pedretti, Creative Art, Francesca Fracassi and Cesare Giovanelli. Here is Part 8 of our eight-part series called Shotgun Life in Gardone Val Trompia.

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Anna Van Nostrand on the Big 2018 Pheasant Fest and Quail Classic

There is no greater event for a bird hunter than this year’s Pheasant Fest and Quail Classic that took place February 16-18 in Sioux Falls, South Dakota. The annual convention is a large educational and entertainment attraction organized by Pheasants Forever and Quail Forever, which are dedicated to the conservation of pheasants, quail and other wildlife through habitat improvements, public awareness, education and land management policies and programs.

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The New Beretta SL3 Aspires to a Higher Echelon

When it comes to sporting guns, balance and performance have a price. The new 12-gauge Beretta SL3 over/under shoulders and swings with the grace of the more expensive Premium Beretta SO series yet at $19,999 delivers a fusion of mechanics and aesthetics in the upland realm so that you might consider it a “baby Beretta SO10,” which starts at nearly $90,000.

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How CleanShot Happened

America’s Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (fondly known as DARPA to most of us) has developed products for the military that have found their way into our daily lives such as computers, the Internet, GPS, duct tape and microwave ovens.

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James Purdey & Sons Establishes a New American Presence with Griffin & Howe at the Hudson Farm Club…And Begins Production of a Phenomenal .410 Hammer Gun

For American lovers of James Purdey & Sons shotguns recent developments deliver some good news and some bad.

Starting with the good, London best-gun maker James Purdey & Sons has declared Griffin & Howe’s sporting-gun nirvana the Hudson Farm Club its new American Northeast base of operations. That means all you need to do is make your way to Andover, New Jersey, shoot one of the Purdey demonstration guns of your choice at Hudson Farms’ rifle range or sporting clays course and swipe your credit card to consummate the venture.

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Griffin & Howe Converts an Old Dairy Farm into the Shooting Grounds of the Future

Jacking up a 13-bedroom cabin from its foundation to retrofit underground luxury men’s and ladies’ locker rooms, fitness center and sauna within a nine-month timetable shows the real chops of Griffin & Howe CEO, Steve Polanish and his predecessor Guy Bignell as their Hudson Farm sporting grounds fulfills its new calling: “How a Legacy is Crafted.”

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How Living With a Labrador Retriever in Brooklyn, New York Inspired Me to Start Girls With Gundogs

Two years ago, I was living in an apartment in the basement of a brownstone in Park Slope, Brooklyn. I was working in private practice as a psychiatric nurse practitioner and spending most of my weekends driving two hours both ways to upstate New York to do something in the outdoors. I was tired and burnt out and when a relationship I had been in ended, I needed a change. Little did I know that the catalyst for that change would be my seven-year-old black Labrador, Goose.

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South Dakota Prairie Chickens and Sharptailed Grouse by Horseback

There are hunting seasons for greater prairie chickens and sharptailed grouse in several states. However, among all the locations where both species are found, I know of only one outfitter that hunts from horseback. That outfitter is Bob Tinker of Tinker Kennels and Horsefeathers Lodge near Pierre, South Dakota. This past September I spent several days hunting on the more than 100,000 acres of private lands that Tinker has leased. He concentrates his efforts on prairie chickens and sharptails and while South Dakota is known for pheasants, he leaves them to other outfitters.

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Shotgun Life in Gardone Val Trompia: Part 7, Giancarlo e Stefano Pedretti Incisori

In late March and early April of 2017, Shotgun Life visited the legendary Gardone Val Trompia in the province of Brescia, which is the heart of Italy’s shotgun manufacturing. We spent time with shotgun makers Perazzi, Beretta, FAIR and F. illi Poli as well as master engravers Stephano Pedretti, Creative Art, Francesca Fracassi and Cesare Giovanelli. Here is Part 6 of our eight-part series called Shotgun Life in Gardone Val Trompia.

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