Shotgun Life | The Best in Wing and Clays Shooting

Wingshooting

Experts Talk About the Risks and Work-Arounds of Training Your Sporting Dog in Summer Heat

Tuesday, June 16, 2020
Written by Tom Keer
Categories: Wingshooting
Tags: bird dogs, dogs, eukanuba, tom keer, training your dog, upland hunting

Spring weather makes every dog trainer and handler smile. Low temperatures, occasional rain, and breezy winds bring dogs alive. Conditioning is regular, scenting conditions are good, and it’s a time when regular progress is made. If only we could roll right into hunting season… 

But summer is in between, and the hot, dry temperatures and bright, cloudless skies threaten to undo all of our hard work. Keeping your pup safe in the heat is the first order of the day, and continuing to build on their foundation is the key to a successful fall. Here’s how some pros handle the heat.

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The New Youth Field Trial Alliance is All Goodness

Tuesday, March 10, 2020
Written by Irwin Greenstein
Categories: Wingshooting
Tags: bird dog field trials, chris mathan, dogs, kevin's fine outdoor gear & apparel, kevins southern game fair, strideaway, youth field trial alliance

Chris Mathan has joined the ranks of local heroes working to introduce kids to the shotgun sports. Ms. Mathan, through her online field-trial publication Strideway, recently formed the non-profit Youth Field Trial Alliance to acquaint youngsters in the U.S. and Canada with the benefits and beauty of bird-dog field trial competitions.

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Why Older and Younger Duck Hunters Are Turning to 20-Gauge Shotguns

Tuesday, December 03, 2019
Written by Bryan Hendricks
Categories: Wingshooting
Tags: duck hunting

For generations, the 12-gauge shotgun has been synonymous with duck hunting, but many hunters are choosing 20 gauges for close-range environments.

There are several logical reasons for this trend. Older hunters can’t tolerate the abuse that a 12-gauge spitting 3-inch or larger waterfowl loads inflicts on arthritic or surgically repaired shoulders.

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Kathleen Kelly of Kevin’s Catalog: Tweed is Dead, Long Live Tweed

Tuesday, October 15, 2019
Written by Irwin Greenstein
Categories: Wingshooting

If the British had won the War of Independence in 1776, chances are you’d be wearing tweed instead of camo or blaze on your wingshooting adventures.  

Upland hunters in particular tend to romanticize traditional estate tweed through that gauzy sentimentality of a Doris Day close-up. Armed with our venerable double gun on a crisp autumn afternoon while adorned in tweed breeks, jacket or waistcoat and flat cap, as Fido scours the landscape, we hike though the heather ever vigilant for a flush.

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Into the Bobwhite Quail Fields with Ducks Unlimited Veterans at Southern Woods Plantation

Tuesday, March 26, 2019
Written by Irwin Greenstein
Categories: Wingshooting
Tags: ducks unlimited, ducks unlimited canada, kevin's fine outdoor gear & apparel, southern woods plantation

Monty Lewis called the bobwhite quail hunt a “Fellowship Opportunity,” and he wasn’t kidding. Our party of 20 current and retired board members from Ducks Unlimited and Ducks Unlimited Canada had collectively served nearly 400 years as volunteers for the revered wetlands conservation nonprofit.

The hunts are not official DU events, but as Mr. Lewis described them “Traditionally, after joint meetings in the Southeast, we have a recreational activity. We get the Canadians out of the cold weather. I’ve been the host a few times and this year we’re extending some Southern hospitality where it’s the dead of winter for them.”

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Humbled by Ruffed Grouse in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula

Tuesday, February 26, 2019
Written by Irwin Greenstein
Categories: Wingshooting
Tags: bird dogs, michigan upper peninsula, ruffed grouse hunting, tracey lieske, woodcock hunting

“Much of the pleasure of shooting is what accompanies it and sharing it all with a good friend.” ~ George Bird Evans, The Upland Shooting Life (1971)


The child tells what he got for Christmas, the mature man tells how he spent the day; the immature hunter tells how many birds he shot, the mature gunner tells of the experience. If I can impart a sense of gunning values through my writing, I urge the gunner at any age to lift himself above the childish state of mind, thinking only of himself and not what he is doing to the birds.

– George Bird Evans, An Affair with Grouse (1982)

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Is Your Dog Disobedient – or Deaf?

Tuesday, October 09, 2018
Written by Robert Milner
Categories: Wingshooting
Tags: bird dogs, dog field trials, dogs, duck hunting, duckhill kennels, gun dogs, robert milner, upland hunting, wingshooting

When a tree falls in the forest, and no one is around to hear it, does it make a sound? The answer is “Yes the wolf hears it.” The wolf’s direct descendant, the dog, shares the wolf’s very sensitive hearing. According to the sparse research available, the dog’s hearing is four times more sensitive than man’s.

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Blue Cypress Kennels of Florida Readies for Even Bigger Wins in U.K. Field Trials

Tuesday, September 11, 2018
Written by Irwin Greenstein
Categories: Wingshooting
Tags: bird dogs, blue cypress kennels, british labrador retrievers, field trials, gun dogs, jeremy criscoe, rollins ranch, uk retrievers

Meet Augustus Fink-Nottle, known as Gus. He’s not the P.G. Wodehouse character from the novels. Instead, he’s the namesake Labrador Retriever from Florida who, in 2017 at age three, became the only American born, bred and trained gundog to win field trials in the U.K.

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