projectupland.com On The Go

Grouse hunters are oddballs. I know, because I am one. While a lot of people think it’s strange to spend your free time walking through the woods with a dog, a gun, and no place to go, there’s nothing I’d rather do in October and November. The Savage Fox A Grade is also an oddball. Even though it says “Fox” all over it, this side-by-side shotgun has little in common with the original A.H. Fox shotgun. And that’s what I like most about it.

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Pluck your game birds whenever possible. Not only does flavor reside in their skin, but keeping the skin on your birds helps retain moisture when cooking. Your birds will taste better and juicier if you make an effort to add this to your bird butchering routine.

I covered how to pluck your birds in an earlier piece. This article will help you avoid and fix mistakes when plucking and cleaning. Mistakes or mishaps simply happen, but how can we correct them and salvage as much skin as possible?

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Living in the center of a continuous forest, my nomadic bird dogs don’t spend much time walking on a leash around our home. As a result, they have terrible leash manners. Luckily for me, their tendency to pull works wonderfully with pulling sports like skijoring and kicksledding, as long as you can get them to stop. This is where “whoa” comes into play. This one word allowed me to dive into winter dog sports with my bird dogs.

“Whoa” is a critical command nearly every pointing dog and sled dog owner uses. In both worlds, it simply means “halt.” This term encourages or demands steadiness on birds in the upland scene. However, regarding sled dogs, this command is paired with heavy pressure on the foot brake while setting the snow hook.

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Spring woodcock represent a unique opportunity for wild bird exposure. This bird of many names present layers of complexity from a dog’s understanding of habitat to the unique scenting conditions that cannot be replicated with pen-raised birds. More recently, I used the spring woodcock, as well as late summer training opportunities, to fully steady my dog to my release instead of breaking on the flush or shot.

The three largest organizations that administer hunt tests for pointing and versatile hunting dogs are the American Kennel Club (AKC), the North American Versatile Hunting Dog Association (NAVHDA), and the Jagdgebrauchshundverband (JGHV, German for “Hunting Dog Association”). These organizations have slightly different test subjects and eligibility rules, but they are generally aimed in the same direction. There is also some overlap in eligibility for these tests. For example, our dogs are registered in all three systems and have participated in all three brands of hunt tests, giving us the unique opportunity to compare the different approaches.

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As Americans, many of us have never heard of the name RFM (Rota Fausti Manufacturing), and with good reason. Despite manufacturing guns since 1957, they only just came to the United States with their North American distributor Upland Gun Company. In Europe, they have quite the famous reputation, and, although they will humbly not mention it, they build many custom shotgun stocks for famous world champions and Olympians in the clay shooting space who seek out their expertise.

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The recall is an extremely important ritual we have with our dogs. When called, the dog quickly and directly finds its position either in front or to our side. It happily and thoughtlessly finds its position, returning as excitedly as it went out and finishing with robotic consistency; something that has been groomed into it since the day it came home. 

Some may be offended when they hear the various names for the unusual species that is the American Woodcock. Author George Bird Evans was quick to condemn the act in a way that has been referenced many times since its mention in The Upland Shooting Life. But the very evolution of this bird, unlike any of its counterparts, lends itself to this creative naming. 

The nicknaming of woodcock is far older than modern wingshooting. The biological history of the American woodcock is believed to date back as far as 1,000,000 years, surviving at least two ice ages. The oldest fossil record was found in Marian County, Florida, and carbon dated to the Pleistocene period (William G. Sheldon, 1971). We know they served as a food source for Indigenous people, were trapped and hunted by colonists in the 1600s onward, and, eventually, became a wingshooters’ favorite bird by the end of the 19th century. Along that road, people gave many names to what we now call the America Woodcock or Scolopax minor. The Latin name was changed from Philohela minor in the latest version of the American Ornithologists' Union 5th Edition in 1957. 

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Introduced last year, the new Orion 20 gauge shares the proven features of the 12 gauge version that Weatherby has been producing since 2016. The 20 gauge is currently manufactured in three versions: a 28 inch barrel field model with gloss finish (reviewed here), a 26 inch barrel field model with matte finish, and a glossy 30 inch barrel sporting model.

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Feathers tell us all sorts of things about birds. They are beautiful to look at, help us identify individual bird species, protect birds from the elements, and they’re the reason birds can take flight. Ornithologists can tell us even more about birds thanks to feather measurements and samples. Some research labs even can measure where the carbon in feathers comes from, which tells us a lot about avian diets and migration patterns. However, before we get too deep down the rabbit hole regarding ornithological research, it’s important to start at the beginning. What are feathers, and how many types of feathers are there? To answer these questions, I consulted the Cornell Lab of Ornithology’s Handbook of Bird Biology from 2016.

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