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I've learned why West Virginia isn’t a bucket list state for waterfowlers. Still, I learned a few things from those mistakes and few successes that have translated into tactics necessary for hunting ducks in the best places the Mountain State provides for waterfowl hunting: small bodies of water. 

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The oral tradition around which hunting is so completely enveloped certainly fosters that connection, but artifacts work powerfully on the human psyche. The lack of many of these familial connections leave us room to create new narratives, with the artifacts available to us, while honoring many of the narratives around us. 

For me, that connection took the form of a 20-gauge Browning Superposed manufactured in 1954.

Wearing an oversized camo jacket, a generic blaze orange hat, and awkwardly carrying a borrowed youth 20 gauge, I walked into the lobby of the local trap club where the participants of the Eastern Oregon Women’s Pheasant Hunt were gathering.

It was clear almost immediately that I was not the only newbie; if not from the other neophyte’s nervous shuffling, then from their attire. Only the women who had attended the event in prior years seemed to know how to dress for the occasion.

Over the next two years, I began to experience firsthand the frustrations of trying to find upland hunting apparel for women. My husband, who has a tall, lean build, also was having difficulty finding durable clothing that fit properly. Together, we discovered some invaluable hacks that I am eager to share with fellow newcomers. 

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It's one of the most dreaded announcements a North American government agency can make: a species has been proposed to be listed under the Endangered Species Act. The announcement that the lesser prairie-chicken had been suggested by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to be re-listed was painful but not unexpected. According to the USFWS, it's estimated that the species’ range has been reduced by as much as 90% from its historic dispersal.

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Hunting gloves are, perhaps, one of the less considered items in our kits. I’ve personally been on a quest to find a solid, all-around glove and have been met with mixed results. They all work for some applications, but I have struggled to find a general-purpose glove that checks all of the boxes. The “boxes” I look to check are fit (including any break-in period), which is affected by material, insulation/warmth, dexterity/tactility, and protection. For example, there are typically trade-offs in tactility where insulation is concerned. The more insulated the glove, the less tactility there tends to be, especially as it relates to operating finer mechanisms or buttons on your gear. There are other considerations that we will unravel as well.

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A vast majority of hunting dogs in North America start their seasons with temperatures that can reach the 90s in the early season. Those same dogs may end their seasons by hunting in wind chills 10-20 degrees below zero. That is more than a 100-degree swing over the course of a working season. Emma was certainly one of those dogs who would start with early-season dove and grouse hunting and end the year on late-season ducks and pheasants. When asking a dog to work in such extremes, it is vital to understand your dog, the weather, and what to do should they experience the extremes of hyperthermia or hypothermia. 

In many ways, that day set me on a course for what has become the obsession of my middle years. The Tensaw jacket lodged itself in my mind as a symbol of the old school appeal of all things upland, mingled with vague memories of my grandfathers’ hunting attire, and was a reminder of the joy of that first day at the quail hunt—trying things on for size, both figuratively and literally.

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A hundred years ago, side-by-sides were built by hundreds of makers. Some cost less than a good week’s wage, like the Belgian-made “Highly Engraved Diana Style Breech Shotguns” sold by Sears. Others, like an extra-finish pigeon gun from James Purdey & Sons, cost more than a new house. Back then, over-unders were around, but they were scarcer than wild grouse are today in New Jersey.

So what happened? Where did all of today’s O/Us come from? Compared to side-by-sides, are they any better? Or are over-unders just—you’ll die if it’s true—fashionable?

It was the same story each time we visited the Olathe Gun Shop in Kansas. As soon as he entered through the front door, my father would walk towards the over-under shotguns. There, neatly displayed upright, were a variety of stacked barrels. To the upland bird hunter shopping for a new shotgun, there were plenty to choose from. However, for my father there was only one that stood out: the Ruger Red Label. This time, his hands would carefully grab the shotgun’s forend to admire it one more time before taking it home. He had been saving for months. The time had come to purchase his first over-under.

A staple of American conversation is likely to see a resurgence in the early years of Joe Biden’s Administration, as U.S. Department of Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack announced on April 21 changes to the Conservation Reserve Program (CRP).

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