doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion DoubleGun BBS @ doublegunshop.com Birddogs, guns, etc.-what's your pleasure and why?

Chris that Brittany of yours is good looking dog and obviously a fine house pet and hunter.

My Ginger jumped into a sage with a porcupine in November and got a pawful of quills. I bungie corded her to the bars in the back of my Expedition to keep her from biting me and pulled them out. You never heard such howls.

Buzz I never shoot a porcupine in front of the dogs as I don't want them to think they are a game animal. Several years ago I killed a 50 pound pig that Molly chased by me and now she thinks we are hunting them.

One place we hunted quail in the Mojave, there is cholla cactus. The quills are usually 1 1/2 - 2" long. There are places that it was so thick you couldn't ride a horse thru the "forest" of these things. Its not a porcupine, but I'd trade it all for hundreds of porcupines.

My lab hadn't been around it before that hunt. She ran thru the stuff first covey we came up on. She stood still and never made a peep while I pulled probably a hundred quills out of her.

Yes Chuck, I think the cactus can be dangerous too. I had a very excellent pointer (btw, it never happens to a sorry dog) get either a mesquite thorn or cactus quill into his hip joint.....ie, penetrated the hip joint. The dog came up lame on his back leg. At first I had no idea of what had happened. This ignorance was complicated by 2 ?incompeyent vets who said it was 'arthritis' and maybe 'hip dysplasia'. I finally took the dog to Purdue Univ Vet school and they opened up the joint and found a staph infection. It was clearly from a needle or thorn penetrating the hip joint. It took a little time and several weeks of antibiotics, but this one tough dog had a complete recovery! Lucky! Taught me to check these dogs over after every hunt.....there are lots of sticky things out west.

Ummhhh, that's some bad looking stuff. Gives a whole new meaning to "rough shooting".

Glad to be from Jawja. 'Least heah all we've got to worry about is rattlers, cottonmouths, 'gators, big hogs, skeeters, gnats, 100% humidity, you know......... small stuff.

SRH

Although late to the party this is a timeless conversation. Pics from this fall's hunting with my son in Alaska, central Washington and Nebraska.

Dogs:French Brittanies-they're compact, peerless houseguests, tireless and driven. PePe is 10 and hunted 9 days of the 11 day trip in Oct and Nov and it was hard hunting.

Guns:prewar Continental doubles, particularly Merkels, and Winchester Model 12's-good Continental guns are simply as good as they get with superior design and workmanship (and you can put a sling on them). Model 12's simply work and work well. They are timeless.





Birds: Anything that flies well and tastes good. I'm agnostic about an all around favorite but pheasants are my favorite to hunt and the spruce grouse and sharptails are my favorite to eat. The chukar and California quail were new to us this year and were great simmered in a pot over the fire in camp.

Beautiful pics, Dennis. Thanks. They stir the rambler in me.

SRH

Sweet Model 12!!! Our military sure loved them. Can you get a better reference than that???

http://www.militaryfactory.com/smallarms/detail.asp?smallarms_id=672

By the time World War II began, stocks of shotguns were too small to support the mobilization and new orders were placed. The well regarded Winchester Model 12 trench and riot guns were again procured with a total of more than 80,000 guns ordered by the U.S. Government by 1945, more than any other combat shotgun of the time.

The Model 12 remained as the primary combat shotgun, used heavily by the USMC in Korea and until the Vietnam War where they again served

http://olive-drab.com/od_other_firearms_shotgun_m12.php

My favorite gun a 16 Ga. #2 AyA and I shoot hand loaded RMC brass hulls. The gun feels just right and the patterns from my hand loads in the brass hulls are the best I�ve ever seen.
My favorite dogs are Labs and Britts and I�ve had some great ones. I like these breeds because they are easy to train, great family dogs, biddable and all of mine have lived fo the hunt.
Annie, my French Brittany is a fearless hard hunter and has learned how to outsmart a running pheasant.

Nice dogs and brass loads. Can you please educate me as to how your crimp the brass shell to keep the paper card in place? I have never tried to load brass loads and I don't know how involved it is. Thank you in advance.
BillK

The card is glued, Bill.