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

I will be after Bob White, Blue Quail, Partridge, Sharptails, and Pheasant pointed by my French Brittanys Molly, Belle, Red, Ginger, and Buddy. I hunt with French Brittanys because they are also my house pets. I will use an assortment of sub six-pound SxS guns in gauges 28,20,and 16, of English, European, or American manufacture all with correct double triggers. I like light guns because they aren't heavy. Of course on many of these hunts I will have my shooting student Joe Wood. I bring him along to carry my birds, shells, and also water for the dogs.

This is Ginger, taken two seasons ago when she was a pup.



Last year I drove to Kansas and instructed Last Dollar, Joe Wood, Chuck H, SKB, and Daryl Halquist in pheasant hunting. That is Belle, Red, and Ginger. Molly was so exhausted she wouldn't stay in the picture but kept loading up in the truck. My shooting student Chuck H. took the picture. That is a Parker VH12, 32" barrels choked full and full and weighing eight pounds. A light sixteen would have done as well.


Molly pointing a Bob when she was just seven months old.


An H Bissel 20 gauge with 26" barrels, weighs 5lbs 2oz with ejectors. Of course it is just a Birmy Boxlock


A Fox XE grade sixteen, weight 6lbs 5oz, 28" barrels. Three Texas Panhandle Bobs.


Left to right: Molly, Belle, Dubya, Beau, Red


You can just barely see Beau in the middle of the valley. This was taken near Slaton, Texas by my shooting student Joe Wood. There had been an ice storm and the mesquites were covered with a coat of ice and looked like crystal trees


Beau stole the point from his daughter Molly. As my wife points out Beau was a dead beat dad and generally lousy father.


Gallyon sixteen (Birmy Boxlock) with West Texas Quail. Weighs 5-3/4 pounds, extractors and 28" barrels

Ebrall Brothers, Shrewsbury sixteen singleshot hammergun with a Bob Taken near the Salt Fork of the Red River, near Quail, Texas. I usually shoot brass hulls loaded with black powder and 7/8 #7s in it. Has 30" barrels and weighs 4-3/4 pounds


Lefever Damascus sixteen and a West Texas Bob. Nice bird gun which I foolishly sold.


Eleven Kansas Pheasant I killed few years ago, posed between Joe and our host. The Lab belongs to our host.


Old picture with the late Brie on the right and a young Beau on the left. That is a Ugartechgea twenty.


Belle pointing a Bob with Molly (black) and Dubya backing.


This is my shooting student Joe Wood with a Lindner Daly Daimond sixteen stolen from me, our host's Lab and my Molly and Red. I shot the BobWhite of course.

Mike, in the photo which depicts the rear of the SUV with the dogs on top of a long drawer. Does Joe ride in the drawer? If so, is in air conditioned?

Here is Joe Wood going in to flush a Bird Belle pointed. Molly backing. On Joe's family place near Lubbock:



My Friend Chubby's German Wirehair. Obviously a versatile breed:


Red and Bell perform synchronized shaking after a dip:


Took this while Blue Quail hunting near Deming, New Mexico. Oddest thing, there a a house size rock at the base of the mountain and a spring bubbled up right in the middle of it. Got up a covey of seventy or eighty Blues right next to it:


Field trial in Amarillo a couple of years ago. The gun is a very nice Fabrique Nationale twelve with 26" barrels, weighs 6lbs 2oz. Me and Red, taken by the lovely Leia:



Fox A Grade sixteen. Weighs 5 lbs 9oz, 26" barrels:


Fox XE sixteen:


My son Taylor and Beau. Taylor is holding his AyA No 1 twenty, 30" barrels 5lbs 14oz.


Ithaca Flues Grade 4 sixteen, 28" barrels, a magic wand

The late Brie in the back of the Expedition:


Points all over!


Red, water cup, Bob, and a Parker VH sixteen with 28" barrels, all original, weighs 5-3/4 pounds. It is choked 6 and 12 and the chokes taper all the way to the muzzle so I think that is how it left the factory:

As Joe fought in the Great War I have to be careful of heat stroke and his arthritis. I generally let him ride in the cage with the dogs as long as he doesn't molest the female dogs.

In light of Joe's foot injury, I hope that you cut back on the number of guns he has to carry for you next year in the field. Maybe you would permit a pull golf cart with oversized tires and let him take more frequent water breaks. As far as the allegations regarding your female dogs,in Joe's defense, you can't believe everything a French Brittany says.

The truth is Joe's wife pays me $400 per day plus expenses for every day I get him out of the house. If it requires buying him a four wheeler or a Mule I know Mrs. Joe will happily pony up the bucks for it.

Great pictures Mike. Nothing beats a good Brittany. I prefer the American Brits, but wouldn't turn down a good French one either.

I really enjoyed your pictures Mike, especially the Texas photos. Made me a little homesick for the mesquite thickets of west Texas for sure. The photo of the wire hair pointer with a face full of porcupine quills made me think of an episode with a Brittany Spaniel a few years ago in the grouse woods. We think of these porcupines mainly as a nuisance but these quills can actually kill a dog. Some hunters from Virginia who go to the same grouse camp where I go had a young French Brittany get into one of those nasty porcupines a couple years ago. They took their time removing the quills like we always do and thought they got them all. The next day they hunted their pup and he acted ok at first and then acted like he had no stamina. Shortly thereafter, the pup dropped over dead. Apparently a quill worked it's way into a vital organ, presumably the lungs resulting in death for this pup. I had never heard of such a thing but apparently it can happen. Lesson is, one should take great care removing ALL the quills. I always carry a pair of hemostats with me on every hunt just in case!