Hunting

Here’s a cool video by my friend Lisa Savard, filmed in the woods near Cabins at Lopstick, which she owns and operates with her husband, Tim. Living in the Connecticut Lakes region of far-northern New Hampshire, Lisa and her dogs have access to thousands of square miles of woods, but you can see that this is no walk in the park. The cover that grouse and woodcock prefer can be thick stuff, where it’s difficult to even get a shot at a flushed bird.

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I’ve been training Murphy for almost a year now, and he’s seen his share of feathered bumpers, goose scented tennis balls, and frozen ducks, but the opportunity to get his mouth on freshly downed birds was not something I was taking lightly. I wanted a somewhat controlled, but real environment, and a Continental Release at Sandanona Shooting Grounds in Millbrook, New York, seemed just the place.

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This is no lodge experience. Hunting at Zeke’s Rooster Ranch is the North Dakota equivalent to a Vermont deer camp, only on a grander scale. During pheasant season, men and dogs congregate from all over the country to hunt pheasant and enjoy some time off the grid. To explain the history of how all these men are connected and how I got there would take. . .
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Your hunting dog already knows what to do in the field, but he or she looks to you for leadership. photo by Paul Fersen

Some of the most interesting things about working with Mike Stewart of Wildrose Kennels—I was taking a dog-training course and writing a book with him at the same time—are the subtleties that are far beyond the actual mechanics of running drills. Perhaps the most important premise (and the thing that most people simple don’t get) is that dog training is more about training yourself how to train the dog.

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Hunting in such open country offers the pleasure of following the dogs and watching them work. photo by Bill Reed

Having spent nearly thirty-five years chasing grouse and woodcock throughout the Northeast, with an occasional foray for southern quail or pheasants in Iowa and Kansas, I was excited to get the opportunity to hunt sharptails and huns in north-central Montana. And in one word–Wow!

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Thoughts about how to manage upland birds vary widely depending upon where your geographic location. One thing that is, unfortunately, the same everywhere is the decline in upland bird numbers, especially quail. For the past 50 years, the quail population has been slowly decreasing on a national level. Programs such as Wildlife Habitat Incentives Program (WHIP), . . .

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Often this time of year, many of us who hunt have extra game in the freezer we need to use up. If you have any duck or pheasant in your freezer that you don’t know what to do with, the Famous Deer Creek Lodge Duck & Pheasant Hors D’oeuvres are your answer. Delicious. 

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Fridays at Orvis Sandanona Shooting Grounds mean one thing to me: Clay Breaking Sessions. I hold these 3-hour clinics both in the morning and afternoon. Each is limited to just four shooters with a focus on a particular target presentation you’ll find on any sporting clays course in the world. While nothing compares to being taught on the course, I will tip and insights now and again to improve your shooting. This week: the teal station.

 

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As we get older, let’s say north of 55, how much more difficult is it to walk those New England hills during grouse and woodcock season, or to cast a 9-wt fly rod all day fishing for Atlantic salmon? Quite a bit, right? I am by no way trying to be the fitness police, but I feel what used to be easy is coming harder with each season; and each year I see it in fishing and hunting buddies who no longer get out to participate in the sport they love. It is a sad reality.

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Outdoor Life’s editors just announced in their 2011 Shotgun Review that this year’s shotgun of the year is the Caesar Guerini Ellipse Evo Light, a shotgun Orvis has been proud to carry and offer our customers since last year.

The workmanship on the EVO Light received and A+ from Outdoor Life

As the editors of Outdoor Life put it: “If by some alchemy you could distill the essence of an upland bird gun and give it physical form, it might look something like the Ellipse Evo Light from Caesar Guerini, a sexy stunner that took top honors in this year’s hotly contested shotgun evaluation. It’s a classic 20-gauge over/under game gun with both British and Italian influences. The solid ribbing on the barrels, which are topped with a single brass bead, give the gun a clean, uncluttered elegance and contrast pleasantly with the gorgeous wood and handsome extensive engraving on the coin-finished receiver… The Ellipse Evo Light shoots as well as it looks. With 28-inch barrels and a lithe 5 1⁄2-pound weight, it got on our clay birds as fast as a diving falcon, and to the same deadly effect. To a person, we raved about its handling; each of us longed to carry it for wild quail or sword-tailed cock pheasants.”

That is heavy praise indeed coming from a staff of folks who know their shotguns inside and out. It is for these great reasons, and many more, that Orvis first chose to sell the EVO Light. It is a spectacular shotgun at a price that Outdoor Life ranks as as an extremely good value, especially for the A+ they annointed it with for both Workmanship and Performance.

If you are an upland hunter in search of the perfect 20 gauge over/under, Outdoor Life found it and Orvis offers it to you as the exclusive US retailer. Look no further than the Caeser Guerini Ellipse EVO Light. Get in touch with Orvis Gun Room Manager John Rano today at 802-362-2580 or ranoj@orvis.com

Learn more about this great shotgun at our online Gun Room.

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