Hunting

Pheasant hunting at Highland Hills Ranch

I just got off the phone with Dennis McNabb of Highland Hills Ranch, a western wingshooting lodge located in the high desert region of eastern Oregon. A factor that plays a big part in their success.

“We only get about 10 inches of rain a year,” said Dennis, “but the location is a big plus for bird hunters as our February and March weather is no different from our October and November weather. We’re really not that high either and we have good water resources here. Contrary to popular belief we don’t get buried in snow and our hunting seasons have generally great weather throughout the fall and winter months.”

If you plan to buy a used double barrel shotgun anytime soon, you’ll want to listen to the latest Double Barrel Podcast with Bruce Bowlen, Orvis’ Head Shooting Instructor at the Orvis Wingshooting School in Manchester, Vermont. It offers invaluable and in depth advise. Here are excerpts from the Podcast to give you some of Bruce’s great tips.

Click the play button below to listen to Expert Tips on Buying a Used Shotgun. Go to orvis.com/podcast to subscribe to future episodes

Annual Seve Commermorative Hunt Mike Quartararo

All of us who have experienced a good day afield with dogs working and birds flushing feel anticipation as each fall bird season approaches. Leaves start to fall, the temperatures starts to drop and memories of wonderful times spent outdoors with friends and dogs enters into the mind. The question is: How do you make time to get out there as much as possible?

First Pheasant Photo – Tim Daughton

I’m new to this, painfully new. I just completed my Hunters’ Safety course this past summer and had only aimed a shotgun at clays. I had no plans of coming home with a ringneck, but the possibility had me excited on the dark drive to our meeting spot before dawn. When I pulled my truck to the parking area on the side of the road, I was greeted by what I would learn would be the classic pre-hunt scene. My friends Steve, Tim, and Tim’s son Holden were outside their trucks, talking with coffee in their hands and Steve’s dog, Cayenne, lunging at the end of her leash. I was an emotional concoction of excited and nervous. I kept it to myself that I hadn’t felt this way since Prom Night. This was a whole different dance though, and the borrowed 20 gauge would’ve looked awkward with my teal dress from high school.

Quail season in Georgia is getting underway and having grown up there, I was feeling a little homesick, particularly this time of year. I called Todd Rogers at Wynfield Plantation just to get a little southern accent fix and talk about quail hunting. “We’re just getting underway. I’ve got some European guests here just getting ready to go out and the hunting is looking great for this year.

Continued from Chasing the Huns, Part I Fifteen minutes later, Fern locked up again. We picked up the pace, climbing down the side of a slope before crossing a flat. She stood stiff and motionless, pointing thirty yards from a draw that ran the length of the hillside. As we walked in, I looked at Paul. He seemed more relaxed and I decided not to say anything. The covey of Huns scattered into the air in front of us. Joel missed his shots.

I’m getting a new puppy the first of the year. He’s a Wildrose British Labrador out of their new sire FTch Glenoch Ruff who came from Northern Ireland this year. My dog Pickett is now 8 years old and at the peak of his performance physically and mentally, but it’s time to start bringing along the successor.