Shotgun-fi?

[Aimless1]

Actually, I like Sporting Clays better than Skeet. You shoot enough Skeet and you can almost score 24/25 with your eyes shut. Also more similar to hunting that Skeet. JMHO

I'm a pat hunter shooting exclusively 16ga & 28ga for the short shot strings. Have both side by sides and over/unders. The Frianchi is a nice gun .

We're all entitled to an opinion but I'll never ruin a bird hunt by shooting behind a flushing dog. Sorry, but I'm not into the track meets most spaniel owners attempt to put you through. It's kind of like listening to music with a KSC75 vs a Grado RS2. A nice pointing dog will put a shiver down your spine with watching it run 100mph through the woods and spinning and stopping on a dime slamming to a point. You know the bird is right there and the dog has it pinned down. You walk up to flush the bird and hope you've guessed the right escape route. But no, half the time it goes in a different direction. You swing and fire. May be a hit or may be a miss. Either way,nothing finer except perhaps the glass of St Emilion at the table later while you're enjoying the bird you just shot.

Hmm, can't tell I enjoy pat hunting, can you?

[Old Pa]

Originally Posted by Aimless1

We're all entitled to an opinion but I'll never ruin a bird hunt by shooting behind a flushing dog.

You might have enjoyed hunting with my Maggie, she was a real woods pig. Hunted up everything for 20 to 25 yards out; always checking back on her old guy. Watching her get "birdy" was always a magic experience. And you haven't lived till you experience the rodeo of a six grouse flush with two close working field springer spaniels! Hoo Yah!

[Aimless1]

Not to hijack a thread, but just curious....why do you need a dog if it's working 20-25 yards in front of the gun....especially grouse? Before my setters I walked up birds for a decade and guess where they flushed from.

Just a little harmless ribbing between two dog men.

[Old Pa]

Originally Posted by Aimless1

Not to hijack a thread, but just curious....why do you need a dog if it's working 20-25 yards in front of the gun....especially grouse? Before my setters I walked up birds for a decade and guess where they flushed from.

In our grouse woods, you can seldom see further than 25 yards, much less expect to poke 7 1/2s. I've had birds poop on my boot on their way up. The idea is that the spaniel is hunting for you rather than you are hunting for the spaniel. But then, I've only been doing this for over twenty-five years.

[Aimless1]

Well, that friendly jibe went a different direction than I intended. I figured you would come back and say something like at least you don't have to hunt for your dogs, just for birds. Oh well.

I started grouse hunting in 1979. In 1982 I became a grouse hunter and by 1985 that is what I have hunted exclusively. Old Pa, you and I both know that prime cover is thick and impossible to get through. Truth is most shots are taken at 15 yds or less. For that reason I pretty much use cylinder and skeet chokes. Later in the season after leaves have come down and the woods have opened up and the birds have earned their phd in survival, I'll switch to improved cylinder and improved mod. Since grouse are so easy to bring down (once they're hit) and woodcock are usually around, I normally use #8 shot, or europeon #7 if I can find it.

Anyway, just trying to have a little friendly banter between two pat hunters with different tastes in dogs. No offense intended

[Old Pa]

Grouse opens in MN along with the rest of small game in the middle of September with the cover all up and the first frost usually a couple weeks away; the early dumb yearling "Slaughter of the Innocents" is usually "swing and swat with the misquitoes (AKA MN state bird) in a hunter-crowded woods. I usually wait until early October when waterfowl has opened and combined with fantasy football season to take some of the morons out of my woods. Still, I pretty much only hunt during the week and hide the car so as not to lead the great unwashed to some sweet covers I have devloped over the years; grouse hunting at best is a solitary pursuit.

Most of my shooting can be best done with whatever carries and points well and can evenly pattern an ounce of coppered 7 1/2s. Come to favor 20ga Federal Premium and am currently shooting from a couple of cases whose box artwork is two or three generations behind. Early season may call for 7/8th ounce of 8s, late season may need 1 1/8th ounce of 6s when things open up and only the "track stars" remain. IC is a good choice, but I pattern each barrel and load to see what's actually going on. At present, I've got a brace of 101s, a Classic Doubles 201 (23) (all with straight stocks) and a sweet little Benelli M1.

Much of my pleasure nowadays comes from watching my springer spaniel girls work. My ten year old Rosie is the best hunting dog I have ever had. Avid, eager, cunning, and somewhat biddable (), she will hunt alive or dead and retrieves to hand with a soft mouth. Her three year old apprentice, Lola was coming along fine this last season after a judicious application of electronic training collars (AKA "the electronic ear wax remover"). Lola just neede to see what I wanted her to do, Rosie was pretty sure she still knew better than the old boy. I just bring this pair into good covers and get out of the way. If there are birds there, my girls will get them out and up.

[braillediver]

Beautiful Old Pa thanks for sharing.

You sound like quite the team in the woods.


Mitch

[Karlos]

I use a Browning Cynergy Black Ice for sporting clays and DTL. I also shoot a little skeet, but the gun is not really suited for it.