Shotguns

Highland Hills Ranch is a sensuous indulgence for upland hunters.

The contours of Oregon’s high-desert rolling hills summon womanly curves shamelessly gorgeous beneath sun-infused blue. After a day of stalking valley quail, chukars, pheasants and huns over dogs, Chef Keith Potter seduces you with a perfume of homemade bakery and dinners fragrant of Western, Latin and Pacific Rim influences as the provincial pinot noirs comfort body and soul. Come dessert, you’re spent and benevolent. The vaulted log great room is aglow with amber lamplight. You plop into a supple leather couch for single malts, bourbon and camaraderie, savoring the warmth of a stone hearth blaze.

A concerted effort that spanned Italy and the U.S. has produced a magnificent 20-gauge over/under from the workshops of Luciano Bosis and master engraver Stefano Pedretti to help fund research into the preservation of Southeastern bobwhite quail habitat by the Tall Timbers Research Station & Land Conservancy.

The high-desert expanse of Highland Hills Ranch served as our proving grounds for evaluating the forthcoming 20-gauge version of Beretta’s 486 Parallelo side by side.

When we think of Orvis for shotgun cases, materials that come to mind are leather, fleece and canvas. With the beginning of the 2013 bird-hunting season, though, Orvis added plastic and suddenly that new green shotgun case vaulted to “The Best 5 Upland Products.”

Perazzi’s MXS Sporting 12 gauge lets you tap into a long vein of Olympic trap and skeet victories at the same price of mass-produced shotguns from manufacturers with competitive aspirations and also-ran engineering.

During the ICTSF World English Clay Shooting Championship held August 3rd and 4th at Galt Sportsman Club in Ontario, Canada I had the opportunity to shoot Beretta’s new 486 Parallelo side by side in 12 gauge.

The 486 Parallelo is Beretta’s first round action side by side. The model made available to me featured stunning, hand-rubbed oil Turkish walnut for a shotgun in this price range (around $5,300) on its straight English grip. The Beretta 486 Parallelo sported matching selected wood for the stock, forend and checkered butt plate. Beretta ensures that the balance point on each Beretta 486 Parallelo is the same regardless of wood density. In addition to the English grip with splinter forend, the shotgun can be configured with a pistol grip and beavertail forend.

My Dad, who enjoyed hunting and shooting sports all of his life, passed away on June 5, 2013 at age 95.  Franklin Lee Marten was living on the farm in the same house where he was born. He was still shooting skeet and hunting doves by his grandson’s pond the year before he died. When I was a little kid, my dad had a 16-gauge Stevens hammer gun. I remember handling it, but Dad sold it to his good friend and hunting buddy, Harry Moore, in 1949 or 1950 before I was old enough to shoot it.