As another hunting season comes to a close, shooters typically reflect back on the memories, and assess the season: What went right, what went wrong, and how to improve things for the next season. If you hunt with your own dog, that usually means assessing your “partners” performance. More specific, what you would like to improve. For some hunters, the post-season reflection confirms their dog’s old age has finally indicated the time to start looking for succession.
Although capercaillie and black grouse are the highlights of the Russian spring hunting season, other game birds are also legal that time of year including geese, ducks and woodcock.
The Russian spring season on geese is very much open and is an extremely popular affair. Hunting is done in the traditional manner, from blinds with decoys on the fields where the birds feed. However, the caveat is that wide open spaces that make good resting stations for migrating geese are seldom located anywhere near good grouse habitat in case you’re interested in adding them to your bag.
We drove slowly up the private gravel road of Durham County Wildlife Club in Morrisville, North Carolina looking at the 3D archery target course and hearing the rhythmic pop-pop of a registered skeet competition in the background. Wes parked his Chevy Silverado and continued with his description of the club’s amenities. I was listening, but remained far more focused on the unblemished Browning box in the bed of his truck.
Argentina is widely known as a wingshooter’s paradise. The Cordoba region is synonymous with “doves galore,” but in the province of Entre Rios you can vary your hunting experience with perdiz (partridge) and ducks. The limits on pigeon, perdiz and ducks are generous, and on doves there’s no limit at all (in Argentina, they are pests that do immeasurable damage to agriculture). Hunting is the most efficient of legal crop protection methods, and hunters are often farmers’ only hope.
In late March 2017, Shotgun Life visited Fabbrica Armi Isidoro Rizzini, or F.A.I.R. as we have come to know it, in Brescia Italy. Owner Luca Rizzini impressed us as a straightforward, unpretentious guy committed to manufacturing affordable wing and clays guns that would last for generations.
In late March and early April of 2017, Shotgun Life visited the legendary Gardone Val Trompia in the province of Brescia, which is the heart of Italy’s shotgun manufacturing. We spent time with shotgun makers Perazzi, Beretta, FAIR and F. illi Poli as well as master engravers Stephano Pedretti, Creative Art, Francesca Fracassi and Cesare Giovanelli. Here is Part 6 of our eight-part series called Shotgun Life in Gardone Val Trompia.
Don’t be shocked to see Amber Haynes wear ritzy Christian Louboutin heels with upland field pants. As the only child of a Houston oil-and-gas guy, he brought his young daughter along on the Texas quail and pheasant hunts that ultimately became her fashion muse.
“I’ve been tagging along with my dad hunting since I was little,” said Ms. Haynes.
In late March and early April of 2017, Shotgun Life visited the legendary Gardone Val Trompia in the province of Brescia, which is the heart of Italy’s shotgun manufacturing. We spent time with shotgun makers Perazzi, Beretta, FAIR and F. illi Poli as well as master engravers Stephano Pedretti, Creative Art, Francesca Fracassi and Cesare Giovanelli. Here is Part 4 of our eight-part series called Shotgun Life in Gardone Val Trompia.
In late March and early April of 2017, Shotgun Life visited the legendary Gardone Val Trompia in the province of Brescia, which is the heart of Italy’s shotgun manufacturing. We spent time with shotgun makers Perazzi, Beretta, FAIR and F. illi Poli as well as master engravers Stephano Pedretti, Creative Art, Francesca Fracassi and Cesare Giovanelli. Here is Part 4 of our eight-part series called Shotgun Life in Gardone Val Trompia.
Gannon Hunt doesn’t shoot big-bore over/unders. Like many women, after suffering the harsh punch of a 12 gauge, she simply gave it up for smaller shotguns. Now, still wary of 12-gauge recoil, the Beretta Vittoria shouldered and ready, she hesitated, steeled herself then pulled the trigger. The pellets dispersed roughly 60/40 on the quail silhouette pattern plate. A flash of disbelief, then she turned and announced “I hardly felt any more recoil than with my 28 gauge.”
Ms. Hunt’s amazement will likely be enjoyed by other sportswomen trying Beretta’s first ladies shotgun named the Vittoria. Based on the rugged 690 Sporting I, Beretta is a latecomer to the specialty women’s sporting gun market lauded for dimensions tailored to women’s bodies.
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