This is an old Harrington and Richardson Arms Co. model Topper M48. I used this while on west Texas dove hunts many years ago. It’s most likely the first shotgun that I ever fired.
Remington 1100
America’s work horse shotgun since 1963. Wikipedia says this is the best selling auto-loading shotgun in U.S. history, with over 4 million produced. My dad bought this 1100 skeet gun in the mid 1970’s. It is an excellent dove gun and not a bad specimen at 40 years old!
Filed under Firearms
Father’s Day with Tex
It was a beautiful weekend here in Colorado. Here are some shots of Tex on a perfect Father’s Day.
Filed under Bird Dogs
Some Dog on Bird Action
Filed under Bird Dogs
Missouri Turkey
We went to northern Missouri to hunt Eastern Turkeys last weekend. The weather was near perfect but the turkeys were not as plentiful as in years past and those that we did find were not very cooperative. Though not as successful as we would have liked, it was a very good time. The folks in Missouri are about as nice as you will find.
Locating gobblers.
Filed under Wild Bird Hunts
Spring at the Dog Park
Tex begins his third spring romping at the dog park. He has that German Shorthair drive to run and swim like he is in a race. The park is the perfect place to let him burn up some pent-up energy and wear him out for a while. At 94 pounds, he is our big moose GSP.
Filed under Bird Dogs
Two Pointers
Here are two wonderful dogs sharing a point that will never happen.
The dog in the back is Rio, a true hunting machine. She was the dog I learned to hunt with and was my hunting buddy for 6 years. We loved that dog but she was a tough animal to have in the house. At times, she was like a wild horse and did more than her fair share of damage. All things considered though, the mischief and cost were worth it. A good dog can get away with quite a lot. Sadly, we lost her to cancer in November of 2011.
Tex, in the foreground, is the sweet boy who is with us now. He is a solid hunter (but not the maniac that Rio was) and is our beloved family dog. With Tex, we get the best of both worlds. Tex was born in February of 2012 so he never got to hunt with Rio. They would have made quite a team.
Hopefully this is a glimpse of heaven.
Filed under Bird Dogs
Vintage Hoppe’s #9
This very old jar of Hoppe’s #9 came from Granddad’s closet. Along with his shoes and clothes, that closet held his leather slip-cased Winchester shotgun, a WWII German Luger and his Stetson hat. When we were kids it was a place of curious intrigue. Sadly, that closet and dear grandfather are both long gone. What remains are his guns, these cleaning supplies and memories of him and the sweet smell of leather, old guns and #9.
Filed under Other - Miscellaneous
A Great Read
Here at the Birdhunter significant effort is expended to produce the mediocre level of writing that you see in this blog. We are alright with that because the point here is the photography. But if you want to read great bird hunting stories written by fellows who know how to write then checkout this terrific e-book from the guys over at the Mouthful of Feathers blog. It is well worth the $5 and can be bought HERE.
Filed under Other - Miscellaneous
How to Clean Your Double-Barreled Shotgun
It is great fun to introduce new folks to the shotgun shooting sports and many of these new shooters want to know how to properly clean their shotgun. What follows is the procedure that I have religiously followed for as long as I can remember. This was written with side by side shotguns in mind but it applies to any single or double-barreled break down shotgun. The objective is to clean away all traces of gun powder, plastic wadding residue and fingerprints.
Filed under Equipment
A Day with the Kids
We took the boys on a preserve Chukar hunt yesterday. Colder and windier than we expected but the light was terrific and everyone had a great time.
Filed under Preserve Bird Hunts
Shotgun Photography Fun with Photoshop
Since I started jacking around with this blog and the related gun photography, I really wanted to take a quality, full length picture of a shotgun. Sounds easy doesn’t it? Well, it’s not!! Guns are really hard to photograph. Dealing with glare or reflection off of finely finished surfaces and holding the gun while appearing to not be holding it are two major challenges. This, along with picking a background that will show it off all add up to a pretty tough problem for the amateur photographer such as myself.
Happily, most of these challenges were solved by Photoshop. I have to say that Photoshop is the most powerful, complex, effective, frustrating, amazing, time consuming, magical, and non-intuitive piece of software I have ever used. There are only two consumer technology products that are so well known and influential that their names have become verbs. Photoshop is one . . . I can’t remember what the other one is . . . I will Google it later.
I do think Photoshop is a lot like taxidermy. If you aren’t committed to learning and practicing it, your end product will look a bit off. I highly recommend the most excellent guide “Photoshop CC, the missing manual” by Lesa Snider if you are thinking of giving it a try. Here are my first attempts.
It’s magic!
The background is the concrete by my mailbox which I darkened up a bit.
Filed under Firearms
Tex Turns 2
Filed under Bird Dogs
Old Ammo
Through the years, I have picked up old cartridges here and there. Below are some of the more interesting ones.
From the left: 32-20 | 40-82 | 45-70 | 25-20 | 25-35 | 30 G 1903| 44 rim fire | 405 Win | 38-55 | 44 WCF | 38-90 | 33 WCF | 351 Win SL | 32-40 | 40-65 | 38 Colt NP | 450 Nitro Express 3 1/4″ | 38 WCF | 30 WCF | 41 rim fire | 44 WCF | 38-56 | 22 Win Mag | 40-60
Filed under Other Photography (not bird hunting)
Doggy Pics
When you get old, Santa looks exactly like a UPS driver. A beardless skinny dude who wears shorts no matter what the weather is. This year Santa delivered a full frame Nikon D610 FX camera. This is an upgrade from the DX format camera that took all the pictures in this blog up until now. To test this thing out, Tex and I went to the dog park today and I snapped these shots.
This truly is a phenomenal camera. You can find plenty of reviews on the internet that tell you why this camera is awesome . . . almost as good as you can get. After a couple of days messing around with it, I believe them!
Filed under Bird Dogs
Random Shots From the Dakotas
Here are some random pictures from this year’s hunts in the Dakotas.
This a genuine North Dakota farm truck.
Filed under Wild Bird Hunts
2013 North Dakota Pheasant Hunt
This year we enjoyed 2 great hunts in the Dakotas. This 2nd hunt is our standing hunt with Cannonball Company out of Regent, North Dakota. We always have a terrific time with these fine folks.
Filed under Wild Bird Hunts
South Dakota Pheasant
Tex and I took advantage of an invite to the opening weekend in South Dakota. We had the pleasure of joining a terrific group of guys from Michigan on their annual pheasant hunt. Some of these fellows have been hunting together for 30 plus years and a number of these guys have grown up making the annual pilgrimage to Pierre for the big hunt. We enjoyed a classic wild bird hunt of the best sort.
A great old truck with great old hunters!
Filed under Wild Bird Hunts
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