Once the spring turkey season ends, many of us pivot to our local rivers and lakes to cast flies at fish. However, the thrill of your hunt does not have to end once the fly rod is strung. Many of the fly patterns attached to our leaders are tied with turkey feathers , and what could be a more rewarding full-circle experience than catching fish with flies made from the turkey you harvested? Turkey feathers, just like many upland birds, are quite versatile in the world of fly tying. Plucking a cou...
Jun 02, 2023•10 min
Raspy trumpets descending from the heavens broke the crisp silence and broke me out of my ice fishing trance. It’s easy to lose yourself while staring into the flashing circles and lines of a Vexilar screen, but the first sandhill crane calls of the year would snap anyone back into reality. I looked up through my copper-tinted glasses and counted nearly 200 cranes flying west over Blue Mesa Reservoir towards Montrose’s agricultural fields and milder temperatures. That’s more cranes than were lef...
May 26, 2023•18 min
Frost fell from the prairie grass as it moved around our legs. The sun had come up halfway through our walk, and water droplets began crawling up the denim of my jeans. Jack and Gunner, young labs and littermates, worked the cover intensely. Their backs, covered in white ice particles, began to steam off from the heat and excitement of the opening weekend. We had bagged a few birds and were almost back to the pickup. With our attention on recounting the morning’s shots, the dogs roamed a little ...
May 24, 2023•19 min
The question pops up on bird dog forums and breed-specific forums on social media platforms all the time, “Can we handle the energy of a bird dog?” The posters want to get a bird dog pup but they’ve heard they can be a handful; they wonder if they’ll be able to manage the infamous exercise needs of a working dog. Or questions come from new bird dog puppy owners at their wits’ end, frustrated that their dog seems out of control and they’re on the brink of considering rehoming it. Advice rolls in ...
May 22, 2023•15 min
“A bird in the hand is worth two in the bush” is a common phrase most folks are familiar with. From a sustainability standpoint, it’s easy to understand that leaving more birds on the landscape than you take is something worth valuing. However, when we are lucky enough to have a bird in the hand, how do we begin to identify what that bird is? Hopefully, if you’re an upland hunter, you already know how to identify a game bird to species. Given that hunting regulations are almost always species-sp...
May 19, 2023•9 min
Sweat beaded on the handler’s forehead as I gave my instructions on the water. A cloud of nervous energy consumed him in anticipation of the day’s last event. After all, a prize one score was on the line. His young Brittany gave a stellar performance in both the field work and tracking portions of its test. Now, the pup excitedly pulled at the end of the lead, giving the handler a glimmer of hope that it would swim. The NAVHDA Natural Ability test requires a young puppy to swim twice to show its...
May 17, 2023•13 min
As a bobwhite quail biologist, one of the first things I learned was that the peak of the bobwhite quail hatch occurs on June 15th each year. This peak date has become so pervasive in the quail world that it is dogma. This date is accepted at face value, dictating timing of summertime habitat management and even state and Federal agency policy. But is this “fact” of quail biology true? And, if not, have quail managers been operating on a paradigm that might have been detrimental to bobwhite mana...
May 15, 2023•11 min
In 1910, a Scottish man named John Campbell Connell faced a similar dilemma. He was in the market for a pair of shotguns, and because he was from a family of wealthy shipbuilders, London’s most prestigious and expensive gunmakers would have been within his reach: James Woodward and Sons, Boss and Co., Holland and Holland, James Purdey and Sons. So why did he buy round-action shotguns from John Dickson and Son of Edinburgh? Read more at projectupland.com ....
May 10, 2023•17 min
When people most people think of turkey, domestic or wild, they envision a whole bird. The skin is crispy, caramelized from a long oven roast, and stuffed to the brim as a dinner table centerpiece. This was the picture I had in my mind when I bagged my first wild turkey over 12 years ago. I treated it no differently than a Thanksgiving bird. Upon trying to carve and bite into the thighs, I immediately realized that one does not simply roast a wild turkey whole. While I still know alleged wild ga...
May 05, 2023•11 min
“The coveys are small and the birds are flushing like pen-raised birds ,” the phone call said. “They only flew about 30 yards and I didn’t have the heart to chase them.” What had started as another great chukar season for us turned quickly when our favorite spots got blanketed in an unusual amount of snow and, worse, a thick crust of ice. My friend had called to let us know that our plans to get together didn’t seem like such a great idea anymore. Another friend and veteran bird hunter made simi...
May 01, 2023•8 min
The Scent-Cone is the secret to understanding what dynamic makes hunting dogs classier and more accomplished in hunting and handling game. Most of the great bird dog trainers/handlers I knew grew up with a pack of hounds . I’ll name four: Clyde Morton, Paul Walker, Er Shelley, Bob Armstrong. They learned most about scent from running foxhounds. One of these, Er Shelley, even took a pack of hounds to track game when he traveled to Africa. Imagine that the concentration of scent effluvium is weake...
Apr 28, 2023•14 min
No one has to dig into the depths of social media to find that the topic of hunter recruitment descends into the darkest corners of keyboard dissertations. Some points against hunter recruitment have partial validity, others come from genuine concern, and some misguided thoughts need actual attention. But the people who rant about this issue are playing checkers when a chess game is afoot. Hunter recruitment is more complex than people believe. Frankly, some folks miss the point altogether. Nega...
Apr 24, 2023•18 min
Nearly fifty years after the birth of field trials, voting rights were granted to women in 1920. This milestone prompted a general shift in views around women’s liberties. Women began riding astride, wearing jodhpurs, adopting shorter hairstyles, and, by the 1930s, it was all the vogue for women to wear trousers. Until then, practically the only female names that made the pages of the American Field weekly magazine were those of winning Setters and Pointers like Sioux, La Besita, Mary Montrose a...
Apr 21, 2023•20 min
The Jagdgebrauchshundverband ( JGHV) is the German versatile hunting dog association that conducts performance hunt tests for the purpose of evaluating several different gundog breeds, including versatile dogs in North America. It is up to the individual breed clubs to decide which of those tests will be considered requirements prior to breeding an eligible dog. For the Deutsch Langhaar, the parent breed club in Germany requires passing scores on the first two levels of JGHV testing, in addition...
Apr 19, 2023•24 min
It was Summer 2021 when our almost-13-month-old Springer Spaniel , Timber, started throwing up. She was a puppy and had a strong desire to see the world through her mouth so we assumed she had eaten something strange and it would resolve itself. When that didn’t immediately happen we went to the veterinary clinic and started the diagnostic process. What we were ignorant of then was the possibility and danger of internal fungal infections. Read more at projectupland.com ....
Apr 17, 2023•11 min
Grouse hunters are oddballs. I know, because I am one. While a lot of people think it’s strange to spend your free time walking through the woods with a dog, a gun, and no place to go, there’s nothing I’d rather do in October and November. The Savage Fox A Grade is also an oddball. Even though it says “Fox” all over it, this side-by-side shotgun has little in common with the original A.H. Fox shotgun. And that’s what I like most about it. Read more at projectupland.com ....
Apr 12, 2023•15 min
Pluck your game birds whenever possible. Not only does flavor reside in their skin, but keeping the skin on your birds helps retain moisture when cooking. Your birds will taste better and juicier if you make an effort to add this to your bird butchering routine. I covered how to pluck your birds in an earlier piece. This article will help you avoid and fix mistakes when plucking and cleaning. Mistakes or mishaps simply happen, but how can we correct them and salvage as much skin as possible? Rea...
Apr 10, 2023•10 min
Living in the center of a continuous forest, my nomadic bird dogs don’t spend much time walking on a leash around our home. As a result, they have terrible leash manners. Luckily for me, their tendency to pull works wonderfully with pulling sports like skijoring and kicksledding, as long as you can get them to stop. This is where “whoa” comes into play. This one word allowed me to dive into winter dog sports with my bird dogs. “Whoa” is a critical command nearly every pointing dog and sled dog o...
Apr 05, 2023•9 min
The three largest organizations that administer hunt tests for pointing and versatile hunting dogs are the American Kennel Club (AKC) , the North American Versatile Hunting Dog Association (NAVHDA) , and the Jagdgebrauchshundverband (JGHV , German for “Hunting Dog Association”). These organizations have slightly different test subjects and eligibility rules, but they are generally aimed in the same direction. There is also some overlap in eligibility for these tests. For example, our dogs are re...
Mar 30, 2023•20 min
As Americans, many of us have never heard of the name RFM (Rota Fausti Manufacturing), and with good reason. Despite manufacturing guns since 1957, they only just came to the United States with their North American distributor Upland Gun Company. In Europe, they have quite the famous reputation, and, although they will humbly not mention it, they build many custom shotgun stocks for famous world champions and Olympians in the clay shooting space who seek out their expertise. Read more at project...
Mar 25, 2023•17 min
Some may be offended when they hear the various names for the unusual species that is the American Woodcock . Author George Bird Evans was quick to condemn the act in a way that has been referenced many times since its mention in The Upland Shooting Life . But the very evolution of this bird, unlike any of its counterparts, lends itself to this creative naming. The nicknaming of woodcock is far older than modern wingshooting. The biological history of the American woodcock is believed to date ba...
Mar 16, 2023•11 min
Introduced last year, the new Orion 20 gauge shares the proven features of the 12 gauge version that Weatherby has been producing since 2016. The 20 gauge is currently manufactured in three versions: a 28 inch barrel field model with gloss finish (reviewed here), a 26 inch barrel field model with matte finish, and a glossy 30 inch barrel sporting model. Read more at projectupland.com .
Mar 14, 2023•13 min
Feathers tell us all sorts of things about birds. They are beautiful to look at, help us identify individual bird species, protect birds from the elements, and they’re the reason birds can take flight. Ornithologists can tell us even more about birds thanks to feather measurements and samples. Some research labs even can measure where the carbon in feathers comes from, which tells us a lot about avian diets and migration patterns. However, before we get too deep down the rabbit hole regarding or...
Mar 10, 2023•11 min
Hunters everywhere train and hunt over their gundogs in a manner that suits the game they pursue and the terrain in which the game is found. In North America, the way we train our dogs and hunt upland birds over them is mainly based on the behavior of native species like the bobwhite quail , ruffed grouse , and North American woodcock . Even when we hunt non-native species like pheasants , huns , and chukar , we tend to use our dogs in more or less the same way. But what if more than just a few ...
Mar 02, 2023•31 min
“We’re just really grateful that you’re here. Truly, thanks for coming.” The sincere words of appreciation caught me by surprise for two reasons. First, I was recognized as a visitor—I’m not used to small towns and just how much outsiders stand out—and second, my presence was genuinely welcomed. We were at a craft beer festival in small-town Montana during the upland bird season. Having already completed our hunt for the day, we decided to check out the local brewery scene and support the event....
Feb 28, 2023•10 min
Anyone in the dog world has heard terminology thrown around about breeding, genetics, and the way breeding decisions affect breed populations as a whole. Coefficient of inbreeding (COI), line breeding, outcrossing, purebreds, mixed breeds, mutts, genetic diversity, health testing, color genetics, and heritable diseases are all hot topics, but what do these terms really mean? Do people in the dog world understand how to accurately use these terms? How has the dog world co-opted terms and misunder...
Feb 23, 2023•23 min
Upland bird hunting is anything but easy. Numerous moving parts and thin margins for error make returning home with wild meat a challenge every time. As a new hunter, getting everything to align can feel frustratingly unreachable at times. Appreciating the complexity of hunting and identifying your own strengths and weaknesses are the foundation for setting goals that are attainable. It took me a full season to weigh my expectations against my experience to realize that with every hunt I was, in...
Feb 21, 2023•9 min
Bobwhite quail can be found across nearly one-third of the United States. This area includes Florida up to Ohio, from Texas to Nebraska, and everywhere in between. They live in a myriad of habitat types that contain a wide variety of plants across this large range. However, in its simplest form, their habitat across all the different states is fairly basic. Bobwhite quail require three core habitat components: a diversity of herbaceous plants, bare ground, and woody escape cover. How and why bob...
Feb 16, 2023•15 min
The Lesser Prairie-Chicken was listed as endangered under the Endangered Species Act by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service on November 17th, 2022. Although being listed comes with additional management and financial support, “The U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service cannot recover lesser prairie-chickens with regulations” according to the North American Grouse Partnership . “It is the voluntary participation of landowners who hold the key to the future of these cherished places and iconic species,” ...
Feb 14, 2023•15 min
Grassroots conversations regarding the 28-gauge feel more like the passing on of old fantasy stories rather than true, hard facts of ballistics. People smarter than me have pointed out that all shotgun ballistics apply except when talking the 28-gauge. There are myths of its origins, a collective misunderstanding of the “square load,” and a devout following by some of the greatest shotgun experts and writers. Read more at projectupland.com .
Feb 09, 2023•16 min
