doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion DoubleGun BBS @ doublegunshop.com Adding swivels to a double?

Your opinion runs smack into the research by the late Gordon Gullion when it comes to grouse hunting. Over a ten year period of study in central MN, it was discovered that the most successful combination for grouse hunting was a pair of hunters and a single dog. Breed of dog didn't matter, but dogless hunting of any sort was farther down the success chart.

My own experience agrees with this study. Several years past, my elderly setter locked up on a stunning point in a low stubble field in southwestern MN. I never took the gun off my shoulder, and simply enjoyed her intensity for perhaps half a dozen minutes, long enough for a crew of hunters in a jeep to stop and enjoy it as well. After the hen flushed, we walked back to the car, and the driver rolled down the window and asked why I didn't take the gun off my shoulder and get ready for the bird to flush?
I told him "the dog told me it was a hen". He couldn't comprehend how that was so. But a point for that long, that late in the season, usually is a hen.
They were dogless. BIrdless, too. Late season pheasant hunting, without a dog, is mostly hiking.

Best,
Ted

Personally I could care less what Gordon Gullion, whoever he is, does in Minnesota. In reality I don't care how you hunt in Minnesota. If Gullion did something in Utah or Arizona or Nevada maybe I would be interested, but I doubt it. My own 60+ years of experience are more important to me and those successful hunting habits are well formed.

I like to hunt, not follow a dog or dogs who are doing all the hunting and chasing with a bunch of hikers following. To each his own.

My success rate more than satisfies me, late or early, high or low, this continent or another, but of course I hunt where the game is and I don't need a dog or someone in Minnesota to show me where that is. I don't use dogs to run lions up trees out here either. Dogs make great pets though, had lot's of them, but I didn't run around blowing whistles at 'em.

Whatever floats your boat......

Best,

pa: may I recommend a couple of books to you about the experiences of bird hunters, both human and canine?

"a hunters road", by Fergus, and

"a rough shooting dog" by another Fergus

private message your mailing address and I will get copies of both books in the mail to you. after reading these two books, I hope you will understand what this man/dog hunting thing is really about...it is never to late to experience one of lifes joys: sharing your hunting experience with a creature that loves it even more than you do.

Blast them with a good stout load of #4's and you won't need a dog. Your gun won't have to look like a Missouri mule festooned in leather harness either.

Good Lord, nothing like showing ignorance, and being proud of it to boot!

I'll guess your library card has expired. No need for you to spend any time there.

You know it all.



Best,
Ted

I guess flatlanders like you and others think everyone hunts as you do, and you are so, so wrong.......

In the mountain west, there are over 300 wilderness back country airstrips in Idaho, Montana, Wyoming, Utah and Nevada alone. No motorized vehicles allowed and many of them over 100 miles and more from the nearest road. Most of these airstrips were put in for fire suppression and are not maintained.

One can fly into these remote airstrips and walk up a peaceful valley and limit out on grouse or quail in no time. One can fish in the pristine rivers with bare hooks and limit out in no time........and NEVER SEE ANOTHER PERSON, OR DOG OR VEHICLE, while having elk, deer, moose, bear, mountain lion and everything else walk through the camp.

Ted, not everybody is a 'rubber tire hunter' and many have different experiences than you and enjoy their life just the way it is.......and not everyone sits around a library trying to figure out how to fill their game bag...

I know you will never understand, but maybe you can find a book at your library that reflects on the Mountain West and it's pristine Wilderness area's that are roadless.......

Best,

I agree!


Doug I don't think the sleeve would be as handy as a sling based on my experience with other slinged guns. Sport hunting is an emotional pursuit. The rational guys get their birds at Kentucky Fried Chicken. I never heard of a discussion between the Colonel's practical dine-in customers and his rational drive through customers disputing which process was the most effective.

JRB the gun I am going to put the sling on has budged barrels. Also numerous dent repairs. The bluing is about 40%. Apparently the toe was broken off as the stock has been reshaped into a swan belly profile. The wrist has been broken and repaired. A Pachmyar Whiteline pad was fitted sometime. I know Parker VHs came with checkering but you can't tell by looking at this one. The action has pitting on one side. I bought the gun for $250 at a gun show and I got cheated. I really don't think the sling is going to make the gun either less or more mule-like.

Someday, when you have time, you might want to check out the book "The Ruffed Grouse" by Gordon Gullion. If you have an interest in knowing a bit about the biology of ruffed grouse, anyway. It isn't a book about hunting them, but, one of the things it will teach you is, that the reason ruffed grouse are so widely distributed isn't that they are highly adaptable-but, the conditions that allow them to flourish, a narrow set of conditions, by the way, are fairly widespread in North America.
Meaning, that a guy who successfully hunted grouse in Maine all his life, will likely do pretty well with that knowledge he gained while hunting in Maine, in his hunting in Wisconson, Michigan, Idaho, or, God forbid, Minnesota.
My opinion is I'd rather have a ho-hum dog along for a trip hunting than anything to do with an aircraft. If you got time, fly, as they say. But, that is my opinion, and if you can post some legitimate research that says I'd do better using a plane to find my birds, hey, I'll likely listen to it on a public forum without calling you names.
Have a safe flight.


Best,
Ted

Ted,

Well let's see now, you've already called me "ignorant" and "know it all" and "anti-library" simply because I prefer to hunt different than you, all based on your opinions without having any facts in hand to understand how I hunt.

You are the one that jumped on this thread blowing your horn and assuming everyone is as interested in "grouse" as you are .........(BTW--we have a lot more entertaining game birds out here than grouse).........and that anyone hunting without a dog can't be successful, citing your grouse book author and his Minnesota study as the divine word...... Is it just possible that you don't know everything Ted....?.....

I have NO desire to provide you with any research or data or any specifics about people who hunt the Wilderness BLM lands of this country....Why should I provide any information that would further encourage the destruction of the very few places that are still pristine...?...

One thing the pristine Western Wilderness areas do not need are people with dogs blowing whistles and yelling, but thanks for your opinion.

Good Luck,

Mike, no gun can be thaaat bad you would want to harness it and put it to the plow. As for that Pachmayer Whiteline you might be interested in replacing it with one of Doug's and my Huarachi butt pads.