doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion DoubleGun BBS @ doublegunshop.com A rough, wet walk this morning

Should have had a limit of 3, but missed two easy birds. Ended up with 2 total. No complaints about that. Gus is the real brains in this outfit. He also does all the heavy lifting. Not bad for an 8 yr old.

I hope all of you have had as good a post-Thanksgiving weekend as Gus and I have.

Love the picture, seems like a fantasic day in anyones book!
Karl

What shotgun is that Brent? With that long trigger guard looks like a Spaniard.

Nope, it is a German. Merkel Model 8 12 gauge.

Long tang straight grip, Deeley release on a slim forend, one thing about it, even if you hadn't found any birds at all one could have a good day just admiring the beauty of the Gun.

I do like the gun, but it is too Germanic for me (funny that, being a German company). It gets the job done and done well, but it does not warm my heart like a beater english gun can. Like this one, that I often carry when my thumb needs exercise

Neat pix!

I had a Golden like that for 13 years, bred in Canada for hunting. Had that same "permanent puppy" look.

Lousy pet, super bird dog--just the opposite of what people apparently want in a Golden now--lots of them are just "nice furniture"! Mine was the opposite of "laid back"--full throttle all the time, and made some of the longest, hardest retrieves I ever saw, like from the top of the Snake River breaks to the riverside and back. (I'm not absolutely sure I ever actually shot that rooster, but I wasn't about to refuse it: one proud pooch!). We called him the Red Ripper.

Good Show Brent! Great dog and nice work to the both of you. Like you I really like my hammer doubles. Today I am loading a batch of black powder shells for use this winter on the clays course. Lucked into primed Cheddite 12 and 16 ga. papers when the dealer's had them in stock so I'm set for a long time.
Do love black powder loads in my hammer guns!

Wm Cashmore ?
O.M

GOOD EYE Moses! Yes, it is a Cashmore.

Eric, I would be interested in your loads for your 12 and 16. I shoot both on pheasants but my loads are pretty hapzard and I suspect their patterning is not very good. I need to test that hypothesis directly however.

Mike A. There are lots of GREAT goldens out there. But you need to know where and how to work. Gus came out of New York. Before that, there was Ande out of Oregon and before that was Jess out of Kansas and before that was Bridget out of the New Brighton MN classifieds. All were spectacular dogs. Albeit, they are considerably more expensive today than they used to be (even allowing for inflation).

What I value most in Gus is not the retrieves so much as the live and dead bird finding. He has gotten really good at that. Chasing down a runner or a wounded bird is his specialty. He points a fair percentage of them too. The second bird, for instance, was pointed after air-scenting him. I had to walk in and flush the bird like I had a pointer. I'm not entirely happy about that, but it does have some advantages from time to time. And he is a great pet too. Curled up behind my chair at the loading bench as I type right now. He's a big baby most of the time.