doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion DoubleGun BBS @ doublegunshop.com Favorite Game/Gun Picture - 2014 Hunting Season

As his "shooting student" I'm sure he has you trained by now to Pick quail rather than skin them.....so much better for the table.....Good help is ever more difficult to find these days.....

Joe Wood - What is the trick to having your dogs accept booties? We're on our third Brit (9 yrs old) and none of them would take to wearing them. They either stay still or clumsily walk a couple steps and rip them off their paws.

Our need up here is to protect their paws from snow/ice getting frozen between their paw pads. Also to protect their pads from being cut when there is an ice crust on top of snow.

Mushers and similar products only go so far, boots are what's needed. I'd welcome some helpful hints on this score, believe me.

Mike's dogs are French Brittanys. French Brittanys will take fashion risks American Brittanys wouldn't consider. Gil

Dog boots.....you have to securely place them with duct tape. A dog looks very awkward at first. They quickly get used to them when hunting. If you put them on a dog not used to them and leave them in a dog box, they are Houdini's at removing them. Put them on, immediately go hunting. The Lewis rubber dog boot is the only decent boot I've ever found. The cheapie canvas/polyester boots with Velcro are JUNK. BTW, Mike's dogs are wearing the Lewis boots. The red duct tape is very fashionable. I wrap wrist with vet wrap, put boot on over vet wrap, the duct tape the hell out of them. After a 2-3 hour hunt, take the boots OFF, or a dog's foot will swell like a balloon.

Buzz and I are pretty much doing the same thing. My dogs haven't suffered any foot swelling though.

I use the unvented Lewis boot. The vents are supposed to let the dirt out but they seem to let it in.

I hate the Lewis boots the least of any boots I have used.

The first time a dog walks with boots on it is usually pretty funny. My son had a French Brittany named Dubya that walked on his front paws for thirty seconds while kicking his back feet trying to get the boots to come off. Wish I had a video.

Ginger was sulked up as her color is hot pink but she had to wear orange because Walmart has been out of the pink.

Mel the Fabbri is not too shabby either. I really like the little Parker. It has a straight grip stock, 26" barrels, and weighs in at 5-3/4 pounds. Choked full and full. I shoot RSTs in it, 5/8oz of #9s. Fun gun. If you pluck the bird right after it is taken the feathers come right out. If you let the bird get cold it is another story. Joe does clean the birds while I de-boot, de-burr, feed and water the dogs at the end of the hunt. You would think he just completed the Seven Labors of Hercules they way he goes on about it.

Kid I assume there is a mold release agent on the boots when they are brand new. I wash them thoroughly in hot water with laundry detergent to get the presumed mold release agent off. The duct tape sticks to them much better. I think the Lewis Boot factory directions are intended to boost their sales because if you follow them you will lose the boots in no time.

Yep, Joe really suffered in Saturday's 80 degree heat. We were hunting shelter belts so he drove down the county road, parallel to us, in my air conditioned Expedition. He had hung a walky-talky around my neck and instructed me to notify him when the dogs go on point. Then he would walk the forty yards over to the dogs and instruct me to flush the birds.

Joe is right about one thing though, Buddy and Ginger deserve all of the credit for us not losing any birds. Three times they tracked wounded birds as far as 75 yards before finding, catching, and retrieving them. And Saturday, in the heat, we only lost one downed bird. As always, I invoke the Texas maxim on bragging, "If it's true it ain't bragging."

Joe thanks for posting those pictures. I sent them to him from my Iphone while I was driving back from the lease. He posted them before I got back to town. Technology continues to amaze me.

This weekend wrapped it up for snipe in Florida. As we made our way to where we were going to hunt the dog was kept occupied by the coots.



He figured if he brought this one back to land and dropped it at the edge of the water I could take it from there.

Buzz and Mike - Many Thanks for the tips and info on dog boots, and the application thereof. I'll seek out some Lewis Boots asap - it looks like we'll have snow and ice in the woods around here until June.

A 15 Bird limit of Wild Bobs on the Last Saturday of the '14-'15 Bird season yesterday...... Good conditions on the Southern Rolling Plains. Fine end to a Fine season...

12 coveys in Two and a half hours , 9:00 am 'til 11:30 am.

Had points on 11 of them and drove one covey up in the truck...
Better dog work than I can usually expect on late season birds, my shooting did NOT measure up to the Standard the Setters performed at.

I have not missed a last day of the season in Many years, BUT today the dogs and and I are by the fire while Winter shows its stuff outside, I don't want to hassle the birds today and even the Dogs would flinch at this going afield in these conditions.......

Great end to the season mel. Got to love those Setters.

Thanks for posting the pictures.

I also stayed home Sunday but because of the wind. 20 to 25 with gusts to 35mph.

Mike, Mel, y'all are fortunate to have the wild birds in the numbers that you have. In two hours, I closed out quail yesterday with one great covey rise of about 2 dozen wild birds in broom straw about 2 feet high. The one bird that I saw go down was not recovered despite my two Britts best efforts. This is what I had to show for it: