Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Savage Collectors OT upland birds

Yup, mine is an older blued receiver gun, just like yours, choked skeet & skeet. Nice setup for early season.

Rod

23" Churchill 28 gauge choked IC/M for me.



Works for chukars and grouse, my two main interests.

"Are you aware that just after the kill you can stand on their spread wings and pull on their feed and they're gutted? If you pull on the feet hard enough all the guts and head pull through. Pretty much all you have to do after that is cut the wings off and you've got a cleaned grouse breast."

I could never defile a trophy game bird in that manner, it's unbecoming. Instead I eviscerate them immediately then hang them over night and prepare them for the table on the morrow.

I hunt a re-blued, pre-war 16 gauge Ithaca Model 37 with an opened barrel on rainy days. Got three flushes yesterday, one visible, an off balance poke while tangled in a dogwood swamp and a parting "Hail Mary" salute brought my percentages back down to earth.



A bird from last year for Gnoahhh.

A couple of you may know of my love affair with L.C.Smith doubles which are the perfect companion pieces to go with Savage lever guns (with a kindly nod to A.H.Foxes too, for Drew and Gary),but Hunter Arms never made a Smith gun chambered for 28 gauge shells. As a result, I'm forced (oh darn) to carry a little Anschutz (made by Miroku) 26" O/U 28 bore, on a 28 gauge-sized frame, choked skeet/skeet (no tubes). 5 3/4 pounds of magical lightning that for me defines the perfect grouse gun (not to mention doves and skeet).

There's a covert out in Alleghany County, Maryland, that will not echo from the reports of that little gun this year. That only means there will be twice as many birds there next year, right? Right?

I still have my Pop's old grouse/quail/pheasant medicine: a 1948 vintage Savage/Stevens 311 16 gauge wearing Tenite stocks. Its balance is woebegone, butt stock dimensions are all wrong, and it's choked a lot tighter than the M/F designation would have you believe, but for some dumb reason the old man could wipe your plate clean with it. He bought it new the year he graduated high school and it served as his primary shotgun 'til he died in '90. I rather dislike carrying/shooting it, but I trundle it out at least once a year (usually to a duck blind) to let the birds remember that once upon a time there lived a guy named Blair...

Gary alluded to Corey Ford's "Road to Tinkhamtown" earlier in this post. I hadn't read it in thirty years, but returned to it this evening. It's worth a look for those of you who haven't read it, and worth a second look for those of you who have:

http://www.fieldandstream.com/artic...-manuscript-corey-fords-road-tinkhamtown

Rod

Thanks Phil, Ford's column was always the first one I read when my dad's F&S came in the late 50s & early 60s. 1969 I was in SE Asia and never read the original. Thanks for sharing.

Mike

Thank you for that Rod. I have never read that story. I came down to the basement to busy myself with something else besides hospital shows on the tube.

I took that Ruger for a walk again today on the property where I grew up on that I now own. I had to, you see, I don't normally post this kind of stuff but I have had a tough week coming to the reality that my dad is only going in one direction and I needed to just get back to the woods even for just half an hour.

The Ruger has no sentimental value to me but it fits well and I wanted to give it another shot after the other day when I flushed a few woodcock. I could easily have borrowed my dads 311 but I am not sure how he would feel about it. The story I just read has me hoping that he is replaying all of the memories we had and his own just like that.

Dad was diagnosed at 58 last year with Pulmonary Fibrosis. Things have really escalated with his condition the last few weeks. It has been really tough, going from hunting for miles at a time to seeing him low enough on oxygen to pass out trying to walk to the bathroom is without words.

Sorry to hijack a perfectly good post about one of my favorite pastimes but I just wanted to say thanks for sharing that.

Ryan

I just finished a long-term project and am going bird hunting with it.

It is a Savage-imported Valmet Model 333 20 guage Skeet that was REALLY butchered by its previous owner. He/she put on a "custom" stock that was apparently his/her ideal.

It had a squared profile beavertail forend that was about 4" wide at the bottom (where your hand goes), with a profile like a 2x4". The buttstock had a very tight pistol grip with a heavy steel grip cap and a rather low comb. Buttstock wood is very fancy(and therefore very heavy)figured walnut. Grain is laid out well--figure is all in the back end away from the tang and grip.

Worse, because wood can be massaged, is that he/she disabled the auto safety and the ejectors by removing key parts. And then didn't keep 'em!

LONG story short, I whittled the wood back to decent field dimensions, found the ejector and safety parts (only took two years!) and then found a guy who could/would/did fit them (another year). Ahlman's checkered the finished stock with fairly coarse "skip-a-line" checkering that you can actually take hold of, and looks a little like the original checkering.

So now I got another "Savage" to hunt birds with. I CAN break clays with it, maybe I can kill birds. I'll know on the 18th with any luck; gotta quail and chukar date. Takin' my 12 guage 333 for backup.

This gun cost me about $400 for the gun and new parts, around $300 for gunsmithing/checkering, and a couple of hundred hours of searching and elbow grease. But it's "almost a Savage," and a beauty. Looks new (it was nearly unfired when I got it).

Rod Need to see some pics of the old 16 sterling with some "Pats" the only birds that I killed with that gun was Turkeys 3 of them! a few bunnys and squirels! I have seen a Few Grouse while bowhunting this year tho, and a hen Pheasant ran aross the road, the other day. Gary with that new Hip, you will be hell on the birds next year! I think my friend!

I shot a few woodcock and rabbits with that Sterlingworth last year John. It points well for me. I just need to have it in my hands on a day when the pats are cooperating.

Not to change the subject, but I have to get this picture up. The night before last we hunted some "over the head" high briers and golden rod. We flushed a hen, and dumped it DRT. We looked for half an hour but just couldn't find it. I couldn't get angry at Maggie. That was her first time facing that scenario. Not 20 minutes we did the same thing on a woodcock that she pointed perfectly. Not only that, but that was her FIRST woodcock point so far.

Fast forward to LAST night. It was POURING rain. My glasses kept fogging and were totally water spotted. The conditions didn't deter Maggie in the least. First point was the cock and that ended up being number 5 dead bird to go home with us. A half hour or so later, I saw Maggie scenting and walking. She was on the scent of a pheasant, no doubt about it. All of a sudden she's on point. She was in a small 20 foot clearing. I looked everywhere for the bird. There it was not 30 inches from her nose. I stamped the ground, it broke loose and flushed. Down it came. As I was running to where it landed, it half halfheartedly got back up and then back down. Maggie dove into the thick brush and pounced on it. She held it down trapped under her neck between her front legs and head. NEVER put a tooth mark on the bird!!!!!!!!!! But OTOH wasn't about to let it get away. Honest to God, I can NOT believe she's doing so well and still not a year and a half old.

Sounds like you've got a very promising young dog there Steve. Looks like the next ten years are going to involve a lot of pheasant dinners.

Rod

Only if I live that long. But she's WAY more than I thought she'd be. I keep stepping in a pile of sh*it and come up smelling like a rose.

Yes you do Steve. We will have to talk about a dog when we're on the island. It's time I find one to lead me around the woods. Not that Connecticut stocks anything for birds anymore and I can't remember when I last saw a ruffed grouse in Connecticut.

A dog will always be a companion. No questions asked.

I haven't hunted birds in a few years since both my English Setters passed on. I finally picked me up a new pup in early September of this year. He is a Llewellin Setter and will be 4 months old at the end of this month. He is showing all the signs of being bred to hunt. I have been spending most of the last 2 months working on obedience training. I have introduced him to the gun and he shows no signs of being gun shy. He sticks right with us when we are shooting clay pigeons and naps at my feet when I am shooting rifles and handguns.
Just wish we had some pheasants around to see how he would do on birds. May end up taking him to a shooting preserve later this fall to introduce him to birds.
Hopefully, next fall he will be ready for some Northern Michigan grouse and woodcock. And the Ruger Red Label 28 gauge is all set to go. I had some pretty good coverts to hunt with my other English Setters and hopefully they will still be productive.

That's a GREAT looking pup.

Rod

LBK- That sure is a beautiful dog you have. She sounds like she is a keeper.

Rod-I have a book written by Corey Ford, "The Trickiest Thing in Feathers." Another is, "The Best of Corey Ford" This book follows the escapades of the "Lower Forty" group. Both are excellent reading.
Another good read for anyone who loves bird hunting and gun dogs is "Jenny Willow" by Mike Gaddis.
Does anyone remember Gene Hill's "Hill Country" in Field and Stream?

Thanks Rod. He thinks he is a lap dog. That isn't all that bad right now but don't know what I'll do when he is fully grown. Probably get a bigger recliner!!!

Yep, pull up a chair and pass Uncle Perk's jug of "Old Stump Blower" and let the tales of the Lower Forty begin!

Another old writer who captured the spirit of upland hunting was Havilah Babcock. His book "My Health is Better in November" is one of my all time favorites.

If you haven't yet, dig up a copy of Ned Smith's "Gone for the Day". He wrote/illustrated for the "Pennsylvania Game News" for many years and was a kind soul who captured the essence of the outdoors with simple but eloquent prose.