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In this day-and-age the single-shot or single-barrel shotgun is quite possibly the rarest gun carried in the upland fields. To see one carried by any bird hunter would be astonishing. In fact, so infrequently seen the single-shot is almost mythical. In my experiences I have seen . . . one! The last time I encountered a single-shot shotgun was during a hunt with a good friend and his son. Our group...

Hunters have been waiting all summer for September 1 st to finally show up on the calendar. Opening day of dove season is one of the most anticipated days of the year for many bird hunters, for it’s the first hunting opportunity of the upcoming fall. Dove hunters have been scouting designated dove fields on public lands, shotgun shells of ALL gauges have been cleared from the shelves–12, 16, 20, 2...

Endless wilderness in every direction. I had taken the only road that went into this area and parked where it ended along the banks of a winding river. From here the only navigable path was the river itself, its gravel bars littered with the end of a salmon migration and signs of the bears that come with it. My Labrador and I were here in search of ruffed and spruce grouse, but in Alaska there’s a...

What I eventually landed on was a positive reinforcement training approach. At the time I did not understand the model, which I will describe below. I did understand that the techniques worked and worked fast. Once I switched to positive reinforcement, Kate’s retrieving went from complete avoidance to acceptable in a matter of days. It then went from acceptable to field reliable much faster than I...

Developed in 1902, Browning shopped the design around, Winchester refused his terms and an agreement with Remington came unglued when their president died of a heart attack as they worked out terms. Browning then turned to Fabrique Nationale de Herstal (now known as FN), where he had an established relationship as they manufactured many of his pistol designs.  Read more at projectupland.com .

Somewhere out there in all the trees, tall and short grass, rimrock, and hillsides, there are birds. Nearly every article a hunter reads concerning binoculars is about the technical side. The basis for using optics, whether it be a spotting scope or binoculars, in any hunting situation is that a hunter cannot hunt what they cannot see. Normally associated more with big game hunting, the use of bin...

Upland hunting gets a bad rap for being an expensive hobby. Certainly, the idea that upland hunting is expensive is perpetuated by the industry. Flip through most upland hunting magazines or follow one of the many upland hunting social media influences and you’re bound to get lost in a sea of premium name brands. Although most of us (if not all of us) aspire to tromp through the uplands in Russel-...

By most standards, I was a spoiled kid. I was blessed with upland and waterfowl opportunities from the onset. My first memory in the field was in the duck blind beside my dad – he let me (illegally) carry a BB gun into the marsh so I could feel like more of a man. In my defense, I didn’t fire a shot and the statute of limitations has passed. Read more at projectupland.com .

It's no secret that sage grouse populations have been declining for decades. Between climate change fueling hotter, longer wildfires and the expansion of the extractive industry into the bird's ranges, agricultural development and the invasion of conifer woodlands and annual grasses, habitat loss has accelerated. Read more at projectupland.com .

To back up a little, a query for the perfect barrel length for ring-necked pheasant shares the same answer as a similar question, “What is the best shotgun for (insert upland bird here)?” The answer to both is simple – whatever shotgun you shoot the most and shoot best, which in an ideal world would be one and the same. Nearly any shotgun will do the job, but none will do it as well as the gun you...

Dogs with black-and-tan and black-white-and-tan coats predate the various setter breeds. They occurred in the root stock of dogs imported from the continent that gave rise to the setters, so naturally they would appear from time to time as British breeders developed various strains of setters. At some point in the late 1700s and early 1800s some breeders began to select dogs specifically for a bla...

Often when purchasing a pup from a breeder within the contract is a list of commitments the owner is agreeing to. These can range anywhere from what kind of fencing used at your home to completing hunt tests. If your pup came from a North American Versatile Hunting Dog Association (NAVHDA) breeder, chances are good you’re asked to run your dog in a Natural Ability Test. Read more at projectupland....

Forgetting to replace the plug is a dilemma many hunters face after a long off-season of upland hunting where there are no restrictions to the use of a plug. Well, almost. Upland hunting has a weird way of throwing bird hunters a curve ball when it comes to hunting those species on the fringe. For waterfowling it’s a given. And we all know dove hunting requires a plug, but so does snipe, rail, sor...

The idea of scouting with modern game cameras started one fall during college when an unexpected event triggered a need for a change of tactics. Earlier that same year, a heavy hailstorm had ravaged our prime opening morning pheasant field. The thick golden CRP grasses we were accustomed to hunting had been mowed to golf-course height by the storm. As we walked the field opening morning later that...

To break down the cost of a hunting dog, for the sake of discussion, let’s assume a scenario with a single dog living in a household as part of the family and hunting regularly throughout the season. Our sample dog, “Cash,” will live for twelve years and be mostly healthy over the course of his lifespan. This is of course a generic picture for the purposes of estimates – please pardon the many ass...

“What do you have in a good, used, lightweight, nice shotgun for quail?” If I heard that question from a customer once I heard it a thousand times over the four years I worked in a gun shop during college. The follow-up was usually more of a statement than a question and it went something like, “ . . . and cheap. ” Read more at projectupland.com .

Whoa has not always been an important part of training, but a quick historical peek at how bird dogs developed helps give it perspective. As far back as the 16th century, we as hunters have been teaching dogs to whoa to signal the presence of game. Dogs were trained to circle, point, or circle and point game. For dogs required to hold point they were taught whoa. Dogs had to be well trained as hun...

Autumn has long passed in Alaska. Like many upland hunters, I live for the golden leaves and crisp air of fall and mourn its passing as the snow and cold usher in winter's edict that yet another season has passed. Depending on where you live, fall could spark a plethora of potential upland pursuits, but for me the crisp fall air means it’s grouse season above all things. Read more at projectu...

When I cross a border, knock on a farmer’s door, visit a gun shop or meet another hunter in the field, I feel no angst. Because as a white man, I’m exempt. My gender and skin colour give me an exemption from the anxieties that people of colour deal with every day. They immunize me to the effects of a virus that infects much of our world, the virus of discrimination. But my nephew’s not exempt. He’...

The heath hen was yet another member of the grouse family . But sadly, this grouse was last seen in this world back in the 1930s. Its closest living relatives today are facing similar challenges, so what can we learn from this bird’s story to prevent it from happening again? Read more at projectupland.com .

One of the most interesting - and frustrating - challenges I faced when writing my book Pointing Dogs Volume One: The Continentals was trying to come up with a reasonably accurate profile of the wirehaired pointing griffon. Despite the fact that the sporting literature from the late 19th century contains a wealth of information on the breed and that a good number of books have been written about i...

If you are new to wingshooting, then dove hunting is the perfect introduction for first-timers wanting to get into bird hunting. It lays the basic foundation for all the other upland disciplines. It's a laid-back and enjoyable experience for beginners, and it's a social hunting event. The action can go from zero to sixty in nothing flat. Read more at projectupland.com .

In North America, despite a very early start—the first wirehaired pointing griffon arrived in the United States in 1887—the breed has always played a minor role on the gun dog scene. Unlike the Brittany and the German shorthaired pointer (which coincidentally were promoted by some of the same individuals who imported some of the first wirehaired pointing griffons) the griffon never really caught t...

The missing element is the foundation laid down by black bird dog handlers who stood humbly in the shadows of many of the greatest white dog men and field trial dogs on the American field circuit. From Man Rand and Peck Kelly to Leroy Clayton, Albert Cannon Sr., and Malichi Kalip, a number of great dog men have done everything from managing plantations, to breaking horses to pointers and pointers...

The word griffon (or griffin) can be traced back to the Greek and Latin roots meaning “hook” or “claw” or even “hawk” ( i.e., a bird with claws). Long ago, it was the name of a mythical beast with the head of an eagle and the body of a lion—with clawed feet, of course. Read more at projectupland.com .