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Scott Linden
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I have a confession to make. I am not a gun geek. To me, they are tools. I live for bird dogs, so if it’s history, heritage, performance or aesthetics, that’s where I make the emotional and financial investment.
That said, guns are an integral part of my chasing-after-dogs-and-birds life. If after a tail-stiffening point, I don’t shoot a cackling pheasant as it towers skyward, I’m disappointed and my dogs are devastated. Guns are the ticket to a wild ride that gets better every day.
Shotguns become currency in my world, and while not at the level of Bill Gates, I am lucky enough to be able to give some away in hopes of cultivating the love of hunting in others. My first “real” gun went to a down-on-his-luck printing press operator whose only firearm had finally shaken to pieces. When we next talked hunting, his downcast eyes said it all: it was over for him. I hope he’s still jump-shooting ducks off that river we both love, with the shotgun that had gathered dust in my safe.
My brother was a reluctant co-star on one of my TV show episodes and at the end of that day, I gifted him the over-under he’d borrowed. Thousands of sporting clays rounds, my first pheasant, and two loyal dogs were like deep scratches on the stock of that sleek American-made beauty … memories that will never be erased. We will reunite next fall in the field, is my promise to my brother and that shotgun.
At a shooting clinic, a young high schooler was missing more than hitting, surprising for a “natural,” as I’d been told. She was trying hard to learn from a master, shoot better and represent her school proudly, but was hampered by an ill-fitting and malfunctioning shotgun. I lost sleep that night, thinking about her long soul-searching drive home, the after-action report to her coach and teammates, and her slackened hopes for competition in the coming school year.
I sent her one of mine. An elegant Italian over-under that deserved better than I could ever offer. Intricate engraving, the lines of a sports car, I hope it served her well; asked her to pay it forward when she got her next one and give it away – again.
Shotguns from television sponsors have become prizes in my ongoing effort to recruit newcomers to our sport. Often, they’re lent to youngsters on their first hunt. Each helped tell a story, about mothers and sons, rekindled childhood memories, of brothers and friends, teens and middle-aged beginners. I’m hoping those firearms are helping create life-long hunters and conservationists – who then recruit their own new hunters.
I have visitation rights to the only shotgun that I might regret having given away: a Spanish side-by-side that served me well for almost a decade. Functional like a Ford F-150, no bells or whistles it was built by craftsman to be “workmanlike.” I carried it up countless draws in chukar country, dinged it chasing quail, Huns, pheasants and ducks. It suffered indignity after indignity, including a failed attempt to learn to shoot left-handed when a friend and I bent the stock.
Light and whippy, it was the gun I learned to really shoot with, one lesson tallied 1,000 rounds in a day. I hit more than I missed that day, and was indebted to that sublime example of Basque metalworking for many birds pointed, then retrieved, by four different dogs.
But I’d moved on, was using “better” guns by the time my hunting buddy asked about it while we caught our breath on a desolate mountain top. Sure, it was in the truck. It was the third string on that hunt, should my two “good” guns fail. The look in his eye, the longing he had for a gun that had been his companion as much as mine in those scabby hills, well, that said it all. And he was left-handed.
Twice a season, we meet again on some scabby piece of the West. I re-acquaint myself with that example of simple elegance, usually as the gun, me, and my friend are huffing and puffing up another volcanic slope in pursuit of chukars. He shoots it much better than I ever did, which I guess is proof it is now in the hands of its rightful owner.
Taking good care of my guns, even if they’re only a means to an end, makes sense. They are then ready, willing, and able to serve their higher purpose: helping others in their own pursuit of birds and beautiful places in the company of good friends and family.
Posted in Bird hunting, dog training, hunting dog, News | Tagged bird dog, Bird hunting, chukar hunting, dog training, German wirehaired pointer, hunting dog, hunting equipment, hunting gear, pheasant hunting, quail, Scott Linden, upland bird hunting, upland hunting, versatile hunting dogs, Wingshooting USA | 2 Comments »
Use it or lose it. A follower pointed this out recently, as yet another reason to spend time and effort exploring those private lands enrolled in states’ walk-in hunting access programs. But there are plenty more, including price (free), availability (millions of acres), habitat (some good, some not), and sometimes, less competition from others than on “public” land.Posted in Bird hunting, hunting dog, News, travel | Tagged bird dog, Bird hunting, pheasant hunting, upland bird hunting, upland hunting, Wingshooting USA | Leave a Comment »
I became a bird hunter because I watched my first wirehair work a field, putting up a pheasant hen after a solid point. I’d never owned a gun before, but decided if he would do that for me, the least I could do is shoot the bird for him. Little did I know that was the start of a (late) life-long series of dazzling performances by a series of magical dogs I was privileged to observe. Lucky for me, the relationship continues, and the awe I felt from that first point returns every time I send a dog into the field.
Any excuse for sharing time with a dog is legitimate. But for me, it is clear: we become a team linked by DNA, a modern version of a prehistoric wolf pack coursing the uplands for sustenance – literal and emotional.
In the digital age we pretend to communicate with gadgets. The talking we do at each other via smartphone is shallow, ephemeral and self-centered. Contrast that with the deep genetic link between hunters. Words are unnecessary when instinct guides predators linked by common purpose.
I’m honored when my dogs invite me to share this primitive thrill, accepting me as equal, calling on the most basic of instincts to feed our pack and sustain our souls. We are one, thinking and acting as a single being with a single goal, to find prey. The act is violent and primitive, ugly and beautiful, the most complicated transaction in the universe: lives taking life to sustain life.
Neither of us will starve if we aren’t successful in the common definition of the term. The size of our bag is a sidebar to a bigger story: flow of adrenaline, deep passion, panting and slobber, the tang of sage and if we are lucky, the coppery smell of blood.
Our dogs tolerate human missteps and bad shots. They put up with poor noses and slow, creaky joints in their human packmate. At the end of the day they ask little except a warm place to sleep near their hunting companion, forgiving missed shots and misplaced anger.
We should be flattered.
[Why do you hunt? Comment below, or better yet drop me a note here to be on an upcoming Upland Nation podcast on the topic.]
Posted in Bird hunting, dog training, hunting dog, News, Podcasts | Tagged bird dog, Bird hunting, dog training, hunting dog, Scott Linden, upland bird hunting, upland hunting, versatile hunting dog | 4 Comments »
Someone asks about that dog box in your truck … the guy in line behind you is also wearing blaze orange … a window sticker of your dog breed prompts a conversation. Somewhere, some time, you’ve had an experience like that. All of a sudden, any barriers there were, fall down. If not an “instant friendship,” at least a cordial potential relationship develops for a few moments until the bank teller calls you to the window.
The old saw goes like this: actor Kevin Bacon once claimed that everyone in the world is only six degrees (of 360) apart from everyone else … we all share something that could bring us closer together, if we only knew what it was. If Bacon’s theory is sound, once we step out in the world with a dog in the passenger seat, it drops to about two degrees. If it’s a McDonald’s drive-thru and you order a plain hamburger for him, there are no degrees left as the gal in the window asks what breed it is.
In a sordid past of multiple careers as musician, teacher, fly fisher, political operative and newspaper editor, I simply can’t recall similar experiences. In your world, maybe it’s different whatever your “day job.” But there is something unique about our passion. It might be our primordial origins – we fed the tribe back in the day. It is indisputably the trans-species connection when we team up to find game, the division of labor between man and dog, with success only possible when a carefully-choreographed pas-de-deux is flawlessly executed. It is hard to contain one’s enthusiasm when explaining that magic.
What do you do when someone taps you on the shoulder and asks “what kind of dog is that?” Most fellow hunters I know will open wide and have a hard time condensing the discussion to a reasonable length!
In this realm, social media is a blessing and a curse. We “know” a lot of people. But do we really? Are Facebook friends true friends? That’s hard to say. Unfortunately, many are … until they aren’t. You’ve seen the feeding frenzy that ensues when politics (or dog breed, the Second Amendment, dog food, or football team loyalty) enter the debate. The ugly side of zero degrees of separation are on full display.
But for the most part, it’s the other way around, whether among our fellows in the sport or “civilians.” We’re on our best behavior in public, because we are anyway. Or because we know we’re on display and viewed as representative of everyone who owns a dog or wears blaze orange. You may have your own motives, but whatever it is, we have a chance to share our love for the field, the hunt, and our dogs.
And maybe make a new friend.
Posted in Bird hunting, dog training, hunting dog, News | Tagged bird dog, Bird hunting, dog training, Scott Linden, upland bird hunting | 2 Comments »
Scott Linden Outdoors 