Game & Gun Gazette

The Bird Hunter's Friend to the End

One of America’s most respected wildlife biologists and a lifelong friend to bird hunters everywhere is gone. George A. “Andy” Ammann, who pioneered woodcock and grouse research while working for the Michigan Dept. of Natural Resources for 34 years, died May 22 at age 98.

Ammann earned his doctorate in ornithology from the University of Michigan in 1938. The first of several scientific articles published over his career with the Michigan DNR was “Determining the Age of Pinnated and Sharp-tailed Grouse,” published in the Journal of Wildlife Management in April 1944. His 1957 book, The Prairie Grouse of Michigan, remains a classic research study.

A passionate hunter, Ammann was not content to be a desk-bound bureaucrat. He spent as much time in the field as possible, often accompanied by his double gun and one of his beloved English setters. He hunted well into his 80s, even when he had to carry a cane in one hand and his shotgun in the other.

Active and healthy for many years after his retirement in 1974, Ammann had time to pursue special projects. Using feathers from wild turkeys, pheasants, woodcock, grouse and other upland species, he enjoyed creating tail-fan artworks for friends. Curious about the number of feathers on a snow goose, one day he decided to count them. “I estimate there are about 10,000,” he reported, “which doesn’t include the down.”

He and Ellen, his late wife of more than 60 years, raised three sons and split time between homes in Tennessee and Michigan. Ammann also was fond of Volkswagen Vanagons (he consecutively bought at least a half-dozen), and in them he traveled throughout bird habitats accompanied by the sounds of Strauss emanating from the tape deck. Armed with reference books and specialty tools such as calipers and a tiny scale, he often interrupted hunts to satisfy his insatiable curiosity about birds.

He freely shared information—sometimes esoteric, such as, “Did you know that the heart of a female woodcock weighs more than the heart of a male ruffed grouse?” His field research suggested that body fat on a supposed migrant woodcock amounted to 17 percent of the bird’s total weight. How did he know? He scraped and then weighed the fat from dressed birds that he either shot or were donated to him.

Woodcock were Ammann’s special love. “Ever since I first witnessed the male’s spectacular spring sky dance and hunted woodcock with a pointing dog, I have been intrigued by these fascinating birds,” Ammann wrote in “Katie: An Unforgettable Setter,” a 1981 article for Michigan Out-of-Doors Magazine. Katie helped Ammann locate more than 250 woodcock broods over a period of nine springs, during which he banded more than 800 hens and chicks.

In the 1960s Ammann helped pioneer woodcock banding, and the techniques he perfected still are used by the 100 or so Michigan banders—and many others in the US and Canada—who coordinate efforts through the US Fish and Wildlife Service. In 1994 he revised A Guide to Capturing and Banding American Woodcock Using Pointing Dogs, the definitive booklet published by the Ruffed Grouse Society and still in popular use.

Ammann’s influence lives on in the world of bird hunters through the descendants of his fine setters (Katie, Dolly, Patches and others) and the Andy Ammann Chapter of the RGS in Lansing, Michigan. Members renamed the chapter in 1982 as a tribute to the man who did so much for bird hunters. —Tom Huggler

"Dressed to Kill: Women Who Hunt"

Before watching the feature-length documentary “Dressed to Kill—Women Who Hunt,” the only other film about women hunting I’d seen should have been titled “Women Who Giggle.” So I was a bit leery.

As a woman, I am sensitive to the portrayal of women in the shooting sports—both inside the shooting community and out. Perhaps it stems from reactions among acquaintances to my own enjoyment of the sport: “You shoot?” Not to fear, “Dressed to Kill” does an excellent job presenting an in-depth and accurate picture of the wide variety of women in the field. Sure there is plenty of laughter (who doesn’t laugh when they’re having fun?); however, the majority of scenes depict the main characters’ appreciation for the sport, their skills, unbridled enthusiasm and true respect for each animal they hunt. There are five different hunting segments in the hour-long film, all of which take place in Texas. (According to Producer/Director Carol Wagner, herself a hunter, the regionality of the film was purely the result of budget constraints.)

The most moving and emotionally complicated story involves a mother, Jessica, and her college-age daughter, Jaclyn, who have been hunting together since Jaclyn was 9 years old. Their story includes a troubling scene for me and for them: the harvesting of a bison at an exotic-game ranch. Though the bison is humanely killed (shot simultaneously by both women), it is hard to watch as the other bison bump and prod their dead companion in efforts to get it back on its feet. This is the deepest exploration of the ethics of hunting. (By the way, Jessica and Jaclyn eat everything they shoot.)

The other stories showcase the motivations and thoughts of the various women toward hunting by following them in the field and in interviews around their hunts. For example:

• A quail hunter who gets as much enjoyment from training and working outdoors with her dog as she does from actually hunting.
• An audiologist who started attending outdoor shows as a way to build her business. Her curiosity about the sport led her to become an avid hunter.
• And a young woman who opened her family’s ranch to a group of inner-city young women for their first experiences with the outdoor life and hunting.

It’s important to note that this is not a “how-to” video, but it’s not without its lessons—even if some are implied. In one scene a woman describes having to shoot her first turkey seven times. The unfortunate and unforeseen can happen in the field, and although it made me uncomfortable, it is a real story and one to learn from.

“Dressed to Kill” is a thoughtful and thorough documentary that does not pander to the stereotype of the squeamish, prissy female worried about her nails or the even-less-flattering macho woman. Instead the film presents an unflinching look at hunting through the eyes of six very different women.

Fish and wildlife agencies have realized that attracting women hunters may help replace the revenues lost due to the decline in overall hunter numbers. This film would be of value to such agencies as well as to anyone looking to get a woman involved in hunting and shooting.

“Dressed to Kill” retails for $16.99, and more information is available by visiting www.dressedtokillmovie.com. —Deb Dodge

Woodcock & Whisky

Islay (pronounced “eye-la”), like the whisky it is famous for, is not for the faint of heart. But for 10,000 years man has clung to this inhospitable place off of the west coast of Scotland where it rains 190 days a year and the wind blows an average of 15 knots. From the earliest Mesolithic hunter-gatherers, through the Bronze and Iron Ages, to the plundering Vikings and the eventually victorious Celtic clans, Islay became the Queen of the Hebrides, from which the Lord of the Isles ruled western Scotland. It is a 239-square-mile rock covered by peat bog, pine forest and sheep pastures, none of which by themselves render the island unique among the 790 or so islands of Scotland. However, taken together, these ingredients create the perfect recipe for woodcock and whisky.… Read more in print »

A wee dram of whisky lured me to this lonely outpost. Each warming sip of the robustly peated Islay malt conveys a sense of place like no other spirit can, distilling together the peat-smoked barley malt, the salty air and the iodine-laden seaweed of the island’s craggy shore. It is a strangely wonderful, admittedly acquired taste. My spontaneous reaction many years ago to the first taste of Lagavulin, which the late malt-whisky guru Michael Jackson gave the stratospheric rating of 95, was, “Is it supposed to taste like this?”

It was indeed.

Haunted by the taste of Islay whisky, I was drawn to this wild and rugged place, and what better time to visit than on the first full moon in December, when the woodcock migration is in full swing?

The fecund combination of peat, pine and pasture is irresistible to European woodcock (Scolopax rusticola), rendering Islay a favorite stop on the birds’ annual route south from Scandinavia and one of the few places in the world where they can be found in significant enough numbers to conduct driven shooting—a concept that lovers of American woodcock might find absurd, if not abhorrent.

But the European woodcock is not the same bird as our timberdoodle. It is significantly larger and fleeter and, driven on an arctic wind through the forests of Islay, represents one of the greatest wingshooting challenges in the world and an ideal opportunity for a unique and relatively affordable sporting holiday.

With the pound Sterling trading at nearly $2, driven shooting in the UK has become obscenely dear. One easily can spend £35 a bird on a good West Country pheasant shoot or £120 for a brace of driven grouse, but three days of driven woodcock shooting on Islay will cost only £700 with Mark Piper and his indefatigable wife, Eleanor, on their Gearach Forest Estate. This is a piddling sum for the extraordinary effort that the Pipers’ team of beaters and dogs puts forth to produce these most unusual birds.

In early December the shooting day begins at the civilized hour of 9 am, for at 55º 46' N Latitude the sun rises at 8:30 and sets at 4 pm. The guns, beaters and dogs assemble in the forest, whereupon Mark positions each gun around a block of woodland at the woodcock’s most likely escape routes. Then the beaters follow the dogs into the impenetrable thicket and the game is on!

Nothing can prepare you for your first Islay woodcock. The birds appear through the Christmas trees without warning—except for the occasional cry of “Woodcock!” if a beater witnesses a flush—and disappear just as quickly. Woodcock have eyes in the backs of their heads, with 360º vision; however, humans are not so lucky, and it is uncanny how easily one can be looking in precisely the wrong direction when the birds make their appearance.

My fellow Guns—including two Master Class shooters from the US, a former member of the British International Skeet Team, and one of Britain’s most qualified shooting coaches—all agreed that this was the most difficult wingshooting they had ever encountered.

If driven woodcock shooting requires nearly clairvoyant reflexes, flighted woodcock shooting is the penultimate test of night vision. As day gives way to darkness, the flighting begins and the Guns take their places at the edge of the wood and wait for the woodcock to fly out to feed in the pastures. When the birds come, it is like shooting bats blindfolded. But it is magic.

On such an evening flight, after a trek beneath the canopy of an emerald forest that looked like it belonged in a Harry Potter film, one in our party earned the privilege of joining the prestigious Shooting Times Woodcock Club by taking a right and a left with two witnesses.

How difficult was the shooting? Our party of eight Guns bagged 40 woodcock to 247 shots in 2-1/2 days. But it was exhilarating.

Access to Islay is either by two-hour ferry from Kennaicraig or by a short but often memorable flight from Glasgow. With a hired car one can visit the eight distilleries on the island (Ardbeg, Lagavulin, Laphroaig, Bowmore, Coal Ila, Kilchoman, Bunnahabhain and Bruchladdich), explore Celtic ruins or visit local shops.

The woodcock shooting program at The Gearach includes three days of driven shooting plus two evenings of flighted woodcock. The Gearach provides beaters, dogs and cartridges, if necessary, but guns are responsible for their own room and board. We stayed at the charming Port Charlotte Hotel (www.portcharlottehotel.co.uk), which features excellent food and a world-famous whisky bar.

If you journey to Islay, you would be well advised to prepare for wind and rain. But what is harder to prepare for is how you will fall in love with this most esoteric of sports in this most elemental of places.

It is an acquired taste.

For more information on woodcock shooting on Islay, contact Mark Piper, 01144-149-685-0120; www.thegearach.co.uk —Steven Clay Groh

"Making Damascus Barrels": An Original Documentary

Everyone knows that Damascus guns aren’t safe to shoot!” Oh, for the days when this was the commonly held belief and top-name American and London guns with twist tubes could be had for a song.

Now that all things Damascus have become fascinating to collectors comes the discovery and reproduction of an extraordinary documentary film on Damascus-barrel making in Belgium, circa 1924. Filmed as a silent black & white documentary with the notion of preserving the traditional processes developed in that country, the unkown filmmaker went into the shops and recorded many of the methods practiced by the two-man teams that piled, twisted and forge-welded some of the finest shotgun barrels of any era.

American researcher Peter Mikalajunas discovered documents alluding to the film’s existence and then spent a couple of years (and quite a few dollars) tracking down the film in a government archive in Liège, Belgium. Mikalajunas has created the Website www.damascus-barrels.com —“devoted to understanding the technology, people and art that created forge welded Damascus shotgun barrels”—and it contains an excellent collection of information, photos and history of the subject.

“Making Damascus Barrels” runs for 23 minutes and is unedited and unaltered except for digital enhancement and the addition of background music and a few subtitles. As you might imagine with a sophisticated, multi-stage manufacturing process such as barrelmaking, many individual tasks and transitional stages were not captured. But the techniques that are shown demonstrate the singular skill, rhythms, methodology and specialized tooling necessary to create Damascus shotgun barrels.

After viewing the film it’s natural to wish there was more, and yet everyone I’ve talked with who has seen it concurs that because we knew so little about the process before, the film is truly enlightening.

A written narrative accompanies the film that sheds light on the lost history and secrets of Damascus-barrel making. Some of the interesting details I picked up include: Most of the craftsmen are wearing wooden shoes; each billet is twisted by hand; three billets are forge-welded into a ribbon; the ribbon is completely wrapped around a ribbon mandrel prior to welding; a second welding mandrel is inserted during the welding process and is L-shaped at the end for easy removal; the mass of the barrel breech is created by “bumping up” the red-hot end of the tube; and although the tube grinding isn’t shown, the six-foot-diameter grinding wheels give insight into the process.

Just a few finished Damascus-barrel patterns are shown, but one has a three-word name intricately interwoven into it! This is a remarkable film, and aficionados and students of traditional gunmaking will relish the time capsule. “Making Damascus Barrels” is available for $45 (plus postage) from www.damascus-barrels.com. —Steven Dodd Hughes

A Double-Gun Speed Loader

No method of carrying cartridges afield is ideal, yet some are decidedly inferior to others. The ones that give me the most trouble are the loops in vests and jackets that are either too tight or too loose and that inevitably result in fumbling. Belts and bandoliers have the additional inconvenience of giving one the appearance of being an extra in a Peckinpah movie. After 40 years of shooting, I had settled on the simple system of a shooting jacket with bellows pockets, although I’ll be the first to admit that I’ve slipped my Chapstick into an empty chamber on several occasions while keeping an eye on approaching birds.

How exhilarating then to rediscover the Loadmaster, a kind of speed loader for double-gun enthusiasts. First designed and introduced in 1988 by the Scottish engraver Bill Sinclair, perhaps best known for his game-scene work on Frederick Beesley guns, the Loadmaster fell out of production for 10 years but is once again available.

The Loadmaster is essentially two gravity-fed, parallel magazines that funnel into a dispenser, from which two cartridges can be extracted at once. The whole arrangement is covered in high-grade leather and hangs from the shoulder on an adjustable-webbing strap. Proper adjustment puts two shells at your fingertips in a way that’s absolutely intuitive and ergonomically correct. The Loadmaster holds 28 12- or 16-gauge shells or can be supplied with a ready-made spacer to accommodate 34 20-gauge shells. Made for 3" shells, an additional spacer pad can be supplied for those who shoot predominantly 2-1&frac;2" or 2" shells, though short shells seem to feed just fine. Sir Joseph Nickerson, who shot a great deal of driven birds, was an early advocate, calling it “the most significant invention in the shooting world during the previous 30 years.”

But does the Loadmaster have any relevance for the American wingshooter? Here in eastern Washington I’ve found that California quail will flush before pointers in successions of two and three. I’ve gone from a non-ejector gun to an ejector to a self-opener, and I’m still not quick enough—but the Loadmaster helps. The leather strap that secures the lowermost shells at the delivery gate unsnaps and hinges out of the way easily. The obvious advantage is that I don’t have to look to load when two shells are held conveniently at hand.

The weak dollar (and strong pound) has put the Loadmaster beyond the reach of some at approximately $400. Occasionally one of Sinclair’s original production of 4,000 appears at auction, but demand has driven prices high and auction-house experts tell me there are few bargains.

The new Loadmaster Classic is available in four handsome colors from Fine Shooting Accessories, a small company located in Coldstream, in the Scottish Borders, that makes traditional shooting equipment. For more information, visit www.fineshootingaccessories.com. —Douglas Tate

The Dewing Realé Custom Side-by-Side

The memory of one extraordinary shooting performance can carry us all through days of mediocrity. My own best shoot came years ago in East Africa. I was with several other harmless drudges testing new guns from the Dickson & MacNaughton line. Instead of a coveted Edinburgh round-action, however, I was given an Alex Martin over/under to shoot. My chagrin turned to joy when I discovered it was a wand.

Francolin, doves, green pigeons, guinea fowl and even difficult incoming sand grouse fell to that excellent gun. So enamored was I that I tried to cut a deal. Not surprisingly, given a hack’s salary, I realized that it was beyond my reach. The good news was that I learned the gun had been made by William R. Saleri, of Italy, so I knew where to look for a gun of similar quality should my situation ever change. The bad news was a paucity of information on the firm; I could find no mention of it in Steve Smith & Laurie Morrow’s slim and now out-of-print volume, The Italian Gun.

The irony is that William Saleri is not a hands-on gunmaker with an apprenticeship behind him. He is more like the Birmingham “factor” from the heyday of the English gun trade who sourced materials, organized action filers, barrel makers and stockers and supervised the sale of the finished shotgun. Saleri is a passionate man, crazy about hunting, so he decided to invest resources—time, money and energy—in his real love. He turned his dream into reality just 15 years ago with five practical gunmakers who were all trained within the Brescia region. His atelier is located in the small town of Marcheno, and his company specializes in both single-shot alpine rifles and high-end shotguns.

Now Dewing’s Fly & Gun Shop of West Palm Beach, Florida, is importing a specially commissioned side-by-side by W.R. Saleri. There will be a limited run of 1,000 guns, and the number of each gun will be engraved on the trigger guard. The action will be based on a rounded, sideplated Anson & Deeley boxlock action, with each gauge appropriately scaled. Like the retailer’s Italian-sourced Dewing Prestige Limited over/unders (see Gun Review, Sept/Oct), the new side-by-side program offers buyers a full array of choices, making each gun truly a custom order.

I asked Mike Burnett, the store and marketing manager of Dewing’s, if the gun was conceived to compete with Connecticut Shotgun Manufacturing Company’s RBL. “We don’t intend to compete with anyone,” Burnett said. “We saw an opportunity for a high-quality, modestly priced side-by-side and ap-proached Bill Saleri—whose over/unders sell in the $13,000 range—and asked him if he could make a custom side-by, and he was willing.”

The gun, which is called the Realé (“Royal” in Italian), will be available in 12, 16, 20 or 28 bore, with 26" to 32" barrels. (Sixteen-gauge fans take note: Not only can you have one in a proper-scale 16, which is rare enough; you can have 16-gauge barrels fitted to a lighter 20-gauge frame.) The Realé can be ordered with fixed or screw-in chokes, a Prince of Wales or straight-hand grip, an automatic or manual safety, single or double triggers, and custom dimensions. The gun will be engraved with an oak-leaf pattern and a ribbon reading “Dewing Realé Limited.” Basic choices for the butt end are checkered wood or hard rubber, but a leather-covered pad will be available for $100 more.

Burnett said he expects delivery time to be about 16 weeks from the date the gun is ordered. The base price is $4,595, with upgraded exhibition wood available for $300 and a two-barrel set with a second forend and two-barrel case for $700 more. The Realé comes in an Emmebi leather-trimmed canvas case with chromed snap caps, brass feruled cleaning rods with appropriate brushes, and accoutrements. More information is available from Dewing’s, 561-655-4434; www.dewings.com.