Philip Bourjaily

A Toast on the Last Day of the Season

Dave_Maccar — Thu, 12 Jan 2012 09:08:42 -0500

by Phil Bourjaily

I rarely hunt opening day but I always try to go on the last day of the season. Seeing it out to the end is an important ceremony. Besides, if you have hunted enough, you’re relieved when the season ends. If you haven’t, it’s still a relief to be able to stop stressing about not getting out. It’s an occasion worth marking.

Although some of my closing day hunts are nothing more freezing walks with little expectation of success, more often they have been memorable.

Thoughts on Stock Length

Online Editors — Thu, 29 Dec 2011 16:25:24 -0500

by Phil Bourjaily

How long should your gunstock be and how much does stock length really matter?

The Beretta 391 in the picture came with spacers allowing me to alter the length. I made it 15 inches for shooting in T-shirt weather back in dove season, intending to remove a spacer to accommodate bulky waterfowling clothes. Instead, I left it and never noticed the extra length.

Miss Twice or Hit Once: Learn To Slow Down

Dave_Maccar — Wed, 21 Dec 2011 11:33:52 -0500

by Phil Bourjaily

“If I have time to miss it twice I would have had time to hit it once.” That is one of best and most concise bits of shooting advice I’ve read in a long time.

It came to me in an e-mail from Matthew Miltich, a friend I’ve never met face to face, a bird hunter, jazz musician* and owner of Cosmo (great dog name), the handsome Welsh springer seen here.

Matthew’s season in Minnesota is coming to a close, and he says he’s had one of his best years shooting ever by learning to slow down.

Poll: Where Do You Like Your Safety?

Dave_Maccar — Thu, 15 Dec 2011 13:10:33 -0500

by Phil Bourjaily

Where is the best place for a shotgun’s safety – at the front of the trigger guard or at the back? My gut feeling is that a safety should be at the back, if only because my first gun, an Auto 5, had a safety at the rear of the trigger guard. However, today I hunt waterfowl with guns having safeties in front, behind and on top. I switch among them all without much difficulty. Teaching yourself to use different safeties is just like learning to go back and forth between single and double triggers: shoot a couple of rounds of skeet calling for the bird with the safety on and you’ll get the knack in a hurry.

And, while safeties behind the trigger just look right to me, from an ease of use standpoint, a safety at the front of the trigger guard (as shown here on a Winchester SXP) is the quickest to reach. I was taught to carry a gun with my index finger extended across the trigger guard to help keep branches and twigs from snagging the trigger. It’s a habit now, and as a result I only have to move my trigger finger a fraction of an inch to reach a safety at the front of the trigger guard.

If Pheasant Hunting Was My Job

Dave_Maccar — Fri, 09 Dec 2011 13:17:29 -0500

by Phil Bourjaily

Fortunately, I hunt pheasants for fun and can shoot them with whatever gun I please. And, just as fortunately, market hunting for pheasants is illegal. However, if hunting pheasants was my job and I was paid by the head of roosters I killed:

a.) I would be going broke this year in Iowa.

b.) I would put aside my double guns and shoot my Benelli Montefeltro.

The Benelli is such a perfect ringneck gun. Sometimes I wish I didn't own it because there is no good reason to take any of my other guns pheasant hunting as long as I have it.*

Finally, The Secret To Reducing Felt Recoil

Dave_Maccar — Wed, 07 Dec 2011 12:32:56 -0500

by Phil Bourjaily

Some of the comments to the “Top Five Softest Kicking Semi-auto Shotguns” post dealt with the concept of “recoil” versus “perceived recoil” or “kick.” Recoil, as I mentioned, is purely a mathematical construct. Kick deals with the interaction of shooter and the recoil of the gun, and how painfully that recoil is delivered.

Shooter’s stance, grip, pain threshold and many other factors determine how much a gun kicks. So do recoil attenuation devices like recoil pads and muzzle brakes. Stock fit also plays a part. As some of you mentioned previously, even a seemingly unrelated factor like muzzle blast can contribute to the feeling that a gun kicks. That’s one of the reasons I always wear ear plugs and ear muffs to the range.

The two videos below illustrate the difference between recoil and perceived recoil graphically. The guns are identical Browning BARs, a gas-operated semiauto said to be fairly soft-shooting. For the purposes of this exercise, we will assume them to be of the same caliber, and assume that the scopes, slings, and other accessories are of identical weight. Therefore, they would each generate exactly the same amount of recoil.

Beware The Man With One Gun

Sarah Smith — Wed, 09 Nov 2011 14:21:21 -0500

by Phil Bourjaily

The saying goes “Beware the man with one gun, he knows how to use it.”

I know a lot of good shots who own a bunch of guns and do very well with all of them. However, at the very highest levels of shotgunning, world class competitors practice so much and perform at such a high level, they become closely attuned to their equipment. They become one-gun shooters in a way that generalists like me can’t fully comprehend.

A few years ago I met Gregg Wolf, a young sporting clays shooter from Minnesota who had just won a World FITASC Sporting Clays title. Wolf’s shotgun, a Beretta 687, had been rebuilt several times internally. The stock had been repaired with electrician’s tape and Super Glue in a couple of places. A large enough piece of the stock head was missing that you could peek inside and see the springs and sears. Wolf guessed he had 500,000 rounds through the gun. “Beretta wants to replace it,” he said, “but I don’t want to give it up. It will take me months to learn a new gun.” That is sensitivity.

Best Girlfriend Ever?

Sarah Smith — Mon, 07 Nov 2011 11:35:09 -0500

by Phil Bourjaily

Here’s your chance to play Dear Abby because this letter, which ran on November 5, 2011, lands squarely in the Gun Nut wheelhouse. My first thought was that “Ambushed in Minnesota” makes the short list for Best Girlfriend Ever, unlike Gwen (“Run turkey, run!”) the subject of another classic “Dear Abby.”

Dear Abby: Because I love the outdoors, I volunteered to prepare my boyfriend's duck boat for the hunting season. I sanded, primed and detailed the boat and painted cattails on the sides. I bought seats, hardware, even made a full camouflage duck blind on my sewing machine. My boyfriend is elated and even more excited that I intend to hunt with him. His buddy is not. He has backed out of the hunting trips and refuses to talk to me about the issue.

Should I tell my boyfriend I have changed my mind and save their friendship, or go with him and reward myself for all my hard work?

Is Improved Cylinder The Do-It-All Choke? Yes and No...

Sarah Smith — Thu, 03 Nov 2011 11:33:56 -0400

by Phil Bourjaily

Years ago at the Remington Shooting School our instructor had us put Improved Cylinder chokes in our guns and shoot springing teal targets. We backed up five steps with every break until the whole class was hitting teal with Improved Cylinder chokes from the Ilion Gun Club parking lot. The point of the lesson was supposed to be that even an open choke like Improved Cylinder can break targets that are very far away, and that therefore, IC is all the choke you ever need.

Yes and no.

Improve Your Shotgun Fit By Raising The Comb

Sarah Smith — Tue, 01 Nov 2011 12:38:19 -0400

by Phil Bourjaily

Azduane recently wrote: Phil--I noticed some comments about having a fitted gun so I was curious if you have ever had a gun to test that you felt would be better if it was tweaked a little to fit you better. Another reason I ask is when I've watched Gun Nuts on TV, it seems you do well with all the guns you try/shoot. I've had a couple of shotguns that I had to tweak, generally raising the comb, in order to get them to shoot where I wanted them to. Just curious.