Almost Khan Day!

It's only 4 more days to Khan. Hurrikan-Krieg auf Vögeln. He's gonna be a handful. 5 out of 6 males are show and they all look very good. They each have different strengths. Number 2 seems to be the intelligent and curious one. He's figured out how to escape from the pen and is daring enough to explore and figure things out. Number 3 is the powerhouse. The best headset and the beefiest in bone of the litter. Number 5 is a handsome pup. He seems to have the most chest of the litter in ratio to his size. Number 7 is absolutely beautiful and perfect in his picture. Very, very well proportioned at 7 weeks. I'm actually liking him a lot but we will see how they look at 9 weeks. 9 has the longest legs, tallest of the litter. I am liking 7 at this point because he looks so perfect in his picture but any of them can champion. They all look great with something different to offer.

Sarah, West Kennel's owner and breeder, probably already knows who the people with first pick has chosen. She said they would be choosing Monday, which is today. I'll give her a call later tonight or tomorrow to see which 4 I have to choose from. I'm really happy about the pups in this litter. They turned out very well and about 80% are show which is a very high percentage. I am excited. :)

Khan is my first GSP. I'm interested in breeding but can't really get into it if I'm not involved in hunting so, I need to get going on that also. I'm signed up for the Basic Hunting class for a hunting permit and the guy teaching is the head instructor for the gun range close to my house. Oh, speaking of gun range I learned that I can use one shotgun for different kinds of loads. I will be able to shoot trap loads. That makes me glad because I didn't want to buy two separate guns. I thought I had to be a trap shotgun for trap shooting.

We looked at some shotguns the other day and I'm leaning towards an automatic and perhaps the Stoeger M2000. They have this "inertia driven system" on their automatic to absorb the recoil or kickback. There's also a mercury something or other in the butt of the gun you could add to absorb more of the recoil. I'm sure that will add to the weight. :/ But, apparently Benelli makes Stoeger and Benelli is one of the top rated guns. Remington, Mossberg and Charles Daly have come up as decent first shotguns also.


This is a Stoeger M2000. Doesn't look fancy at all. They only come in 12 gauge so... I guess that's what I'll go with but I hear I should really start with a 20 guage. It would be nice to try these guns out. My gun range has shotgun classes. :) That will be something I will want to take.



We went to a sports shop and asked this older fellow at the gun counter whether I should go for a 20 gauge or the 12 since I am a beginner. He said go straight for the 12 and handed me a Stoeger M2000 after mentioning that I was interested in a Benelli and interested in an all in one type of gun. I've never held a shotgun so it did feel heavy and certainly long. It was a camouflaged model so I wasn't as attracted to it but the Stoeger does come in black or the classic walnut wood.

I went online to see how it compared to the Remington SPR453, the Charles Daly Superior II and the Mossberg 930. I still have to learn a lot of the terms but so far I do like the Stoeger. Then again, they all have different things to offer. It would be best if I can actually test them all and also figure out what I'm actually going to hunt. The 12 guage in any gun is probably what I would get for an all around gun.

For upland birds, I'd probably want the lightest since it's a lot of up-swing shooting type of thing and I'll be carrying it all day. I wonder if 1 pound really makes a difference. I figure for ducks and turkey, there's a lot of waiting and a fair amount of aiming time so a heavier shotgun wouldn't be a big deal. Same goes for deer and lager game too. I don't know how deep I'll get with hunting but I know I'll be starting with upland birds. I'd like to progress to archery and deer and even Grizzly but.. I don't know. It's hard to imagine killing a big Grizz. I really love them.