I had a bunch of new airguns to test out, and my buddy Ron said we ought to go on a pigeon hunt. Sounded good to me.

Pretty soon I’m going to do a series of airgun blogs for RonSpomerOutdoors.com, so there’s no better time to get started on gathering info than now.

I just started working for a new outfit and they have a big feedlot. If you know much about barns and feedlots, you know pigeons move in and eat a lot of food. Then they make a mess, so most farmers and ranchers are going to be open to letting you help them control these pests. So after a quick phone call to the feedlot, we were set. Like I say, most people want their pigeons thinned out.

I’ve been running and gunning lately and am behind schedule. I’d received the airguns a few days before and then some Leupold scopes. I got the scopes mounted but hadn’t had a free afternoon to go sight them in. So when we arrived Saturday morning, I set up some targets and everyone grabbed an airgun and we sighted them in right fast.

If you’ve shot airguns, you know how differently every brand of pellet can shoot. Your groups can vary wildly depending on which pellet you use in which gun. I’ve always heard how accurate the H&N pellets are, so I ordered some of them. I’ll do some follow-up articles on how well they shoot.

On this hunt, it’d be Tracy Denley, Dick Crockett, Ron Spomer and myself. We soon had all the rifles sighted in and headed for the barns. There’s something about hunting with airguns that makes me think I’m back in grade school. It seemed like every day after school we’d go hunting with our pellet guns — not much has changed.

First, we hit a big barn and some tall silos. As far as I know, the pigeons had never been shot, so it surprised me how quickly they became spooked. Next, we had to take a detour and hit the starlings.

While driving in, we’d seen a big flock on a silage pit, so we tried to slip up on them.

Next, we hit the horse barn and picked up a few more. Then we jumped to another spot. This one had a creek running into a small pond. There were a million Eurasian doves. Eurasians are an invasive species, so you can hunt them year-round and there’s no limit. That was fine with me. I love grilled doves, but I think I’ll try Jayme Jones’ famous duck popper recipe on these.

The doves were thick. We’d shoot a few and then they’d jump up the creek a little bit, and we’d follow them and shoot some more. I don’t have a clue how many we shot, but the pellets were flying. At first, I was loading clips as fast as I could.

I’d seen a cool new airgun at the SHOT Show this year. GAMO came out with a break action pellet gun called the Swarm Maxxim. What sets it apart from all the other break action pellet guns is that it utilizes a 10-shot clip. If you’re an air gunner, you can imagine how cool it.

This eliminates taking a shot, digging out a pellet, loading a single pellet again before you get another shot and repeating this process 5 million times a day. You need to check them out. I’d advise carrying three to five clips in case you get attacked by a herd of whistle pigs or irate pigeons.

It seemed that in no time at all the day came to a close. We’d had a great time and I don’t have a clue how many shots we took between the four of us. A pigeon hunt is a great hunt to take a kid on. There’s a lot of action, they don’t have to sit still for hours and be quiet, and there’s a lot of shooting. What’s not to like about that? It sure seemed like the big kids liked it.

Tom Claycomb lives in Idaho and has outdoors columns in newspapers in Alaska, Idaho, Utah, Nevada, Colorado and Louisiana. He also writes for various outdoors magazines and teaches outdoors seminars at stores like Cabela’s, Sportsman’s Warehouse and Bass Pro Shop.

If you’ve never cooked with cast iron, you’re missing out.

I’ve been using cast iron skillets forever and Dutch ovens for quite a while. That’s all the pioneers and old cowboys had to cook with. I remember Jack Sweet telling us that, back in the day, Griffin black iron skillets were the cat’s meow. I’ve found one or two old Griffin skillets at garage sales, but Lodge now makes the best quality black iron.

On all products, I guess there’s a noticeable difference in run-of-the-mill products and top quality products. My advice — if you’re buying something that you’re going to be using every day for the rest of your life, buy good quality.

I don’t know if it really matters, but I’ve noticed inconsistencies in the wall thicknesses on cheaper Dutch ovens vs. Lodge. Dutch ovens are so thick it probably doesn’t really affect the heat transfer, but there are two things that I’ve noticed where Lodge excels over the cheaper brands that does bother me.

1. On cheaper Dutch ovens, the lips are not flat so their lids don’t seal very well.

2. On cheaper Dutch ovens, the handle is constructed out of a thinner wire that are never adjusted correctly, so they are always out of sorts with the world and they jam up when you try to pick them up. All of my Lodge handles work smoothly.

I just got another Dutch oven bread pan (about made a typo and put bed pan) and a grilling plate. I’d never used a black iron bread pan, so I was interested in testing it. When Katy and I first got married, we used to make sourdough bread every Sunday afternoon after church. We’ve been baking bread again lately, so I had to get one of their bread pans to test.

Even though I believe all of Lodge gear comes pre-seasoned, I still season all of my new pans. Usually when I bake bread, it tries to stick to the sides of the pan when I’m removing it. But it seems like with my bread pan, if I grease it up good first, the bread comes out OK without sticking as bad. I think from now on I’m always going to use a Lodge bread pan when baking bread.

Even though I’ve got a few Dutch ovens, I wanted a larger one without legs to cook with in the kitchen. As you can imagine, it’s a little more awkward to cook on the stove top or in the oven if your Dutch oven has legs.

So I decided to get a 7-quart Dutch oven. I tested it out last night by making a pot of turkey stew. I always save the bones and fat on our Thanksgiving and Christmas turkeys and use them to make a stew. I can’t tell you how good it is.

It is simple to make. Throw in the bones and fat, chopped onion, chopped yellow squash, chopped jalapeno to taste, chopped potatoes, cup of rice, garlic, salt and pepper, and half a bunch of chopped cilantro. Cook it right below a boil until the potatoes are done and then jump in.

Make plenty. As it sets in the fridge, it tastes better.

So as we close, grab a Dutch oven, black skillet and a black bread pan, and it will open up a whole new world of cooking for you. And who knows, you might find yourself getting a little nostalgic and cooking dinner with your 6-gun strapped on your hip just like the old cowboys.

Tom Claycomb lives in Idaho and has outdoors columns in newspapers in Alaska, Idaho, Utah, Nevada, Colorado and Louisiana. He also writes for various outdoors magazines and teaches outdoors seminars at stores like Cabela’s, Sportsman’s Warehouse and Bass Pro Shop.