Billings man, featured on TV, raises and praises Brittany spaniels
Brandon Moss loves to bird hunt, but he doesn’t care if he shoots any birds.
“I just love being in the outdoors,” he said. “I love being around the dogs and watching them grow and progress.”
Moss, 30, of Billings, was recently featured on the Outdoors Channel’s program called “The Wingshooter.” The hunt with the show’s team, titled “Rage In The Sage,” was filmed in September 2008, in central Montana.
“I’ve gotten a ton of calls off of it,” Moss said, an estimated 20 to 30 a day, along with e-mails.
Moss has spent much of his life with bird dogs and bird hunting, a root he can trace back to his shotgun-toting grandfather. After apprenticing with two other trainers and working as a guide, Moss now breeds, raises and trains Brittany spaniels at his Sage Kennels. Brittanies are a medium-sized, fast and wide-ranging breed of pointing dog originally bred in France for small game. Moss breeds his dogs to run far out on the vast prairies of Montana.
“They’re hot,” he said. “But they’re lovers,” making them a good family dog, as well.
How mellow are they? His female was going into labor with pups yet didn’t snarl or nip as Moss’ daughters crawled around on her.
“She didn’t care at all,” he said. “They’re just an easy-going dog. You could saw their leg off and they’d just smile at you.”
The Brittany’s laid-back nature ties into Moss’ philosophy of choosing a dog. Most hunters he talks to simply want the best hunting dog, which is not akin to Moss’ way of thinking.
“Make sure it’s something you love, because the hunting season is only three months out of the year,” he said.
Moss raises about two to three litters a year, keeping only a few to train. He keeps the dogs best suited to his love of pursuing prairie fowl.
“It’s more the prairie birds that I’ve come to love, especially the Huns and sharptails,” he said.
Before getting married and fathering two girls, Moss said he used to spend up to 230 days a year working dogs in the field. Now, much of that time is spent working at the Yellowstone Boys and Girls Ranch, a way to fund his passion for bird dogs while still feeding the family.
Television personality
Although he spends less time in the field, Moss was still able to help his fellow hunters on “The Wingshooter” find plenty of game.
“We had a couple of other hunts lined up in Montana,” said Tom Nichols of Wolf Creek Productions in Perry, Mich. “We were shooting by Fort Benton for a couple of days and another at Winifred and White Sulphur Springs. Out of the three hunts, the one with Brandon was dynamite and the best of the swing.”
The central and Eastern Montana landscape and its game earned almost as much praise as Moss from the show’s shotgunners.
“I loved it,” Moss said. “It was just an enjoyable experience.”
Solicitation
He landed the gig by approaching the film’s producers with the idea.
“They’re the ones that did the most realistic hunts,” he said.
Nichols’ former partner, Dave Gruber, had talked to Moss’ father about arranging a sage grouse hunt over Gruber’s Brittany, named Peaches. But in 2005 Gruber died and with him the idea of the hunt. Nichols inherited Peaches, and Moss suggested the possibility of revising the idea of hunting sage grouse.
“I knew from talking to him that he knew about bird hunting and bird dogs,” Nichols said. “We get a lot of calls from people promoting themselves. But Brandon wasn’t like that. He’s just a super nice guy.”
Once the production crew worked out a plan, Moss said he was a little uncertain about what to expect. He was pleasantly surprised.
“In 21/2 full days of filming, Wolf Creek Productions made it so easy,” Moss said.
When he asked them what he should do they said, “You go hunting and we’ll film it.”
Regrettably for Wolf Creek Productions, the Outdoor Channel canceled “The Wingshooter” show, although the company does three other shows for the cable channel.
“Unfortunately, the trend we’re hearing is that bird-hunting-only shows are hard to sell advertising on,” Nichols said.
Yet he and Moss have discussed the possibility of a combination big game/bird hunting show in Montana.
“He’s an awesome guy, and I really enjoyed hunting with him,” Nichols said. “And he’s got a good line of dogs.”
Nichols called Moss a “typical Montanan.”
“What he says you can believe in,” Nichols said, “whereas a lot of the places we go you’ve got to separate the BS from the truth.”
Contact Brett French at french@billingsgazette.com or at 657-1387.
