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Member Joined: 15 Mar 2005 Posts: 358 Location: Houston

Let's try this for the pics:

http://jwooten6.photosite.com/Album1/

*Last edited by brdhnt on Mon Feb 28, 2011 5:37 am; edited 1 time in total*

To ALL my fellow 16 gauge shooters:

First, please excuse the length of this post. Trying to sum up 24-48 hours of activity still takes a large number of words. Since I was appointed one of the scribes (without Biblical connotation, I hope) to distill it down into a palatable experience (kind of like TJ's Single Malt and Paul's red wine).

First off, the participating members:

revdocdrew - Drew Hause
H.H. Hipshot - Jimmy Wooten
Colorado Paul - Paul (?)
tjwalker - T.J. Walker
3DocPop - Stan Murdock
brdhnt - Yours truly (Terry M. Boyer)

Drew, Jimmy, T.J., Stan and I met up in Meade, Kansas at the local truck stop on Monday. After lunch, we went to hunt on some Walk-In (public) areas close to Meade that I was familar with. T.J., Stan and I took the west end with my two Brits and Jimmy and Drew the east side with Drew's setter Dirk. T.J. got to experience Prairie Chickens up close as he had six flush close enough to him for a shot, but they were not in season. We met up inthe middle and then proceeded down a draw that produced several flushes and shots on roosters.

After this, TJ, Stan Jimmy and I worked another area while Drew went on to Montezuma. We all met up with Paul there later in the afternoon.

The Guns:

L.C. Smith - Drew
Fox Sterlingworth - Stan
Merkel - Paul
Winchester Model 24 - TJ
Winchester Model 12 - Jimmy
Ithaca Model 37 - Me and Stan
DeHaan SxS - TJ
Fox Model A (?) - Jimmy

I know Jimmy had several more, but I was out taking care of dogs when he opened the portable gun safes he brought.

Dogs
Setter - Dirk - Drew
Brittanies - Dolly and Missy (Me)

Fiocchi ammuntion and Poly Wad had both supplied me with 16 gauge ammuntion for this hunt, so anyone who wanted Fiocchi Golden Pheasants in 5's, 6's or 7 1/2's could try them. Polywad had supplied Vintagers and Doublewides in 6's and 7 1/2' and also spreaders in 7 1/2's.

Tim Brown our guide had several labs and several pointers. One Lab was a very good retriever and has been previously mentioned. One pointer was good.

The food was good and the accomadations were in the basement of the host's house with three beds per bedroom.

Tuesday morning we hunted several areas in the classic line with two blockers. Due to the guide's dogs, there were no opportunities for those of us who had dogs to get good dog work and points with our dogs. Later in the morning on a one half section of CRP grass, there were more opportunities to spread out and my dogs and Dirk were able to hunt at their own pace. There was one exceptional point by the Tim's pointer linterally at Jimmy's feet (he was a blocker) that enabled Jimmy to get his frist ever pheasant and a nice retrieve was made by Tim's lab.

Paul discovered that the tighter chokes on his Merkel fit his shooting style quite nicely and made several very nice shots in the 35 yard range. Stan had a chance to use his Fox with 7/8th ounce Polywad Vintagers # 6 and had a classic 25 yard shot on a rooster over a nice point by my Brit Dolly.

THe story of Drew's wheatfield bird need not be repeated here but he did make a very nice shot on that bird with his L.C.

Drew pulled out at lunch and the rest of us spent the afternoon hunting small portions of thick cover that in that part of Kansas are often pheasant hotspots and these were no exceptions. Many birds were flushed, lots were shot at and a few were taken. Paul must have been feeding my dogs dog treats when I wasn't looking because Dolly had a solid point on a rooster at the end of a shelterbelt of pine trees. I walked in and flushed the bird which Paul had to take as an over the shoulder going away shot at about 30 yards. Dolly is a great retriever but on this bird she did something she has never done before. She retrieved the bird right to Paul's feet and ignored me! I think she was apoligizing for a comment I had made about Merkel's the night before.

See TJ, my dogs are smarter than me (and more civilized also).

This had to be the case since later, a bird that had flushed in front of me and was shot by Jimmy almost 60 yards away from me, she retrieved back to me.

Paul pulled out Tuesday evening and TJ, Stan, Jimmy and I went down to Meade, Kansas and got a motel room so we could hunt on Wednesday.

Jimmy had fallen on the Saturday before the hunt and was having some problems with his right hand. By Wednesday morning, it was so swollen he could not close it so he decided to head back south. TJ, Stan and I braved a 40+ gusting to 60 MPH north wind all day on some public areas around Meade. We never found the gully the birds had to have been hiding in, but we did get a few flushes, into three coveys of quail and TJ managed to scratch down one rooster in the wind.

Some personal notes:

I quit hunting in groups larger than 4 a number of years ago for a number of different reasons. With this group though, I felt comfotable and SAFE when there were 8 of us in the field.

Even though the level of experience ranged from very experienced to first time hunters, everyone was comfortable with each other and willing to share advice and experiences. THis speaks very highly of a group like this. Despite the differences, every one felt like and was treated as an equal.

Prior to this hunt and during this hunt, there was some discussion about getting a 'Home Place' in Kansas to be avilable for members of the 16 Gauge Society exclusively. For anyone who would like more information on what we are discussing with this, please either PM me or e-mail me directly at: terrymboyer@hotmail.com

I thouroughly enjoyed the hunt, the companionship and fellowship and I pray that this is the first of many activities where the members of the 16 Gauge Society can and will get together.

"Hot barrels and bloody hands to all my friends!"

Terry
________
FERRARI 250

Well done Terry.
Thanks to Jimmie for getting the group photo up-for those interested Jimmie is kneeling on the R and from L to R it's brdhnt, ColoradoPaul, tjwalker, 3DocPop, and me.
I've got some pics including 2 action shots of tj and Dirk on quail that won't get posted til my extremely better 2/3 gets home from Orlando since I'm clueless Embarassed

I'm excited about what Terry is working on and to see what will happen next year!

The South Dakota group: tj standing on R and 3Doc kneeling on L

tj and dirk on quail in MO

Dirk and the dork doc Very Happy

My better 1/2 and lots of lab power

Member Joined: 17 Sep 2005 Posts: 134 Location: TEXAS

Howdy to all 16 gaugers,

I have uploaded some more pictures to my site from the Kansas hunt. Click on the following link and it should take you there. Check out both albums 1 and 2.

http://jwooten6.photosite.com/

Happy trails,

JNW/HHH