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< 16ga. General Discussion ~ An Indiana Story: "No Bobwhites, but..." |
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Posted:
Sat Nov 25, 2006 2:51 pm
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Joined: 15 Oct 2004
Posts: 787
Location: Indiana
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A farmer friend saw me at breakfast on Friday morning and told me about a covey of quail he had seen in a cut-over woodlot on his farm. He drew me a map and, never being one to look gift birds in the mouth, I decided I would try for this covey. It would be the first one I'd seen this season.
As I pulled off the county road into a turn-out, I looked across the road, noting the "x" on my buddy's map. I set the dog down, loaded up the 20 ga. Silverhawk with 1 ounce Winchester Heavy Game 7 1/2's and headed for the weeds.
Pal and I searched the spot methodically with no result, then worked our way west, down the edge of the woodlot. As we drew closer to a series of brush piles and bulldozed log piles, Pal began to get birdy. We reached a huge log/brush heap and he skirted it frantically but we could not breach the briars and thorns on the east side of it. I then heard the skittering of small birds in the cover---they were running to the south ! I stepped into the weeds, onto a log, temporarily losing my balance. You veteran bird shooters out there know exactly what happened next---the entire covey flushed, almost in my face...I wish I could report that your interpid author brought down a bird or shot a double...but I honestly poked two shots at a couple of stragglers, hitting nothing but air....
However, proceeding to the cover we hunted on Wednesday, Pal and I teamed up on a really close flush of a sassy rooster in the canary grass---pal froze, flusjhed the bird and I shot him with the 20 at a range of maybe 8 yards....a great day, and as usual, always an adventure in Starke county.... |
_________________ One Man with Courage is a Majority
---Andrew Jackson |
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Posted:
Sat Nov 25, 2006 7:20 pm
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Member
Joined: 08 Nov 2005
Posts: 3438
Location: Illinois
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They ALWAYS take flight at the worst time.I was watering a tree one morning-one of those days when you haven't seen anything--was halfway thru my business when a cock rose up and away just a few feet from where I was standing |
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Posted:
Sun Nov 26, 2006 2:01 pm
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hoashooter wrote: |
They ALWAYS take flight at the worst time.I was watering a tree one morning-one of those days when you haven't seen anything--was halfway thru my business when a cock rose up and away just a few feet from where I was standing
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Ain't it the truth. Surest way to see a rooster on a slow day is to have the wrong gun in your hand. |
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Posted:
Sun Nov 26, 2006 7:26 pm
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Joined: 15 Oct 2004
Posts: 787
Location: Indiana
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It's happened to me more than once---just as Hoa describes it... |
_________________ One Man with Courage is a Majority
---Andrew Jackson |
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