Any Roosters Home ??

[Jack Cronkhite]

I find long abandoned farm yards throughout rooster country. I can't resist spending time with the camera, right after a pass by with the Parker. Over the years, the cover behind the white two storey home below has given me many roosters. It is not a lot of cover and cultivated land all around, so it is ideal. I don't know how many hunters I have seen ignore that spot and carry on to the creek about 1/4 mile south. This shot is taken from the north side of the house.

http://www.shotgunworld.com/bbs/cpg1410/albums/userpics/normal_20061024_IMG_9338s.JPG

And so is this shot

http://www.shotgunworld.com/bbs/cpg1410/albums/userpics/normal_20071109_IMG_9999_31_sgw.JPG

And this. I took this shot for the purposes of a discussion about guns and ammo on another site long before finding PGCA. The point was that any gun and any ammo can do the job provided the bird is in the pattern. I was Parkerless at that time due to a barrel failure on the family VH. During the search to remedy that, I found PGCA. Still haven't got a barrel set for the family gun but "Parkeritis" has taken its toll on the "entertainment" budget.

http://www.shotgunworld.com/bbs/cpg1410/albums/userpics/normal_20071112_IMG_9999_23sgw.JPG


Cheers,
Jack

[Rich Anderson]

Just like our beloved Parkers the stories those old buildings could tell. Hopes, dreams, and expectations swept away by the endless prarie winds.

Jack I just love your pictures, you have a good eye for them. Perhaps Santa will bring me a digital camera and a tutor to teach this Old Dog how to use it:rotf: After all I have been very,very good this year:whistle:

What type of camera are you using? Is it a small one that can fit in a pocket? I know nothing about these and neither does Santa?

[Dave Suponski]

Jack, I really enjoy those pictures of the old plains homesteads. I can almost envision the familys trying to scratch out an existance in such places. Do you happen to know the time period that some of these buildings?

[Jack Cronkhite]

Richard: For starting out, I would go with one of the point and shoot pocket cameras. They are pretty good these days and do all the necessary stuff automatically. Once you start enjoying the digital camera world (for me it was realizing I had 8000 pictures from a small camera), you might get bitten by the "shutterbug". The next level would be a DSLR (digital single lens reflex) camera. No longer point and shoot, you have to take control and learn some photography basics. The introductory level cameras run in the several hundred $. After that, there is the "pro-sumer" level, around $2K and after that you need to be making your living from the camera or have more $$ than you know what to do with. I think of the equipment cost in these terms.
Good pocket point and shoot = a parts Parker
Intro DSLR = a reliable shooter
Pro-sumer = a reliable shooter with some decent engraving and maybe some nicely preserved damascus barrels
Professional = high end collectibles

I still use a pocket camera for ease while hiking.
I keep a pro-sumer Canon in the car for more relaxed shooting, taking some time to think about the shots

Here are a few point and shoot images, which, on a computer screen, compare to much more expensive equipment. Where it can fall down is printed enlargements but you would have to go to poster size to really tell the difference. The other issue tends to be focus, as they average out a scene which may then not focus on what you really want. But they keep getting better and many now have facial recognition software included, so people will be more in focus than background. Anyway, once you get going with these cameras, you may never stop :)

Camera used below: Panasonic Lumix which was around 150$ a couple years ago. It was Santa who brought me the first little digital camera in 2003, so he knows where to find them.

[Jack Cronkhite]

Dave: Most of the places I come across are depression era "Dirty 30's" farm yards. They are long since abandoned and great locales for upland birds.
Cheers,
Jack

[richard lambert]

This photo reminds me of a old barn in N. D. that was filled with cow feed that the deer lived on! The most tender deer I ever ate!

http://parkerguns.org/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=5618&stc=1&thumb=1&d=1289706576

[Tom Carter]

When looking around these old houses, no matter where they are, be very cautious for old wells. Some were hand dug and not filled in when the occupants left. Some were covered by boards and the wood has rotted and grown over by weeds and grass. They could cause a very fast disappearing act. Cheers, Tom

[Jack Cronkhite]

Richard: This particular barn is about 15 miles from the 49th parallel. Closest ND town is Ambrose. I guess they would have been same era construction.

Tom: You are quite right and no one needs to unceremoniously find the bottom of an old well. I have encountered a couple where a local farmer had recovered with new wood. During one summer, I came across an ice well that obviously still worked. The wooden cover had rotted out, some slats still in place but the rest dropped in. Snow was able to fill the hole and in the heat of a prairie summer, I could see a lot of ice down there. I imagine more than one deer had been stored in that walk in (well climb down) freezer during the Great Depression.

Cheers,
Jack

[Dave Suponski]

Jack, Have you ever bothered to investigate the innards of some of these old homesteads? Or would that be too hazardous?

[Jack Cronkhite]

I have not set foot inside any. Many are ready to cave in on themselves. I have peered through windows or doors. Most are vacant. Occasionally there is still a rusted out wood stove. Whatever wasn't taken when abandoned has been "liberated" (stolen) years ago. But they do make great pictures. :)
Cheers,
Jack

[Dave Suponski]

Thanks Jack...:)

[Chuck Heald]

Jack,
Some great pix, as always. Reminds me of the farmhouses on the properties I've hunted in S.D.

[Jack Cronkhite]

Another place with upland bird potential

[Dean Romig]

Jack, have you ever looked into who owned those places?

Where I spend all of my time in Vermont there are a number of old places - just stone foundations now - but I know the names and a small history of the people who built them as far back as the late 1780's. Knowing the names seems to bring me closer to the wonderful rural community there now.

[Jack Cronkhite]

Dean: Of all the places I have wandered around, I learned the name of only one of the original landowners. The few farmers left just don't know. Farming has changed from what it was. Those who have survived as "family" farmers have accumulated huge tracts of land and those who left are lost to history. In the early years, 1/4 section of land was a lot to handle with horse drawn equipment. Now there are "family" farms of 10 or more sections and corporate farms that have no people living there, just hire stuff done. These absentee folks can live anywhere. I once tried to get permission to hunt an area with good habitat where I had seen birds hanging around. What a process. I ended up getting a call from a lawyer who represented the owner who lived in Toronto - a mere 2000 miles from the "farm". In the final analysis, I was given permission but the neighbor, who still lived on his farm also was a client of the same lawyer and when he heard about someone going to hunt the area he got very upset. (Saw the birds as pets I guess) Of course he had no "legal" rights but I just couldn't be bothered to get into a hassle, so I continued to hunt other good spots. Out on the windswept bald prairie, there is not the same sense of "community" you refer to. There is indeed "community" but it is very spread out and the social activity will be in some small town or village that can be a long ways from the land I hunt. Here is another made from the rocks picked from the land. There are a few of these around but the vast majority are wooden structures.
Cheers,
Jack

[Rich Anderson]

Jack-I can see a covey of Huns just off the two track by the big bush on the right. I can see Daisy locked up solid as a rock, her nose full of the sweet smell of game. The covey flushes and a lith CHE 20 comes to the shoulder, a cock bird is singled out and a swarm of 7's from the 2 1/2 inch RST paper hull is launched from the right barrel. Contact is made and the bird tumbles to the ground. A double is possible but these are hardy birds and 1 in the vest is better than adding a lost bird to the bag.

Yup there is upland potential there for sure:bigbye:

[Jack Cronkhite]

Richard: You don't know just how close you are to reality - or maybe you do :) Huns just love these old yards, even more so than the roosters. Your weapon and ammo of choice would be just the ticket. Now this place is beyond "potential". It is definitely rooster proven, year after year after year. Can't say where, other than just around the corner and over the next rise (can't say "next hill" here, as that would be somewhere in another province or country).
Cheers,
Jack

[William Maynard]

Beautiful.... That is all I have to say.....