Best Day Afield

[mobirdhunter]

I was re-reading Nash Buckingham's "A La Belle Etoile" and it prompted me to think about the beautiful stars of my hunting life.

I thought of first points over beloved dogs, now gone; of doubles taken fairly, of good companions over the years. In a sea of memories, I have one that stands above. Ironically, it was a hunt that involved no game taken, nor shot fired. It happened on a trip back home to Virginia to hunt with my Father over our Christmas break. I was just then experiencing the keen obsession of shooting over my first bird dogs. This was a time, at the end of the 1980s, when quail had greatly declined in Virginia, and the only hunting available to us was by permit on paper company lands. Pop had secured the permits and maps and we spent the day driving to find some cutover lands suitable to hunt. We drove and read maps more than hunted as I recall, and the only covey of birds we saw was a small one that crossed the sand road in front of us and disappeared into a thick stand of pines. I remember as we headed back my disappointment at not being able to present a shot for Pop over my young brace of Gordons. He loved watching those dogs (and spoke of them until the day he died). I commented on the long drive back to the house that I was sorry about the day and the way it had unfolded. Pop told me, in his typical gruff fashion, that he did not give a rip about not shooting birds, and that he just enjoyed spending the day with me. The best day afield I have ever had. It was by chance, our last day afield together.

I'm curious what my fellow hunters would cite as a bright star in their hunting lives...and would you share it with us, please? I, for one, would enjoy hearing of it.