Anyone read Archibald Rutledge's Bird Dog Days Wing shooting ways?

[Bill Holcombe]

Just curious as I am working my way through Rutledge and Buckingham books I haven't read yet and I have come upon this one. It is actually one of Casada's collections of his writtings, but it appears to be rarer than the rest of Jim's work as it is quite a bit pricier.

Just curious if anyone had read it and could recommend it or not. I have plenty of other books I can go with by these 2 authors, but this one has piqued my interest.

[Mills Morrison]

I don't have that one but it is probably good. America's Greatest Gamebird is great and should be in every turkey hunter's library

[Charles Matthews]

I prefer some of his other works but it does have an interesting section on his love of grouse hunting while he was exiled in Pennsylvania.

[CraigThompson]

I prefer some of his other works but it does have an interesting section on his love of grouse hunting while he was exiled in Pennsylvania.

You obviousely feel there is no place like South Carolina and I'm the same way about the Old Dominion !

But I traveled to PA several years for a week each year to do the bear or deer season with some friends I had made in an Eastern Shore Maryland Sika Deer camp . And actually PA isn't so bad for a hunting trip each year . I even lived up there for a few months one year . But I gotta admit it was wonderful to return to Virginia .

[CraigThompson]

I still wanna go to the area of SC Rutledge was from and kill a whitetail of some description with one of my 12 gauge Parkers shooting handloaded buckshot during a man or dog drive . Don't care if it's a yearling doe or a bruiser buck or anything in between .

[Charles Matthews]

Unfortunately, dog drives are a dying tradition even in coastal Carolina. They still exist, but are rare. If you ever get a chance to go to Hampton Plantation you can see the descendants of the deer he hunted on the grounds.........tracks are everywhere.

BTW, Rutledge considered himself exiled in Penn. He referenced it several times. He was always homesick.

[Mills Morrison]

Rutledges writings of Pennsylvania are underrated.

[Bill Holcombe]

He has some very nice articles in home and Southern Heartland about grouse or pheasant hunting in Pa.

[Mills Morrison]

I need to get that book. The thing I would kill for is one of his turkey calls

[CraigThompson]

I think it would be kinda neat to kill deer/turkey and or quail around Georgetown SC like Rutledge did . Also think it would be cool to kill quail and dove in one of John Baileys places in was it Alabama or Mississippi . And finally to kill mallards on one of the old Arkansas duck clubs that Buckingham and BoWhoop prowled !

Might as well add Coues Whitetail in Sonora where O'Conner hunted as well !

[Frank Childrey]

Any of Rutledge's works are well worth having. Bird Dog Days has general chapters on dogs in general, grouse hunting in Pennsylvania with and without dogs, 4 chapters on birds (wild quail for those of you who are not from the South), a chapter on ringnecks, and two chapters on sportsmanship. I found my copy on Amazon; it was used (though it looks like it just came off of the shelf at Barnes & Noble). There is some issue with the book's publication hence the high price. PS: John P. Bailey was from Coffeeville, MS.

[Frank Childrey]

Bird Dog Days, it should be noted, has a lengthy introduction by Jim Casada, books editor for Sports Classics magazine

[Frank Childrey]

uh . . . make that Sporting Classics magazine

[Mills Morrison]

Jim Casada is probably the foremost authority on Rutledge and he is working on a biography.

His early poetry is very good as well.

[Bill Holcombe]

Decided to wait on this book for now, but did pick up a 1st edition of Home by the River.

[Mills Morrison]

did pick up a 1st edition of Home by the River.

That is the best book to start on for Rutledge

[Bill Holcombe]

Not quite starting, already read and loved Home and the Southern Heartland or whatever it is called. Reading Buckingham at the moment, and while they write a lot of the same topics, they do present them completely differently. Rutledge seems more on the hunt and a storyteller, Buckingham is more of a 1st hand account style and more about the actual people then the hunts themselves.

Enjoying both immensely, just find the differences between them surprising/entertaining. As a boy who was brought up on Uncle Remus, I am quite in my element.