Montana hunt

[Richard Flanders]

I'm in northern Montana hunting out of Havre, my favorite spot in the state. Tried a spot yesterday where I've done well on pheasants and only saw huns and sharpies, but managed a following double on these two, my first of any kind shooting left handed. Shot them with a 26" 1-1/2 frame VH12 using the proper vintage Peters and Federal papers that smell nice but burn about as dirty as black powder.

[Daniel G Rainey]

great picture to go along with great shooting. Have fun. Enjoyed my hunt up there and have been thinking that the Montana trip needs to become a yearly adventure. Much like going to church on Sunday, a Montana bird hunt just does a body good.

[George Davis]

I'll be in Lewistown area the second week of November!!!!!

[Richard Flanders]

I got back to the area where I always hunt when here today and had multiple shots each at pheasants, huns, and sharpies. Only managed one sharpie in the bag but it wasn't because the opportunities for more weren't there, though most of the 16 shots I took today were pretty long. It's a gorgeous place to hunt. Sloping land with wheat fields transected by brushy washes - what can be better than that? I've got pans of looking both down onto the lower lands and up towards the higher areas. The clump of trees on the dam in the second pan can be seen about dead center in the first picture. The pond behind that little dam was full of mallards. You just chase birds up and down those drainages all day. I came up one and kicked a couple of single sharpies out and when I got to where the drainage headed out at a wheat field the adjacent hilltop erupted in a cloud of sharptails... not sure how many but it was about "an acre" of sharpies. I got off four shots as they took off away from me into the wind then turned downwind and sailed past me at horrendous speed in the 25mph wind that was blowing. Good thing I got a bird on the first shot! Of course, just to keep Bruce happy, I hit it with only one pellet and that was in the head; not a single other hole in the bird when I filleted it out. That was intentional, of course..... I waited until he turned his head a bit to look at me before taking the shot...

[Dean Romig]

May I ask why you're shooting left-handed?





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[Richard Flanders]

Not near as many birds obvious today as yesterday but it wasn't bad. A few sharpie and hun groups, one of huns that flew right by me as I was fileting this monster on the tailgate. This is the biggest sharpie I have ever seen; it's as big as a frying chicken and my only bird today. For this area the huns and sharpie populations are healthy but the pheasants are way down. I found yesterdays sharpie cloud in the same place as yesterday and one hun group was at least 20 but flushed at least 100yds out. Those bad boys sit on a rise all day and flush way early. I can't imagine how you'd hunt them around here with dogs. The sharpies are the same really; I walked the perimeter of a wheat field, a bit outside the fence in the pasture ground and kicked up 3 groups. They feed in the wheat stubble then spend the day adjacent to the field on a rise that gives them a good view. Smart little devils. This one just made the mistake of flying by me instead of straight away with the rest of the group. Have added a picture of an idyllic valley to wander and hunt.

[Daniel G Rainey]

best of luck. know two days are alike.

[Scot Cardillo]

Enjoy your trip :) your photos of the prairies look like snapshots of heaven on earth to this east-coaster.

[Daniel G Rainey]

The pictures of the prairie are wonderful. People of south do not understand the vastness of the land or how wonderful it is.

[Scot Cardillo]

The pictures of the prairie are wonderful. People of south do not understand the vastness of the land or how wonderful it is.

You're spot on with that..my family/friends whom have never taken the time to explore the west do not seem to understand or appreciate our deep affinity.

[Richard Flanders]

Yesterday when I climbed south out of Malta I was seeing the prototype Montana "big sky" - nothing but far horizon in every direction. A bit later when I crested the pass south of Lewistown and was overlooking the Billings area and the mtns to the south it nearly took my breath away. Unbelievable. And the valley up Clarks Fork going over into Cody, where I am now was absolutely gorgeous. Green and lush, full of deer and waterfowl on ponds and I almost hit a rooster pheasant standing in the middle of the highway. Best pheasant habitat I've seen anywhere in Montana. Lots of corn and grain fields and grassy, brushy meandering creek bottoms. Definitely heaven on earth! As soon as you cross into Wyoming it's about the most desolate looking sage country on earth but the rock formations are stunning. Looking forward to spending a day at the Cody museums today. I'm told the firearms museum has been completely redone and is much improved.

[Dean Romig]

Please tell us about the firearms museum when you can. I haven't been there since about '08.





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[Richard Flanders]

I haven't been to it in 20yrs and it is completely different now. Overwhelming, is the word that fits best. It really is truly unbelievable and incredibly well done. There are far more guns on display and some great displays of old manufacturing equipment - lathes, gang drill presses, a loading machine. I was surprised to see TR's Fox F shotgun on display. The auction winner chose to display it here shortly after the auction and it's insured for $1mill by the museum. It's in a kinda dark room, unfortunately; I'd like to see it in better light. The only underwhelming part I saw was the cabinet full of Parkers. Every grade is covered but few are in spectacular condition. A .410 skeet gun has it's own display near the entrance. All the museum sections are under one roof now; no going building to building, and they have basement and mezzanine sections. I'm on the way back now after a lunch break. The most impressive section in the whole place is the Indian history unit. It's beyond impressive and very moving. The section on WF Cody is also quite something - they have a lot of his personal stuff - guns, clothing, saddles, books even his beer stein + some of Annie Oakleys guns(Bakers). They have a great display of the Colt SAA's used in TV shows and movies.... Paladin, Hoss, Pa and L Joe Cartwright, etc. They even have A Colt SAA flat top target pistol that G Cooper gave to Audie Murphy as a present. The pearl grips are custom fit to his hand and the front sight blade is ivory. It is absolutely gorgeous. A $19 fee gets you two days in the museum, which isn't bad at all for such a place.

[Dean Romig]

"The cabinet full of Parkers."?? When I was there there were several cabinets and displays devoted exclusively to Parkers... and even more down in the lower level. I wonder what happened?






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[Richard Flanders]

I found just one wall cabinet of Parkers but this afternoon found another smaller display of six VERY upgraded V grades, as in deep Germanic engraving with gold inlays and stunning wood, in gauges from 410 to 12ga, all owned by the same owner. They are absolutely gorgeous. There are also a few on display in the basement, but nothing of any real rarity or condition. They are about to start a complete redo of the firearms section that will take 5 yrs or so and will add more interactive displays and put even more than the current 4000 guns on display. Getting the Olin collection was a real coup. They have un numbered J Browning and Winchester prototypes for the 1886 and 1892 and others. It's really something to see. It took a while to find but I finally found Winchester S/N 1 again. I also really liked the Winchester mod 63 .22auto that had a custom 45rd drum magazine in the butt and a silencer. It was made for a market goose hunter who wanted a lot of firepower but didn't to scare the flock away. Maybe there really is such a thing as the "good old days", eh?! Some of the most impressive guns in the entire place are the Coors collection of single shot target rifles. Lordy, they are gorgeous, but are displayed as low as ground level in bad light so you have to get on your knees to look at them and even then you can't see them well enough. Hopefully they remedy that in the redo.

[Bill Jolliff]

Visited the Buffalo Bill Historical Center at Cody about two years ago and it is truly impressive.

Picture of Teddy Roosevelt's F Grade Fox below.

Also of note downstairs are side by sides, mostly hammer guns donated by Bill Furnish. They are displayed vertically in pull out drawers with glass on both sides to really get a good look at them. I believe there are about 200 or 300 displayed there with lots of documentation. I have photo's somewhere but couldn't find them.

Found my pictures of TR's F Grade Fox tho. Also front and back pictures of the original Fox factory order card. Also a picture of Tom Kidd when he owned the gun back in 1988. And I had the pleasure of shouldering Teddy's gun when Tom owned it.

Definitely a great place to visit.

http://i70.photobucket.com/albums/i117/jollybill2006/Fox%20TR%20s%20F%20grade/IMG_0230_zps6fdb2c40.jpg

http://i70.photobucket.com/albums/i117/jollybill2006/Fox%20TR%20s%20F%20grade/IMG_0232_zps35f1e850.jpg

http://i70.photobucket.com/albums/i117/jollybill2006/Fox%20TR%20s%20F%20grade/TRsCardFront.jpg

http://i70.photobucket.com/albums/i117/jollybill2006/Fox%20TR%20s%20F%20grade/TRsCardBack.jpg

http://i70.photobucket.com/albums/i117/jollybill2006/Fox%20TR%20s%20F%20grade/IMG_3602.jpg

[Richard Flanders]

I didn't get much into the drawers in the basement; just too many guns to be able to see them all. I did see a few with Bill's name on them in the basement wall display, I think.

[Eric Eis]

What ever happened to Tom Kidd, did he get out of foxes all together?

[Destry L. Hoffard]

He showed up at Hausmann's a couple years ago.

Destry

[Destry L. Hoffard]

Nice Work Richard!

[Bill Jolliff]

What ever happened to Tom Kidd, did he get out of foxes all together?
I'm sure Tom still has most, if not all, his nice Fox's and I'm sure other nice trinkets as well. He may have even added a gun or two.

Tom lost two of his very good double shotgun friends, Frank Kiem and Russ Bickel and that may have taken some of the sizzle out of it.

He still likes his bird hunting and his lab's.

Tom and his wife Carol are pretty involved in older cars, especially one's with air cooled engines as in his Fox car and Franklin's.

It would be nice to see him once in a while at some of the shows or double gun shoots. Be nice if maybe he wrote an article or two for the DGJ also.

Just my thoughts

[Dave Noreen]

I spent three full days at the Buffalo Bill Historical Center with the Remington Society annual seminar in 2003 and again at the Buffalo Bill Center of the West with them in 2014. Those sliding out cabinets with the Bill Furnish collection and other guns is a grand improvement over the way they were racked in cases in 2003!! We did find that many of Bill's Remington doubles were mis-identified. Hopefully they have corrected that by now.

The .410-bore CHE-Grade Parker in a cabinet with "another .410-bore" is the Robert W. Woodruff gun --

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v316/Ansleyone/Parker/14.%20%20BBHC%20CFM%20RWWs%20CHE%20410-bore%20amp%20Model%2042%20Deluxe_zpssr6m2qhp.jpg

The count I made in 2014 showed over 100 Parkers on display in the Cody Firearms Museum.

[Greg Baehman]

Tom Kidd posted a couple of pics of his 28-ga. Parker Reproduction here:
http://parkerguns.org/forums/showthread.php?t=8965&page=3