Parker VH and Maine grouse/woodcock, a great combination!!

[Mike Koneski]

Spent a week hunting in Maine with 3 friends and 5 dogs!! 2 Setters, 2 Britts and a Draht. I hunted most of the week with a buddy from Poo-kip-see (:rotf:) and we put up 65 grouse and 7 mudbats. The Parker 16g VH scored on 11 of 18 grouse and 1 of 1 mudbat. Tom took 6 grouse and 1 mudbat. Good weather to run the dogs. First 5 days were great. Last day was Saturday, 10/20, and there were so many hunters out there in the middle of nowhere, it was unbelievable!! Looked like the opening day of PA deer rifle season. Here are some pics from the end of each day.

[Mike Koneski]

A few more pics. 1)Tails pinned on the drying board. (Yes, more than I shot. I did find 3 birds). 2) Parker & moose antlers. 3)Tom, Meg and a grouse. 4)Hunting cover. 5)Our Ghillie working an edge.

[Mills Morrison]

Awesome pics! Thanks for sharing

[Dean Romig]

Great area! I've hunted and fished in the Eustis and Stratton area and down to Sugarloaf, where I have skied a few times, and was very successful there.

Those old grown up logged-off areas are the best!

Sounds like a great trip except when you were overrun with other hunters. But the weather Saturday was fantastic!





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[Craig Larter]

Nothing like hunting over your own dogs a great trip really sweet. On another note I didn't think you ever missed.

[Stephen Hodges]

Awsome hunt in anyone's book:) Congrats, and some great shooting also:corn:

[Sara LeFever]

Great photos, Mike! Give Ghillie a pat from me!

Sara

[Garry L Gordon]

I really enjoyed these photos, as I do always when members post accounts of their hunts. Thanks for posting.

I can tell you like that hat! I have one very much like it, and it tells many stories in each loose thread.

[Daryl Corona]

Where are the pics of you and your smallbore Fox chasing birds?:whistle:
Oops! Wrong site.:eek:
Nice pics and story. I felt like I was there although I'm sitting in the middle of the prairie.

[nick balzano]

nice fotos looks like a rustic cabin congrats

[Mike Koneski]

Nothing like hunting over your own dogs a great trip really sweet. On another note I didn't think you ever missed.

Weeeeeellllll, I do miss sometimes!! Especially when Ol' Ruff decides to fly through the conifers at Mach 5!!

[Mike Koneski]

nice fotos looks like a rustic cabin congrats


A friend of ours lives there. He moved to Maine right after high school in 1980. He built the cabin himself back in 1986. He's a great guide and a good friend. I always know we'll get into birds when we hunt with him.

[Mike Koneski]

Great area! I've hunted and fished in the Eustis and Stratton area and down to Sugarloaf, where I have skied a few times, and was very successful there.

Those old grown up logged-off areas are the best!

Sounds like a great trip except when you were overrun with other hunters. But the weather Saturday was fantastic!





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The weather was excellent all week for the most part. Thursday was 30 MPH winds, temps in the high 20s and 2" of snow to start the day. But, dogs worked great and we hunted areas where the mountains gave shelter from the winds. As you said, only negative was the amount of hunters on Saturday.

[Mike Koneski]

Just a few more pics of the views in the area. We also hunt bear in most of the same places, just farther into the woods.

[Chuck Bishop]

What's the matter Mike, don't they make blaze orange cap with an A on it:p

[Mike Koneski]

They do Chuck, I just don't have one. I have 4 others, but none in blaze orange. :) Besides, successful shooting sometimes deserves some self-promotion. :cheers:

[Steve Cambria]

[QUOTE=Daryl Corona;256659]Where are the pics of you and your smallbore Fox chasing birds?:whistle:

Great minds think alike, DC!! Yup, a Fox BOD openly touting Meriden's finest. :banghead::banghead:
So many cross-dressers, so little time!!

BTW, if those handle bars get any longer, you'll be the official du Bray doppelganger at next year's PGCA Annual Meeting!!

[Mike Koneski]

BWAHAHAHAHA!! Funny thing Steve, I really did think I grabbed the 16g Fox from the one safe. When I took the gun from the case it was the Parker VH. Not saying either gun is not up to the task, so I just enjoyed my trip with good friends, dogs and Old Reliable. As for the ‘stache, just wait until April at Deep River!!!

[Todd Poer]

Wow, beautiful country and a great trip. I forget the actual quote and from which book, but it goes something like "I hunt grouse mostly because they live in beautiful places". That's one of them. Dean can probably tell me author, title and page and number though.

Only thing left to be said about that trip to sum it all up is... "Roll Tide"!

[John Dallas]

There is a famous paragraph written by John Voelker called "Testament of a Fisherman"

I fish because I love to;

Because I love the environs where trout are found, which are invariably beautiful, and hate the environs where crowds of people are found, which are invariably ugly;

Because of all the television commercials, cocktail parties, and assorted social posturing I thus escape;

Because, in a world where most men seem to spend their lives doing things they hate, my fishing is at once an endless source of delight and an act of small rebellion;

Because trout do not lie or cheat and cannot be bought or bribed or impressed by power, but respond only to quietude and humility and endless patience;

Because I suspect that men are going along this way for the last time, and I for one don’t want to waste the trip; because mercifully there are no telephones on trout waters;

Because only in the woods can I find solitude without loneliness;

Because bourbon out of an old tin cup always tastes better out there;

Because maybe one day I will catch a mermaid;

And, finally, not because I regard fishing as being so terribly important but because I suspect that so many of the other concerns of men are equally unimportant – and not nearly so much fun.

[Dean Romig]

John D. Voelker, aka "Robert Traver", first penned those lines in reference to the brook trout, grayling and steelhead in Michigan's rivers and the beautiful places where they lived.


Oops... John Dallas nailed it. I first read that when I was about 16 and had just started tying my own flies around then.

(I see that it was published in '64. I was 16 on Jan 18, 1964)







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[Mike Koneski]

That paragraph was used in the PF magazine this month. The author of the article was writing about grouse hunting with his father and quoted this exchanging grouse for trout.

There is a famous paragraph written by John Voelker called "Testament of a Fisherman"

I fish because I love to;

Because I love the environs where trout are found, which are invariably beautiful, and hate the environs where crowds of people are found, which are invariably ugly;

Because of all the television commercials, cocktail parties, and assorted social posturing I thus escape;

Because, in a world where most men seem to spend their lives doing things they hate, my fishing is at once an endless source of delight and an act of small rebellion;

Because trout do not lie or cheat and cannot be bought or bribed or impressed by power, but respond only to quietude and humility and endless patience;

Because I suspect that men are going along this way for the last time, and I for one don’t want to waste the trip; because mercifully there are no telephones on trout waters;

Because only in the woods can I find solitude without loneliness;

Because bourbon out of an old tin cup always tastes better out there;

Because maybe one day I will catch a mermaid;

And, finally, not because I regard fishing as being so terribly important but because I suspect that so many of the other concerns of men are equally unimportant – and not nearly so much fun.

[Dean Romig]

But did he give credit to Voelker?..... That is the question.






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[Mike Koneski]

Yes, he used the Voelker name first, then referred to the author by his Traver name. He said his father was a man of few words and carried that in his wallet. His father read it to him in the field when he was in the midst of making a major life decision.