These are Charlie's photos.


The old house under the trees is the old Dunkle homestead.

Let me tell you about Larry, a retired school superintendent. We were driving on the gravel road and stopped because two sharptail were right in front, 20-30 yards away. Larry crept out of the car and had two going away easy shots. He missed both. Charlie won't let him live it down. But Larry is also the champion porcupine catcher with three of them. His dog caught one and we spent a half hour pulling quills, but Larry wasn't satisfied until he limited out with two more.

Charlie was thinking about bagging the buffalo until he decided that 7 1/2 shot from a 20ga was a little light.

Absolutely georgous...keep'em comin boy's. We live in the most beautiful country on the planet.

The North Dakota pheasant opener is this weekend. We saw thousands of pheasants.

Sharptails are harder to hunt in my opinon. They don't run, but they will creep away. They post sentries in trees and when a flock is feeding, they will have a perimeter of sentries. They cackle when they take off and the whole flock will go. On pheasant, if you don't move, a pheasant flushed by another hunter will sometimes fly within range of you, but sharptails will see you, moving or not, and will avoid you. There is unlimited cover for sharpies but if you can find alfalfa fields, they like to eat that. They also like ripe autumn olives, we found them in that, and rose hips. They prefer low brush covered slopes where they take off downhill. 40-60 yard shots are common. Always interesting guiding for sharptails, I've usually found them, but finding them in large numbers and getting them in the bag is another matter, and you cover a lot of ground to find them.

Oh Well.l Darn Sharptails.
 

Here's Larry in sequence, trying to make the best of it.

This fellow used to post on the forum.

B-52's low and fast, hey Colonel!!
 

But you USAF lads don't use the "Iron Compass" so I am told. Great country, and sharpies and huns- those huns can get into their afterburners in a heartbeat. Tried to hunt them years ago up North of Ronan, MT (Nine Pipes Federal area, if memory serves. Never got closer than a football field to the flush, so we saved our shells for the "Ditch Parrots"--

Hunted central Neb years ago- Kearney, or Ft. Kearney area- and here's a true story of MidWestern hospitality and gracious manners- we were in GrandPa's Steak House- we got the last available table- 5 or us- eight chairs, and elderly couple walked in, and the greeter said it would be maybe 30 minutes before they could be seated. Our host for that trip went over and introduced himself and invited them to join us, which they did. When later in the conversation we discovered the gentleman was a WW11 Navy Vet who survived the terror of Pearl Harbor and then Pacific Theater, our host picked up their dinner check in a small way of saying "Thanks for serving, Sir"-- Now that maybe might happen in the "Big Apple" or Las Vegas, but I'd bet against it. Great country, even greater people in our Heartlands- Miss a bird in my name with Shortstop- what a great name for a bird dog, just like "Catfish" Hunter a great name for a baseball player-

PS- The 'rumor" about Obama being next for Mount Rushmore- years ago I even heard that rumor about old "Tricky Dick" Nixon after the Watergate scandal-- Great thing about our Country and that ol' debil- Politics-- never any end to the jokes that come along- maybe that American spirit and sense of humor has kept is going through some really troubled times- We all know that we'll see Obama on Mt. Rushmore when either Mr. Puglisi, Mr. Chadick or Mr. Julia offer a 1928 mfg. fully optioned 28 ga AHE in the original box with tag for, say- $5K-- just ain't gonna happen!!

Nice pics Bruce. Trigg and I will hunting pheasants in NDakota in just over a week from now, after the RGS Minnesota hunt and on our way back north. One pic has you holding a sharptail that is either the size of a small turkey or you are only 4ft tall! I love hunting sharptail. One of my favorite Montana spots near Havre has phez, sharpies, and huns all in the same drainage.

Had a request to show both sides of Mt Rushmore:

:rotf::rotf::rotf::rotf::rotf:

I like that one Bruce. Thanks. I need a good laugh. Gerald. ps Is there room for Obama?