I don't think the Sheldon story is about his own son actually. You get the impression that the person in the story didn't come back from the war and his only son did. He was a forester for the State of Vermont and lived to be an old man, passed on just a few years ago.


Destry

An exerp from"The Last Day" by Col.Harold B Sheldon. "They connived to maneuver Young Feller into the most favorable positions for a shot while or another of them went into the thick stuff to flush the bird. It worked for a time,until the lad saw through the conspiricy".

And that is exactly the way it happened...To read this a couple of hours after we got back to camp really touched me...It was a weekend I will never forget...good stuff

Destry my take on the story is that it was his son.

Yup Dave, that's the way it went and then Danny plowed right into the thick of it just like a veteran grouse and woodcock hunter. All good Dave, all good.

I only hope I'm with you guys when he kills his first pa'tridge :)

Why is it all these grouse camp stories never seem to have any pictures of actual grouse? *wink*

Destry

Many grouse hunts end up as Snipe Hunts of our youth, that's why no pix.

Okay Destry, I'll take the challenge. I'll post a picture tonight. Danny was witness to the first one - a young of year bird that presented a hard right to left crossing shot. I went out for one last hunt after he and Dave had left for home and found a big mature brown phase bird under a thornapple tree. A hard right to left crosser again which I'm obviously getting better at.

I won,t lie about it. My first shot came just as I was having an argument with a blown down pine tree. He flushed and I took a one handed shot as I was bent over to my left..nope missed.Second two shots were after a bird that Danny almost stepped on, by the time I realized he wasn,t gonna shoot because his heart had momentarily stopped "ol"mister ruff was well on his way to a clean getaway. And the third and best of all was the one that blew out from under a old apple tree during a sleet squall just as I put the gun in my other hand. I just waved to him....

And I will do it again...and again....and again...

Here's the picture I promised . . . actually two pictures, in both pictures you can see the broken band of the black stripe of the tailfeathers on the gray phase bird indicating it is a female while the big brown phase bird has the solid black stripe of the male ruffed grouse. The second picture shows half the contents of his crop - thornapples! It was about all thornapples but I only removed about half. There are some remnants of mushrooms and apple peckings but, surprise - no green leafy stuff at all! There's a story that goes with this big brown phase male grouse but I'll save it for a Parker Pages story. So, once in a while we really do connect with "the trickiest thing in feathers."

Hi Dean,

Nice picture. Who shot the grouse, Dave or Danny?

:rolleyes:. . . no, wait . . . :p

The truth of the matter is, Robin, that Dave has to stop spending so much time wrestling with tangles and deadfalls so he can shoot with both hands and Danny needs one of those 'live bird guns' . . . you know, the ones that have no safety? :duck:












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