The last official sunset for the year in the 8 o'clock hour.

8:00 PM here, too, in Northern Missouri. Even after hot days, there is now enough darkness to cool us to below 70 degrees by morning.

And yet another sign
 

Last evening 3 deer came into my pasture at dusk, two mature does and a small buck. One of the does and the buck have changed their coat to winter grey. The third was still summer red. The times, they are a changing.

Friday night we are supposed to get down into the 40's. Sounds like Saturday morning is set for a dog run for sure.

One of the sure signs of the impending shooting seasons are my almost complete impatience with the lingering summer.
Such things as daydreaming of autumn hunts of past seasons and rummaging through my upland books that I haven’t read or at least re-read in the last couple of years... and then I’ll find a good one and start reading. Well into the third or fourth chapter I realize I’m tormenting myself but I can’t put the book down.

Here’s one I’m torturing myself with right now... I’m at the lake and should be fishing but I just can’t help myself....


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That is a good book, as is most everything put out by Countrysport Press

I'll be looking for another to read soon - one that I'm sure I've already read at least once before.

The following, among several others I have, came from Bill Tapply's collection of his Dad's things.
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Call of the Quail and Bare November Days are good, if you like books on upland hunting.

I have been reading Happy Hunting Ground by A. S. Salley, Jr., which is mostly about deer hunting in SC after the Civil War.

I have "Bare November Days" and have enjoyed it thoroughly.

"If you like books on upland hunting"..... seriously? Are there any other kinds of books?





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Just a figure of speech . . .:)

You could venture into duck hunting books. I am actually trying to find some books about upland hunting in the old South, but there basically are none.

Most on this forum probably know this book but it is one I just recently acquired. I've been enjoying the artwork and text lately.

From a homesick GI in the South Pacific. It was discovered in Nash’s things after he died. It was a photocopy of microfilm V-Mail, the type sent by servicemen during World War II:

Lt. Col. R.W. Cole Jr.
8th Cav APO 201 c/oPM
San Francisco
September 4, 1944

My dear Mr. Buckingham:

This being September, although here in the Admiralty Group one would never suspect such to be the case, my thoughts have been turning more and more towards home and the gunning days. My home is in Little Compton, a small fishing-farming community on the eastern shore of the Sakonnet River. In such a location along the Rhode Island coast, the black ducks are in evidence the season round and the thought of throwing my decoys on home waters once more makes the months overseas even longer. I know you have shot over the same country of salt marshes and pot holes, of sand dunes and rocky spits over which the long files of coot pass at dawn and dusk, so I feel your understanding far better than most. To those of us who love the out-of-doors, homecoming means infinitely more than for those luckless individuals whose lives are not in tune with the whisper of wings at sundown.

Have you ever thought of how your books have brought pleasure to us out here? I made a short cruise on a combat mission with the Navy and during lulls in the bombardment and the continuous state of “precautionary general quarters”, I found time to read “The Shootinest Gent’man” for the fourth time. Even the thrill of being at sea on grim and important business was forgotten. This time, I believe I enjoyed “Play House”- “no more Eddinses fo’ the wars!”- even more than usual, as it struck a sympathetic note. Thank you for speeding the hours.

The Cavalry Division will be hard at it again in the near future and when you read of its exploits, think of it in a more personal sense than might otherwise be the case as I, in my capacity of Executive Officer of one of its fine old regiments, am a very small cog in its wheel.
Sincerely,
R.W. Cole Jr.

Thanks to all of you who have responded to this thread. I'm here in the midst of late summer, having just discovered that one of my Gordons, Cedar, most likely has cancer, and remembering past hunts with her, and planning to beat this disease and to start the season in Minnesota as we have for so many years. Your recollections and descriptions have made me more optimistic. I hope the months to come are memorably good for all of us.

What’s not to like about Lynn Bogue Hunt’s art?

I have that book too Ted and have photographed some of those pages with Hunt’s art.





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I've got an old copy also. It is falling apart but still a great read

Deans’s pictures of inscriptions in the books “from Bill Tapply’s collection of his dad’s things,” made me think of the book my dad gave me. I haven’t read it in years, but now as fall approaches ... again—damn it... maybe it’s time.

On the subject of duck hunting, here's another recent acquisition with more artwork from LBH. The photograph is the author with a big swan.

Ted, can you see what gun he’s holding. That’s a very distinctive forend... maybe Ithaca? Maybe Elsie?

Van Campen Heilner bought a .410 IJ Skeeter from A&F and it is recorded on the same page with my .410 Skeeter 2-barrel set.



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Dean - I don't think its an Elsie but I admit that I am not good at identifying guns from photos. Here are some others which may show it clearer. In at least one you can see a vent rib? It's a big gun, perhaps 10 ga? I've scanned through the book and see no mention of guns, gauges or loads. This book was published in 1939 nd he referred to several years of "research" leading up to his writing of it.

I believe it’s a graded single-trigger Ithaca though I’m not good at identifying Ithaca’s grades.




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That is my guess too, but I am not an expert on Ithaca's either.

Ithaca for sure. The checkering pattern is Ithaca.

I'm thinking Grade 4 or 5.





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Garry,

Sorry to hear about your Gordon. Hope it will work out.

The sign that hunting is around the corner--my Gordon starts getting a bunch of stick tights and other seed heads in her hair on our little hikes. The evening temps are dropping into the 50s and the forecast has a cold front coming in a day or two before 1 Sept. Of course, elk muzzle loading season is getting closer. The aspens at 10,000' will be turning when we get in and just about a full golden color when we head out 10 days later.

Ken

Ted, this is the inscription in my copy of "Upland Game Shooting" by Betton.

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In Maine here, not only are the swamp maples taking on the reds, yellows and pinks of the coming Autumn but the lake here just a half hour after sunrise was covered by cottony streamers and small clouds of vapor lifting from the warm water into the cold air.


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one more.

Here in central mass the hummingbirds are getting more active at the feeder — apparently fattening up for the migration south

Dean, those photos are beautiful. There's nothing quite like the seasons changing -- especially when the next one reveals itself through subtle hints.

This morning we went to the farm to finish up some work. The day was cool and damp, and the sky filled with low clouds. Days like this concentrate color, and I had to stop (in the road!) to take this photo of wild sunflowers. The photo does not do this field justice. It is about 20-30 acres of vivid yellow, made more intense by the low clouds.

I've been seeing lots of dove. Still deciding which gun to use for the opener next Sunday.

So where is that field exactly? LOL

Sept. 1st, opening of dove season. To me this signals the end of summer and the beginning of fall. Now the only decision to make is what long barreled smallbore to take.:banghead: Just kidding, the 30" 28ga VHE is already on the top of the list.

I have a 32" 20 ga. that needs some exercise. I need to charge up the MOJOs.

weather cooling a little here and the yellow butterfliies are on the move.....grass is also slowing down a bit...even seen some giant pecans on my dads old orchard and the chinese chestnuts are falling and opening up.....i will have to really watch those pecans if i get any of them.....got my shells and gear setting out in the floor in the way....going backwards this year on shooting irons first a double barrel vulcan factory 27 1/2 inch barrel 20 ga and a 410 stevens double barrel......charlie

This is the best August weather I can remember here ever. Mills and I tried to go fishing, but it was a comedy of errors. We were trying to go in a different place but all the landings had problems. We finally made it out on an old reliable landing, had an equipment malfunction. Then we got checked by the game warden and we were all legal but that is always a pain

Yup, it can be a little inconvenient but I love it when a game warden checks my license and required safety equipment if I’m on my boat, and when they check if I have the proper tags.... It shows that they’re doing their job protecting the resources I love so much.





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On the eastern end of Lake Ontario the tops of the maples are showing a little yellow. The nights are in the 50's and days in the 70's. The woodies are all in full flight and the blue winged teal will be arriving any day. The new england asters are in full bloom and the may apple have gone dormant. The thistle has gone to seed and the goldfinches are feeding on them. Hummingbirds are building as the migration must be in full force. It won't be long. Starting a new puppy Nellie, 13 months and ready for her full life as a hunting dog. Life is grand!!!

Craig, that’s one of the best, and most descriptive posts I’ve seen in a while. Some people can go through life and not take note of as much as you’ve just written.

Edgar: We are all blessed with a love of the natural world. The cycle of the season calms my mind and makes me smile. Identifying birds by their song, trees by their bark, wildflowers by their bloom is what gives me joy in this crazy world. Those who pursue the world outdoors live a full life.

One of the primary reasons I prefer not traveling beyond my mailbox.

Nice Dean. I saw Frank Woolners signature and it brought back memories. I read his book on grouse hunting when I was a kid. It was a great book but it disturbed my adolescent brain when he described his grouse gun. I believe it was a Winchester automatic 12 bore that he "customized" by shortening the barrel and sanding off the pistol grip. He called it his "chopper". At the time, I couldn't imagine shooting grouse with anything but a Parker or other fine double. I still can't. My favorite book by far as a kid was Ted Janes "A Boy and His Gun. I read it over and over and I still have it.

I never met Frank Woolner, but I have the notion that he had an affinity for the outré, and incorporated some pseudo-military effects from his very real-World War II combat experiences into his outdoor interests for the impression it would make.

Heck, doesn’t every writer have to have some sort of an ego?

Here is a photo in which he sports a Mohawk hair-style, when writing on behalf of the Third Armored Division. Later he was known for painting his Model A beach buggies in an unorthodox dazzle of grey, green, yellow and purple camo pattern. And, as said, there was his customized, three-shot – “crude but effective”, in Hollywood parlance, autoloader for his upland bird hunting.

So, not by chance would he refer to upland guns in his books as “artillery”.

He wrote earnestly and instructively about hunting and fishing, but must have had a sense of humor, too.