Year's End Ups and Downs
 

This has been a season of peaks and valleys as far as finding birds is concerned. It's also been marked by what we used to refer to in the 1970s as "progress," a euphemism for the destruction of cover.

I blooded two guns over the course of 2021's last three days' hunting, two good bookend hunts with a visit to devastated cover on the middle day.

I took a double on quail and two more birds from the 4 coveys Aspen found with me using my AH 16 (as I posted earlier), and then on New Year's Eve, a mild day before a strong winter storm, I used my new GHE 0 frame 16 to take a brace of wild Bobs.

Currently the computer in the house with 8" of snow on the ground and temperatures 10 degrees and plummeting. We'll be sitting things out for several days at least. Time in the waining days of the season, or the year, is precious. I hope everyone who still has some season left enjoys good conditions and abundant birds -- not the case here in North Missouri.

Photos:

1. A single gets up close (it's the blur just in front of me). The dark spot to the left and below the bird is Aspen. He had some nice bird work on this day, and is making good progress while Alder is laid up with a leg issue.

2 If you look closely at this photo, a "still" from a video Elaine shot, you'll see the second bird of a double taken with my AH 16. I've had this gun since 2017 and this was its first outing. It performed well, taking 4 birds with 5 shots -- all over points -- from 4 coveys of wild Bobs on a farm with "for sale" signs posted. I assume this is the last season I will hunt this wonderful quail farm.

3. A 1921 0-frame GHE after its first outing. It's choked M/F, so spreader loads worked well, taking two birds with 3 shots, a good average for my often average shooting.

4. The AH 16 (again). I love this gun.

That first picture kinda has that James River Basin area look to it :cool:

what kind of shells were you using they look like old paper hull....nice hunting ground....charlie

One of the saddest sights I know, a beautiful farm with a for sale sign posted on it.

Craig, I grew up on the Peninsula between the James and York Rivers, and I quail hunted on paper company land in the piedmont in my youth, so I can see the similarities you mention. Trust me, though, it's only the photo that makes it look that way. This part of the Mid-West is not at all like VA...except that there are quail here (and some hold-out quail hunters).

Charlie, those are indeed old paper shells, but I was using RSTs and the shells in the photos were used only as props. Every so often I do use some of my old shells. They sure smell like they did in my youth when fired. I can vividly remember the smell after a shot, almost always while squirrel hunting, when I was accompanying my Pop in coastal Virginia. 50-plus years ago, and I can still smell those paper shells. Thankfully, the bulldozers and for sale signs can't take those memories away.

You and Elaine make up quite the pair, her photo's are so good Garry, and I always look forward to your excursions and pictures.

Thanks, Ed. I'll pass on your nice comments to Elaine. (BTW, my back issue is getting somewhat better. I was even able to shovel a little snow today...and a little snow shoveling is enough for me!:))

I used to scoff at what some of the no longer with us used to say about the Old Dominion this or the Old Dominion that , and the older I get the more I find myself doing the same thing . I guess after you’ve been somewhere half a century or more it’s kinda ingrained in you . :cool:

I'm still proud to say I'm a Virginian, but I have not been home in quite some time. I know things change, but I have lots of good memories of my years there. I know we scoff at history and many work hard to revise it. In some cases it's probably good to do, but there's no doubt Virginians helped to make this country.