Tough Going in Montana
 

Came to my usual places in Big Sky Country in search of Hungarian partridge and Sharptails. Try as I could in all my good places I only found sage grouse and few of them.

So here are some photos. Big sky country and prairie grouse.

Can’t miss the Miners Club .

Can’t miss Friday night prime rib at Harry’s Place in Lewistown.
South of the Snowys and tens of thousands of acres to walk.

Ingomar by the Musselshell and the famous Jersey Lilly bar and cafe.

Along the high ridge still looking for Sharptails.

Along comes a 1948 Packard rescued from the crusher. Lots of patina and the couple that owns it is from western Montana visiting every county in the state.

We hunted in 32 degrees , blowing snow and wind.

Off to Minnesota tomorrow and chasing ruffs up north . The dogs are loving hunting every day.

And for Miss Lefever, I used a Lefever EE in 16 ga, 1906 with Krupp barrels.

Once again great pic's Bruce !

I have a friend who is hunting in Northern Montana now. He goes out for 5 weeks every year and he reported the same thing. By his guesstimate he figures the birds were down by as much as half possibly in places. Still looks like a good place to be, nice pics !

Doc looks good. Tell him I said hi. Fielder looks all grown up. Good luck on the next leg.

Excellent times! Great photos too!!

It must be a living hell out there Bruce. I would love to have that '48 Packard coupe to restore! When I was in college I worked summers on a ranch/riding camp whose original owners loved Packards and, like many rural types, never disposed of any of them when they quit running. There was a huge barn on the ranch and on the ground floor of it they had parked 3 vintage-1940s Packards, all 4-door luxury models, leaving one outside to the weather for lack of room inside for other harvesting equipment. The 3 inside were in excellent condition, the one outside not so much. I still remember the smell of the cloth upholstered seats of those inside the barn.

:) Very nice!! I hope it's shooting good for you! I recently got a 16ga H grade Lefever, and have enjoyed it on sporting clays.

Sara

Back in 1985 my brother in law's father had a black Packard identical to the '48 shown. It just sat in their back yard because of some issue with the title. I asked him to sell it to me several times and he agreed but, unfortunately, he passed away before we could get it done. That car was black with the original mohair interior and was pretty crispy inside. The outside needed compound and polish but was sound. The last time I saw that car it was covered in superficial rust and had not been moved in 20 years.

my dad was in the junkyard business when i was 15 year old..he bought a running 48 packard for 5.00 dollars my dad told me to put a old car tire inside it and set fire to it...we cut it up for scrap iron..the old car just needed gas when we cut her up..my brother and i put hundreds of the old cars to their graves....this was 1959....charlie