That's how I started more than fifty years ago. I would hunt pheasants in the fields and cornfields that bordered the creek that ran by our woodlot. Every 50 or 100 yards I would swing back to the creek and would often jump blacks, mallards, woodies or whatever would be using the creek. I shot a duck once when I was thirteen or fourteen about a week before duck season opened. I knew I would be in trouble if I brought it home... Dad was a stickler for the law! So I plucked it and cut off the head and feet and totally dressed it and brought it home. When Dad saw it he asked "What the heck is that?" I told him it was a crow.... He said "Well, you know the rule... whatever you kill, you eat." So we cooked it up and had it that evening. Dad said (with a smirk) "That's the best tasting crow I've ever had!" Somehow he knew it wasn't a crow but he didn't let on.
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"I'm a Setter man.
Not because I think they're better than the other breeds,
but because I'm a romantic - stuck on tradition - and to me, a Setter just "belongs" in the grouse picture."
George King, "That's Ruff", 2010 - a timeless classic.
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