The neighboring dairy farmer, Roy, and his hunting pal, Bill, are avid turkey and deer hunters and I always check with Roy the night before I plan to hunt between camp and his farm.
He said that they had been watching two longbeards that hang together all the time... in fact, they are seldom more than fifteen feet apart at any time... and Roy and Bill call them the "Twins".
Roy told me that he and Bill would be hunting the edges of the woods and harvested cornfield where I shot my first longbeard back in '04 that I wrote about in "A Parker-Perfect Morning" in Parker Pages back then.
I wished them luck and told them I would be hunting the corner about 400 yards below them in the edge of the next cornfield.
After Cam and I had vacated the first blind and had gone back to camp to grab a bite and head out again, we were on our way to the next area to hunt when we heard a BLAM!.... I told Cam that Roy or Bill had got a Longbeard... (they don't shoot jakes) and I was delighted for their luck!
We found out a bit later when Roy walked up from the woods that the Twins had come in with about eight or ten hens and were feeding in the cut cornfield about fifty or sixty yards out. Roy had his sight on what looked like the bigger of the two, but they were so close together and in full-strut showing off to each other, Roy decided to wait a bit until their heads were lined up... Yup, you guessed it! Two longbeards with one fifty-yard shot with his pumpgun.
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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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