[Old and Reliable]

Just one final thought, as I consider most all of the gents who have posted herein to be Parker friends--we don't want to see our PGCA Forum turn into the aparent nastiness if not downright rudeness we can see on other double gun oriented (but not paid membership) forums. No good can come of that.

I read with great interest Calvin's post and his comment about 'excuses" being a lot like noses, we all seem to have one. This can surface just as well in a bowling alley on league night, on a 18 hole golf course, as well as on a SC, skeet or trap field.

It's human nature to want to make every shot count, and especially on the game birds we hunt in season, we all want clean kills and no cripples to escape and feed the "Airborne Prize Patrols" either.

So if we miss clean or pull feathers from a hauling-bass Rooster in a heavy wind, and we are using a shotgun with which we are quite familiar, we wonder "Howcome"--and think perhaps about choke or shotload changes. No man hits 100% of what he shoots at with any shotgun, just as you don't sit all night at the poker table and hit full houses and four of a kind hands one after the other-

The other day I was out on a river after late season Geese- M12 3" and Federal steel BB's- four came banking around the bend, and flared, I shot about three neck lengths ahead of the lead bird (est 25 yard overhead shot, he never slowed down a hair- but the third bird in the formation shuddered in mid-flight and I hit him dead center with the second shot- a lesson to be learned every time we venture afield. My waterfowling mentor as a lad, besides my Grandfather, father and uncles- shot a 30" Full M1897 Pigeon Grade for everything, including box pigeons for dinero (but not Capt. Harold Money, alas) one told me that if you get one dead in hand duck for every three shells, you are way above average (including finishing crips) and one mallard for two shells- you are in the expert ranks.