Opening Day II -- Teal
After ringing in the season with Dove on the 1st, my friend, Tyler, and I watched the sun rise over the marsh for yesterday's teal opener. There was just enough water in the marsh to draw these little rockets and we were buzzed constantly during our short, morning hunt.
I used my Fishtail levered PH. This 1892 gun was shipped on Sept. 1st of that year, so I was helping it celebrate 130 years of good service. It's built on the #1 frame, weighs in at 7 lbs. 5 oz. and has lots of drop...but for some odd reason, I shoot it well. Need I say that it has beautiful 30 inch twist barrels? I went 3 for 3 including two long, left barrel shots at far crossers.
What a beautiful morning! The marsh wrens kept me company throughout our short hunt, my young friend retrieved our birds while I sat and watched (he thinks I'm infirm, and I don't do anything to dissuade him from the notion), and I got a "trophy" greenwing that I dropped in the sled on a long crossing shot. (And...we were dive-bombed by snipe constantly during the hunt. I will "look them up" later, as Gordon MacQuarrrie's Mr. President used to say.)
Ya don't get many mornings like this. Enjoy them while you can.
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"Doubtless the good Lord could have made a better game bird than bobwhite, and better country to hunt him in...but equally doubtless, he never did." -- Guy de la Valdene (from A Handful of Feathers )
"'I promise you,' he said, 'on my word of honor, I won't die on the opening of the bird season.'" -- Robert Ruark (from The Old Man and the Boy)
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