[Chris Pope]

I much prefer hunting the uplands with friends rather than alone. But this week other family and work duties have called my 4 buddies home and for a few days my pups and I have the camp and coverts to ourselves. Today was special. I decided to follow a run of alders up a sweet stream. It was mid 40’s, the air was damp with a slight come and go breeze. The outdoors was as quiet as can be. The only noise was dog collar bells, sniffing and snorting sounds of our 2 Griffs as they worked the leaf covered muddy stream bottoms. And the bird dogs and bird Gods graced us with many points.
Quite unfortunately I left my bird vest back at camp. It has my ammo, spare layers of clothing and safety gear (compass, first aid for dogs, headlamp ect.) So I pulled out an old green worsted wool hunting coat that at least had a small game pocket and 2 shell pockets and we made do. I happened to have 11 rounds of RST 20 ga in the truck. Off we went. The pictures tell the rest. What a special day with pups “Arcas” and “Fish.” And yes, all 11 RST’s were put to use- some hit, some didn’t. Such a lucky and special day.