Quote:
Originally Posted by Milton C Starr
The big bore stuff definitely has a learning curve to it which I doubt most hunters of my generation will take interest in. I guess I feel a bit obligated to these old big guns because once their current caretakers pass I think the majority of them wont see the outside of a gun safe again. Any big gun I own I will carry them in the field if hulls are hard to come by in the future I will buy brass ones if plastic wads follow suit I will load fiber if lead goes away I will eat the cost and shoot bismuth. I just turned 29 recently and hope to carry the big bores for at least a couple decades in the field.
I could see acquiring a few more books such as this one. In one of the sketches im 99% sure it is of a LC Smith the side plates look identical to one. He mentions shooting shore birds in Cape Cod during the summer, What birds would these have been ?
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There were many varieties of birds that were hunted without season or limit -- dowitchers, sandpipers, snipe, willets, etc. As an aside, plover on toast was fine dining, indeed. I saw a recipe for greater yellow legs in an old (mid-19th C.) hunting book. In Kansas, meadowlarks were shot, as were robins. In our recent Parker Pages there's an account of eating stew made with redwing blackbirds. Snipe was one of the more common targets until their numbers dropped so much that the season was closed. It's hard to imaging just how much wildlife there was in America, and how inexhaustible it seemed at the time.
I'm really glad to see you take up the banner for those old big bore guns, Milton. Keep up the good work!