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February 27 to March 16, 1872, Fred Kimble hunted along the Sangamon River. In his 1879 revised edition of American Wild-fowl Shooting, J. W. Long recounts the expedition in his chapter on the history of choke bores, as follows:
“The next season I did not hunt; Fred had removed to Young America, now known as Monmouth, Ill., and there carried on the lumber business. In the latter part of the shooting season, the spring of ‘72, he took a short pleasure trip with a party of five others to the Sangamon River, and there made the score I have mentioned on page 180 of this book; and to show the superiority of the choke at long ranges (for nearly all the shooting was at ‘travelers’), when handled by a crack shot such as he, I will just add that the score of the entire party, Fred included, was 2760. The five other guns, used by good shots too, were all double-barrelled, and four of them breech-loaders. Comment is unnecessary.”
The score Long refers to above was cited in both the 1874 and 1879 editions of his book and appears as follows:
“I subjoin a memorandum of shooting done by a friend of the author, Mr. F. Kimble, a genuine duck-shooter, during the spring of 1872, all with a single-barrelled muzzle-loading gun, 9 gauge. Not over three ducks were killed at any one shot, and nearly all singly:
Feb. 27, killed 70 ducks.
Feb. 28, killed 74 ducks
Feb 29, killed 81 ducks
Mar. 1, killed 76 ducks
Mar. 2, killed 106 ducks
Mar. 3, killed 61 ducks
Mar. 4, didn’t shoot.
Mar. 5, killed 66 ducks.
Mar. 6, killed 107 ducks
Mar. 7, killed 57 ducks
Mar. 8, killed 65 ducks
Mar. 9, killed 82 ducks
Mar. 10, killed 60 ducks
Mar. 11, killed 72 ducks
Mar. 12, killed128 ducks
Mar. 13, didn’t shoot.
Mar. 14, killed 122 ducks.
Mar. 15, killed 70 ducks
Mar. 16, killed 68 ducks
Total ducks killed 1,365
Total 17 days’ shooting, 1,365 ducks, and 5 brant not included in memorandum. His ammunition gave out almost every day. Not expecting to find such a large amount of game, the party he was with took but little with them, and the ‘store keeper’ at the little town near by would order only a keg or so of powder at a time, and then would not sell it all to one person at any price, for fear of offending others.”
Just to recap, Fred Kimble bagged 1365 of the 2760 ducks taken by the entire party of six. And this with a single barrel muzzle loader, while the other five gentlemen all shot double barrels, four of them breach loaders.
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"Life is short and you're dead an awful long time." Destry L. Hoffard
"Oh Christ, just shoot the damn thing."
Destry L. Hoffard
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