Abby for those who didn't know her was the sweetest most lovable Golden Retriever one could imagine. My first dog that I got at the ripe of age of 45 years old. A better dog by far then I was a trainer and she hunted with me from Montana to Maine. Smart as a whip and a amazing retriever and driven to hunt for me. We had some great years together.
In homage to her I decided when she was 9 years old that I wanted to have a gun made up for her with her likeness on the bottom, and with engraving of ducks, pheasants, grouse, woodcock etc on the gun as she and I hunted all of those birds together.
The gun of choice was a Fox Sterlingworth ejector 12 gauge as I wanted a gun that I could pretty much hunt anything with. Because of lead times and such, I didn't get the gun finished until Abby was 12 years old. We had one good hunt a local preserve with the gun and it was a fun fun day. Old dogs day is what I called it as she had slowed down a lot, but the desire was still very strong.
After Abby passed I decided I was going to take it turkey hunting every year sometime during the season and in the right place in the right situation I could hopefully get a bird with the Abby Gun. That first spring I was able to take a Jake with the Abby Gun and the following year a spring gobbler. Last year was flat out tough. Only was able to shoot one Jake with my 20 gauge and the Abby Gun never got taken out of the safe.
The other night I dug it out of the safe and located a half box of RST Pheasant loads and dug 3 shells out of the box and put the gun in the car. The following morning at 5 am I was running down the road for the farm. At 6 am I had my decoy out in the same winter wheat field where I shot a nice bird the day before. I'd seen a lot of different birds in that field this spring and was hopeful one might come in close. I set the decoy out at 20 yards and settled in.
Daylight broke and there was few gobbles here and there, but nothing ventured into the winter wheat field. Finally at about 9 or so I caught movement and two Jakes entered the field and made a beeline for the decoy. They got a pass as I wanted a mature gobbler. They left and then another Jake wandered in and he also got a pass. I'd continue to call every 15 minutes or so and just watch and listen. Had a few deer wander by and they went over and inspected the decoy and found it rather boring and fed for a while and left.
Finally at 1030 or so I caught a movement to my left and there at 15 yards was the gobbler. Heading on a rope towards the decoy. He went behind a small cedar bush and I was able to raise the gun silently and get it to my shoulder. As he cleared the bush I lined up his neck with the open barrel and the Abby Gun barked. Down he went in a heap.
Ran over and did the head stand thing and it was over. Bird was a 3 year old weighing 21 lbs with nice spurs and a nice beard. Was a great morning indeed. Rolling the Abby gun over and rubbed her engraving on the bottom of the receiver. Job well done indeed and for just a second she was back with me in the field again one more time.
04-19-2017, 08:26 AM
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