10 Gauge Pheasant Hunt

[Dennis]

On November 10th my brother, Dan,and I decided to spend the day hunting pheasants on a pay type hunt to celebrate the 238th birthday of the Marine Corps. We decided to use our hammer 10 gauge Parkers with me using a top lever made in 1884 and Dan using a lifter made in 1882. We had shot clay targets with them before but not hunted game. We also had never hunted with hammer guns before. It was to be a fun filled lesson for us.

We were both using RST shells loaded with 1 1/4 ounces of 7 1/2 shot. We had used 7 1/2 in the past and had no problems at all. The preserve owner told us he had bigger pheasants this year and wilder birds as well. Though we had a great time we were not used to the hammer guns nor the weight of them. Needless to say we did not shoot as well as we normally would. We did kill some birds with the 10 gauges but later in the morning we switched guns to others we seldom use. Dan switched to a Winchester Model 23 and I switched to a Parker Brothers PH grade with Twist barrels. I had not fired it before and wanted to get it blooded. We ended up with 6 birds between us which is just fine.

Dennis