Kids' first birds
My two youngest grandsons came from MD for Thanksgiving. For added activity, I put 3 pheasants out in the 30 acres of CRP behind the house. The boys, ages 13 and 10, had shot at hand thrown targets once before. We used my open choked VH 12 with 1&1/4 oz. of 7.5 shot, a stout load but they are "big boys" and there was a better chance for a hit. Well, Pete, the pointer, found the first bird and I gave Garrett, 13, who was first gunner a shell for the right barrel, and I flushed the bird. The boy shouldered the gun and as the bird was rapidly gaining distance, I told him to shoot. He did, and the bird folded at about 45 yards; should have seen the look on his face. Pete retrieved the bird and it was James', 10, turn. After about 15 minutes, Pete located another bird and as we approached from about 20 yards, the bird blew out and I hadn't given James a shell yet. The bird flew about 170 yards to the wood line and landed in a tree. We moved toward the tree and at about 40 yards, I gave James a shell. We carefully moved in another 10 yards or so and I told the boy to go ahead and shoot. He did and the bird flew about 20 yards and dropped dead and the awkwardly held gun just about put James on his butt. It was a more successful hunt than I had expected and we had two proud boys. Each got his first pheasant, and with a 100+ year old Parker to boot.
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