A Parker Miracle: Blooding a BHE 20

[mobirdhunter]

I'd been carrying my "new" BHE 20 (courtesy of a good PGCA friend) for a couple of weeks waiting for the right time and place to fire its first shots. I'll admit that for me the first shot fired from a special gun is a reverent occasion, requiring the right place and time. We'd been saving a farm for just the right weather, and after a spate of gloomy days, the weatherman got the forecast wrong and the sun came out. We headed South to Carroll County, Missouri for a farm that seldom lets us down.

The covey we found, trailed by Rill down a dry creek bed, flushed wild in thin cover, as every self-respecting bevy will during the late season. We could not see their flight path and so ventured into the heavy big bluestem cover knowing our work was cut out for us (or at least Rill's was).

Rill found a couple of singles that offered no shots, and I bumped one into an easy straight away shot that I did not take, wanting this special shot to be over a point by our puppy. So, when Rill pointed again, I was feeling the weight of the moment as I approached. The bird went out behind me, close, and as I twisted to shoot, I lost my footing and stumbled just at the moment of pulling the trigger. Another bird went out at the shot in the other direction, distracting me from watching the first bird. I consigned myself to the miss, and we continued our search for more singles. Finding none, Elaine suggested we head back for the bird I shot at, she having marked it down in a fence row. Thinking we might get a second chance at it, we steered Rill back and she soon went on point. As I walked in to flush the bird, it jumped up and tried to run, but Rill corralled it after she and I made like the Keystone Kops trying to catch the bird. I won't share Elaine's video of this.

So, my Parker miracle came to be. I hit that bird, but never would have recovered it without Elaine's sharp eye and Rill's keen nose (and a few embarrassing moments where an old man played chase with dog and bird). Gun blooded. Mission accomplished.

The gun, written about beautifully by the good Mr. Roberts of Indiana in a recent Parker Pages article, is characterized by the 1904-era engraving I love so much, and sports a straight hand and splinter with some of the best wood on any Parker I'll ever own. Nice high dimensions, 30 inch "prairie barrels" choked just right for Missouri Bobs over points are just what the doctor ordered for our North Missouri covers.

Thank goodness for, and many thanks to, my great friends of the PGCA.

Photos:

1. We've lost too much good quail land to hunt, but this farm is still one of the last, best places.

2. Elaine managed to catch my "first shot" bird as it sped by against the blue Missouri sky. My shot was fired as I stumbled and the bird just left the camera's viewfinder.

3. A cold, but happy hunter with his Parker miracle bird, courtesy of his wife and dog (who is busy still looking for singles in the background).

4. & 5. This beautiful example of what I think might be the best Parker grade was one of a batch of similar guns ordered by a wealthy insurance executive. Just by chance, my good friend and fellow PGCA member, Dean Weber, has another of the guns ordered along with mine. I got to see and hold his -- a beautiful Damascus barreled 16 -- on a recent grouse hunt with Dean. Someday I hope to reunite the guns on the Prairie.