I have a Dickson 28 gauge (box lock) that has been my go-to grouse gun for almost 40 years. Jack Rowe made the stock for it after I broke the (too short) original falling down an icy bluff after Iowa grouse one winter. It fits me to a "T" and brings birds down if I can see them. Mr. Rowe, bless his soul, fussed at me for breaking the original stock ("You shouldn't be allowed to have a nice gun like that!" He said. There were stampings on the gun that he recognized and claimed to know the individual who actually made the gun!).
However, I always take a couple more (don't we all!?) to our cabin for the two-weeks of heaven we experience in Northern Minnesota. Among the guns I know I'll take is one of a very few DH 16s with straight-hand stock and splinter forend and 26 inch barrels ever made (the best configuration for a grouse gun as far as I'm concerned, and the configuration of my Dickson). A Fox XE 16 will also make the trip, along with a Parker GH 10 bore that I hope to walk up a few ducks with during the "down times."
Gosh, just writing about it and reading these posts makes me excited for the last two weeks of October.
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"Doubtless the good Lord could have made a better game bird than bobwhite, and better country to hunt him in...but equally doubtless, he never did." -- Guy de la Valdene (from A Handful of Feathers )
"'I promise you,' he said, 'on my word of honor, I won't die on the opening of the bird season.'" -- Robert Ruark (from The Old Man and the Boy)
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