Epilogue: At dawn I was standing along an irrigation system in 200 acre freshly picked corn, a cool breeze from the north, temps in the mid-50’s and not a cloud in the sky. Perfect! Took three before the birds stopped moving. Moved to another field and took two more before moving again. That third field was probably 300 acres next to a grain elevator. Every time a grain truck drove back to the elevator flocks of birds flew over the field. It was crazy – took ten more birds and limited out about 1030. I really did not expect the hundreds of acres of picked corn fields nor did I expect to be sitting on a bucket in the middle of fields with no cover, whatsoever. Everyone else was shooting 12’s but did not feel under gunned with my tightly choked 20 (.041/.042) DHE. Probably better to have too much choke than too little when shooting on windy open fields. The LOP is a little short for me so it took a some time for me to get into the groove but when I did birds fell.
When we wrapped up we walked back to the truck. Ten guys, camo t-shirts, camo cargo pants and camo ball caps. Plenty of chew, ever one of them had that southern Indiana “twang”. Farmers, a local doctor, a judge, three engineers and me; a slice of Americana and there was something very right about it. No one stood out, you couldn’t pick out who was who. I really enjoyed being there.
In time I’ll probably forget most of the details from the hunt, but I doubt I forget the sunrise. Born and raised in Indiana, I’ll always feel at home watching the sun rise (or set) over a cornfield and the company of a good friend or two.
Cheers,
JDG
09-03-2010, 01:10 PM
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