Great to be back

[Tom Flanigan]

I am gratified by the responses I received after I returned to the site after a long absence. It was great to hear from Kevin, Bill, Dean, Drew and others.
To respond to Kevin’s question, I am still living in Maryland but I plan to retire in the spring and then sell the house. I have a home in Pawling, NY, my home town. I plan to move back there full time when the Maryland house sells. That is where I’ll spend the rest of my years gunning my old childhood haunts.
I started back hunting in Pawling last year. All the old magic is still there and I hunt coverts that I hunted in my childhood and that my grandfather hunted before me. My hunting grounds are part of large estates and the 20 acres zoning in those areas have prevented some of the landowners from selling off parcels for development. There is still a lot of old blood in Pawling. My primary grouse coverts are still owned by the same family who owned the property when my grandfather hunted there starting in 1916. I remain close with that family. The land is selectively logged every 10 years which maintains the second growth and fox grapes that provides consistent gunning.
Below is a picture of some of my Pawling birds with a 16 bore high grade Smith. I’m not particularly partial to Smith guns but this one is a lightweight 16 bore and is cylinder in both barrels. An idiot cut the barrels from 30” to 26”, which worked out well for me. I hunt grouse with every bore gun including a 28 bore Holland, but day in and day out, there is nothing that can touch a 16 bore cylinder gun shooting an ounce of #9 shot. In my opinion, the 16 bore is the best for grouse when you are serious about getting the maximum number of birds for shots fired. I like playing with other guns but first fill the freezer with my 16 bore Smith.