JohnBT,
I appreciate the compliment.
I don't shoot like I used to, in fact , shotgunning is not about me, it is about others, guess it always has been.
Not pulled the trigger on a live shell in a spell, but I tote a .410 single shot, and assist some folks with it. Last shotgun I actually fired was a kid sized, .410 single shot, Neon Yellow with Tie-Dye - it will even light up under a Blacklight. I look good using this thing. Seems to me it shoots better with Jimi Hendrix or Doors with Van Morrison being played...
"He's a hard one" folks say about me. I quit trying to figure me out when I got as tall as kitchen table. Mentors...well I miss 'em.
Just a shotgun, the real deal is the one using it. Never bothered me or anyone else to shoot a high dollar shotgun, or a old single shot.
Webley & Scott 28gauge. I like this gun, wish I had one. Old boy said, "got 4 of these, use one, we are, gotta Respect the Quail like Ruark said".
We did, three of us , him, his wife, and myself, with high dollar dogs, using them Webley's.
Deal is, only thing that that remains of a person - is that which don't burn.
Meaning, everything can be destroyed, all that is left is the memories. Be a shame to not shoot a nice gun, enjoy, respect, and use it. Even if that gun burns up, somewhere, someone will pass on the story of a person using that gun...
I have a rebel streak, I had some Mentors , ladies and gents, and well...remember that rebel streak?
Just seemed right for a Mentor to show up, his truck with blue smoke trailing. Old Tuff-Nuts a bit faded, mud covering them scuffed boots. His H&R Topper fell out of - well it probably was a gun case at one time. He'd get laughed at behind his back, snickers after he walked by.
That was not a wad of chewing tobacco in his bib, that was cash money.
Others were quiet, playing dumb, in the shadows - waiting.
Money put down, and he would head out to do what he come to do. He did not miss, he was smooth, fluid, no wasted motion. Others on the Trap line a bit rattled, upset, must be needing to mess with gun fit again, shoulda bought that new shotgun , shoulda , coulda, woulda on hardware.
I liked the smell of them old cigar boxes, money, and more of it than the old box had put in it at the strart. I liked that old truck, his dog, even the way the truck sounded when he shifted gears on the column.
We'd be grinning...puff of blue smoke trailing as we left...
I started with Skeet, never got into trap, I have, just...skeet more like bird hunting, and there were them fellers teaching me defensive uses, Low 7 like a Tueller Drill - just we didn't know Tueller, or he had a drill named after him back in the day.
I'd shoot my nice guns , nice for me anyway. Mentors with money, friends I shot with "Our Kind" and such , would let me use a real nice high dollar gun.
I never forgot how to put candle wax, or electrical tape on a shotgun shell reloaded two times too many. My old gun falling out of a gun case, zipper broke, and string broke. Never forgot how to "forget to take off " a safety, when I wanted to shoot a practice shot round...fumbling, dropping shells, asking which bird was come out from what house and when...
I'd see my kind, some Mentors, and a cigar box that was not supposed to be there. Sometimes we squadded up together, sometimes they be using a nice gun, even a high dollar gun and me being the dumb poor brat that had not business on a field , dressed like I was, with that ugly gun in my hands...had a damn ponytail and what was with that yellow flag with a snake on it? [Gadsen]
They never let me forget when I was a wee brat me saying " I can run'em"
I'd fumble and drop shells ,I had permission to shoot two, if I could get the gun loaded...
I'd get two shots fired...be the lead off, grin at my kind, doing the pulling.
Not even call for bird, my game, my way...our way
"Run'em young 'un".
"We done got beat by a 28ga pump gun".
"A lot of damn gall using a SX1 against guns like ours"
"Only an idiot would shoot a JC Higgins with mud still on the stock"
"Idiot? he beat our butts and is in the shoot off, we ain't".
Always the shooter - not the shooting iron. Don't mean a person cannot have a real nice shooting iron.
"That is the most pitiful excuse for a gun case I ever did see"
"Yeah, ain't it, dug it out of trash can, hand me some rawhide cord and let me see if this Perazzi can be tied in good enough...".
"Where is the single shot?"
"In the Browning gun case I think?"
"Where is the Citori?"
"Sitting on top of the fridge, had raccoons getting into cans last night".
How raised - what you do.
My next hankerings are a Stevens 311 in 20 ga, and learning about Black powder shot guns.
I am on this "going backwards" kick.