The Old Fart & The Doves.

[sm]

Subtitled: Breaking All The Rules
Sub-Subtiltled :


15 bird limit - required me using 21 shells. *shrug* I'll take it.

I Finally renewed my Combo Hunting & Fishing License , I was supposed to renew it in April. *shrug* Okay , I now have a Sept. renewal date.

I wasn't planning on going Dove Hunting, I really wasn't. I used to never miss the Opener, Southern Tradition and all. Seems though if one is older , and chooses to attend College, folks don't have much to do with you. Then some folks moved off, some up and died on me...

Then I got soured with the fact , if a person doesn't have all the latest , greatest, guns, ammo, and camo gear for hunting they are a complete idiot. Similar mindset for "Serious Situations. Basically - I have been pissed.

Fact is - I have been enjoying correspondence with a member of this forum - via PM and Email - that lives in ANOTHER COUNTRY. He had his butt chewed out about his questions about , guns, loadings, for hunting and HD. Well - I am still really pissed about the way WE members treated him. HIS Country's Gun Laws , Restrictions, Prices....870 Express is IIRC $ 800 US . A box of target loads is $8 and reloading is - whoa, talk about expensive and restricted...

Member - you know who you are. Keep quiet please, I have a right to be pissed and express it.

Actually, I still am pissed , I thought "WE" were all in this "Thing" together. "WE" being shooters, and the "Thing" being responsible firearm ownership.

Now I haven't shot a regular round of Skeet in quite awhile. I have some eye problems I'm dealing with. The other day I had a door open into injury I had a little while back. I'm not 100%.

I have probably spilled more shot than some folks have shot. I have probably sent more shot toward pattern boards , than some have sent downrange period. Just stating facts.


I haven't been invited to Hunt. So I went all by my rebel self. I had a purpose , a misson , a point to make.

I had a NIB Remington 870. Holding onto it until he gets back into town. Bascially , he bought a Sport's Academy $199 870 Express and less the $25 rebate he has a $174 and tax in a new gun. He had to run out of town , when he gets back he will have the fit tweaked to him. Have me give him some pointers. ( like I'm supposed to know something)

A new H&R Pardner Single shot .410 with wood furniture and fixed full choke, is his as well..."Feel free to shoot them". I want one of these myself - pure fun, all the reason I need...I want one in 28 ga...really really bad.

The 870, I took it out of the box , put it together , made sure the factory Mod choke was snug, it had the plug- and that was it.

AS a rule - I use a Skeet Choke or IC for birds...Adapt , Overcome, Improvise. I grew up with fixed choked guns. I ain't a Choke Spinner - don't ever plan on being one either. I did grow up learning how to pattern a gun , stacking loads...but that is old fashioned , antiquated,and....

Assortment of shells. I can't recall exactly , I think the Peter's Hulls I loaded up with #8 chilled shot. The slip of paper inside the Maryland Club Coffee can - I guess the yellowed tape gave way and the writing faded too bad. I had some new AA Target loads, Found some New Fioccchi ( lavendar hulls)Target loads- not sure what I had reloaded in old lavendar hulls , most likely a target load with 452AA.

The .410 , I found some new 3 " Fiocchis, some skeet loads and some o-l-d reloads...name a color , forget how many times reloaded , some had candlewax on the crimp.

I normally wear my LLBean rubber sole boots, kahki shirt, jeans and tote a pc of burlap. I wore my old white tennis shoes, really faded jeans, a button down oxford shirt that is kahki, with blue stripes with smaller red stripes. I wore a bandana as always. I wore the faded gray one - it was handy.

I sat on a white plasic paint bucket, When I wasn't standing and milling around- I was smoking, drinking coffee from a steel travel mug , munching on honey buns and jerkey.

I can't see worth a flip without my new glasses and perscription ; I was wearing my old Bushnell Aviator clear shooting glasses. Folks raise their head s to see "over" the top of rims. "Raise your head this much - you miss the target this much downrange. Hence the reason this OLD FART don't have the "cool" shooting glassses. Sigh- I have to wait on MY Eye Doc...Zeiss, Decot's Hi-Wide, or Randalls with 'script it seems to be in order - finally.

Thank goodness I can open a bad of Jerky by feel ....okay I cheated....just cut the sucker with a knife....does anyone really use the re-seal feature anyway?

I started to come home after I pulled the trigger the first time. Sitting on the bucket with the Single shot in hand - "you know maybe a drop of oil on the hinge wouldn't hurt". So I had a small bottle some special eye drops had come in; refilled with Kleenbore Formula 3 in the truck. I dunno, I've kept one ( tried to ) for as long as I can remember. I couldn't find the empty
Carmex lip balm container re- filled with RIG , It was in the ashtray I discovered on the way home.

So I'm walking back to my white bucket when two doves come toward me ( okay I hoping it was two -or my eyes are really screwed) - I dropped a faded blue Peters hull in - started behind, blocked them out, kept pulling and slapped the trigger. I caught one , the other one I had to take 3 friggin steps and bend over. Yep a double with a .410. Yep - .410 single shots suck all right.

Ironically - I went 6 birds with 5 shells in the .410. My misses were with the 12 bore. The lighting changed , my left eye was watering - perceptions were off - or I flat missed. Maybe I flat missed being a Old Fart and all...

I tried Trappers deal on cleaning the birds, I need to practice it a bit. Might have helped if I'd put my glasses on. I put my glasses on and used my old yellow handled Case Trapper, with the Vanadium blades - because I wanted to. I even used my Kershaw Leek - because I wanted to. Basically I pick the breast and plop it out. I used the knives for the wings. I know a fella that ties flies, and he uses the feathers.

Just a piece of property , no other hunters, no fields that had planted Sunflower, milo or nothing. I just went out. Took two bone stock guns, I had never patterned - just gut instinct on what "might" work, just wore what I wore to College yesterday - except for the old pair of tennis shoes...

Focused on Gray missles and Just shot the darn guns.

No - I didn't clean the guns either. I didn't to start out with cleaning them so why..
I did wipe them off , and put them back in the box like came tho. Fella should pick these up this weekend - he'll clean them - maybe. Most likely he'll let the gunsmith clean 'em when he takes them by for fitting. He can have the moleskin I slapped on the 870 - I still think the moleskin gives a wood stock character tho'.

Now I did stop at a place on the way home. I saw $40k vehicles, and you name the gear and it was "being modeled" . I heard folks "educating" other folks about how fast "that" gun cycled " they use it on SWAT Teams you know"...."got me 8 birds ( as he grabs another 3 boxes of shells) I should have bought another 4 box value pak"....

I saw a Grandpa, his son, the grandson, the grandaughter, Overalls, jeans, olive or Kahki work shirts, rubber bottom LL Beans boots on the kids - damn - I was grinning.

Seems the model 12 spoke for Grandpa, Ithaca 37 for the son. Now Grandson used a 1100 in 20 ga. Grandaughter - 10 y/o , used a 28 ga single shot. " I got 4 birds , then PaPaw helped". I grinned at PaPaw and l bent down , whisperd to the little girl and handed her a package of Jerkey. Eyes got big " Really! she said.

PaPaw and I laughed . Seems he kinda likes shooting a single shot too....he felt embarrassed about not sharing the Jekey tip with that Grandaughter...." I bet she gets 6 birds tomorrow with Jerkey" he said. I'm betting she gets 7

 

[Okiecruffler]

It's times like these

and stories like yours, that make me miss hunting. As a teen I loved dove hunting, you could find me and my little brittany in the treelines long after everyone else had moved on to other game and the birds had moved on to other states. I even had a dedicated dove gun, a 20g Mossberg bolt action. Not sure why, but it just seemed to work better than anything else I tried (yes, even my beloved 311). It probably had something to do with the super light loads of 7 1/2 I was using. Now the dog is gone, the Mossy is gone, and there are houses as far as the eye can see where the old dove field used to be. Kinda makes a fella sad.

 

[TrapperReady]

Sounds good to me, Steve.

I'm heading out tomorrow. It's gonna have to be some state land, which I've pheasant-hunted on in the past. I'll be surprised if I don't see some doves.

I'll be using that 16ga Winchester Model 12, with the 7/8oz loads of #7. I can't tell you how tough it's been to keep from breaking down and picking up a Model 42, especially with all this .410 talk.

It's been pretty warm here, so I'm planning on bringing a small cooler (which doubles as a seat quite nicely) with a bag of ice and a thermos full of coffee. And jerky, of course. I still haven't decided if the dog gets to come with. He probably will. It's not like he'll be useful for retreiving or anything, but at least he can keep me company while I'm waiting. He doesn't like the peppermints, but maybe I need to get another bag of jerky.

Anyway, however things turn out, it'll just be plain nice to get out in the field for a bit.

Thanks for the report!

 

[Dave McCracken]

Thanks, it felt like I was there.

Stories like this, sm, may make me rethink my attitude on the 410 on game.

I took a couple hours today and headed out to a place where I thought I could pick up a few doves as in days of yesteryear. No luck, what had been a field last time I was down that road was now a subdivision. Not wildlife habitat, Yuppie habitat.

Next to it was a shelter belt I hunted squirrels in back then. I loaded up three high brass 6s into Frankenstein and eased into the trees, eyes scanning the ground and the canopy.

MD moved up the opening day of Squirrel season a full month this year. I could have limited out in an hour, but all I saw were young of year.By October,they'll be bigger and fatter after another month of hickory nuts, beech nuts and red oak acorns. So, I just slipped along a game trail and enjoyed the sights. As usual, the hickory nuts were the first to ripen, but not even starting to drop yet.

A fox or coon had left a territorial marker on top of a down log. Old rubs at the edge of the trees and some dung in the trail let me know the deer were still here, though the bones just off the road told me they still didn't understand cars coming off 95.

As I sat there I thought of Pop saying something about bigger game populations come and go but the squirrel woods will always be there. On the way home, I thought about zeroing in the little 45 cal muzzleloader here with patched round balls and trying it out the old fashioned way in those woods a month or so from now.

I wonder if 6 generations of PA hill folks would understand....

 

[sm]

Yep I understand.
I have a cousin , she and her husband have a new house, in a new area. Near this area, a new WM is being built.

We used to have quail , I used to shoot one covey about where their house is. The WM is on top of a pond , used to be anyway, Ducks and doves taken ....not to mention the deer and other small game. It is where I used to go parking with a brunette as well...

"They took away my quail - and put in a Chenal Country club" . I wonder if I wrote a book if that'd work for a title?.

I'm getting to an age - another dimension where I better appreciate my mentors of yesteryear. Sad part - folks are not passing "stuff" forward , like they used to.

Someday - folks are going to wonder "what happened?". They are going to finally learn to appreciate fundamentals, skills, respect , honesty, integrity....gonna wish they had Blue and Wood firearms.

Speaking of which *wink* This old reprobate ( forget Curmudgeon , I'm using Old Fuff as a role model now....he he)

I took that antiquated , bone stock, 870 express and "piddled" . Using some "old" loadings in slugs and buckshot....remember factory Mod screw in choke [ and we all know how I prefer the external Knurled Chokes]...

Fed / Win 9 pellet 00 - all nine pellets on a 9" paper plate. Fed a bit tighter.

Fed /Win slugs, I went 5 /5 hitting a 1# coffee can at 50 steps. My stride is such that is right at 50 yds. I went 4/5 when I out to 75 steps. I went over the top on first shot....raised my head to see "over my perscription glass frames.

I kept 4 rds of Fed .410 slugs in a group inside a pack of smokes at 25 steps. Kentucky windage took me 2 attempts - at 75yds - I hit the 1 #coffee can 5/5.

This is for Old Fuff , and Mr Jones . Using my 1928 Det. Spl , some 20 year old 158 gr LSWC , I kept 12 rds inside the size of pack of smokes from 5 yds out to 15 steps. Still hit the 1# coffee can at 35 steps.

I did the same with a Model 36 , bluing is well worn....the rubber grips don't fit me , but not my gun....piddlin....it repeated the above - quite nicely. Not bad for a "old" J frame , police trade in the owner paid $90 for without stocks - huh? Fella "needed" monies for a wondernine at the time... *smug*.

Using the "Sceintific Dirt Method" - On the .38spl loadings - penetration was ~ 12 - 14 " . Depending on how hard the bank was, and poking with a stick and using a dollar bill ( a tad over 6" in length btw) to measure the stick.

I get real high tech on this Research Stuff - I guess you folks noticed that - huh?

Close enough for gummit work tho'....

 

[P95Carry]

Steve ... thx buddy - another nice piece there ..

Oh dammit ... my nostalgia quotient is gettin the better of me!!

Sad part - folks are not passing "stuff" forward , like they used to.

Oh so true .. plus, the prospective recipients of such ''stuff transmission'' are so damned apathetic and brain washed for the most part.

I fear - ''we, the great unwashed'' ......... might be the last of a breed ... and that makes me sad beyond description.

 

[TrapperReady]

P95 - Fear not. We may have to work hard, but this is something over which we have control.

For example, a number of years ago, my wife and I were enticed to do some informal trap shooting with our neighbors. What started as a friendly outing rapidly turned into league shooting, hunting and darned near an obsession with shotgun sports. Once I had become reasonably skilled and developed the knowledge to teach, I began to introduce new shooters at every opportunity. Without exception, folks have had a great time and most have continued to shoot.

I live in a neghborhood which could be written off as "soccer-mom hell" if you didn't take the time to visit. If you actually talk with people, you find that there is a very high percentage of veterans, the vast majority of folks own guns, and at least during deer season, a large number hunt.

So what can we do? Teach our kids. Teach our friends and seek out folks to educate. If you are feeling down, let me share (again) this picture of my son from last season.

 

[sm]

That's what I'm talking about!!


Trapper - That is such a GREAT pic! Thanks for posting again.

Be sure you post updates this season of the boys/ family out hunting.

 

[P95Carry]

Thx Trapper .... lifted the spirits a bit that did!

I don't mean to come over too negative on this ''last of breed'' deal .. cos sure as heck, I do anything I can to try and obviate it but - well ya know - at times things do look a tad bleak.

Great pic.