This is part of a PM I sent to a board member. It was written while I was thinking about my youth, first guns and memories. One thought lead to another, but I think everyone here has like memories. Some far away, in the deepest part of our minds and some much closer, all near to our hearts when we bring them up. The past holds things more valuable than gold, but only if we recall them and more so if we share a few of them with family and friends. I have no gun too valuable that it can not be used and shared and most of my memories as well are better shared.

"I'd give a month off my lifespan just to hunt with either of my grad fathers, one more time, or watch my uncle shoot quail with his little Crescent .410. He was the most deadly shot I ever saw on quail. Two birds, every cover rise and 90% would be cock birds. It took me decades to distinguish the males on the flush like he did. Later in life he was crippled by a mild case of Polio from childhood and arthritis so badly he struggled with just getting around. But at 30 he was smooth to watch shoot those quail."

I had a Chesapeake female dog, AKA a B-itch, who was called Sir. Meanest and toughest dog I ever had, she would eat ice to get to a bird and never lost a fight with another dog. My first, constant companion. She was followed by seven others, current one Shiloh. A black lab who retrieves birds with joy and thinks game limits are insane. A dog after my heart.

I have given everyone of my kids their first gun and tried to set them up with memoirs and stories of my memories from my youth. I hope I have not failed. If you have kids or friends please do the same. I still recall the smell of pipe smoke, from a grand father dead 50 years and enjoy the sweetness of it to this day. He always brought it into the blind and puffed away at it as we sat there. I wonder if he was thinking about his father and grandfather as well. I will soon be able to ask him I suspect.

Please share and enjoy, for the season all too soon will be closed to us all. Give a young, or new shooter a chance to shoot one of your finer guns, with the hopes it leads to fine memories for him or her. Guns are meant to be used and shared. Tomorrow, I am going to shoot one of my cripple guns and am sure everyone who sees it will hold it and hear the story about why we have cripple guns. Any who ask will be encouraged to shoot it a couple times, just to have the chance. For those who don't know, a cripple guns is what some call a crossover gun. Just to be totally different, I am going to shoot my right shoulder-left eye cripple gun first round and my left shoulder-right eye second. No straights tomorrow for me, just a memory.