With apologies to my Vietnam era USMC pen-pal, John Hewitt of Anchorage AK-- great book--
Friday, 11/11 Veterans Day- decided to do a sunrise morning hunt at area arm with a nice pond surrounded by rolling picked corn ields- a goose magnet in NE Kent County, MI- and a farm I have been hunting for 25 years hand running=
Don't need but a few dekes in the field, perhaps a few floaters, and the geese move out right after dawn's first blush in the East- a West wind or hunting the best side of the pond is great, lots of brush and scrub for concealment- First flock of 5 honkers came in quietly at 0740 hrs- and decided to land on the pond, so I didn't get a shot, just added 5 decoys you can't buy from Mack's PW in AK to my few floaters- About 10 minutes and a spilled mug of hot coffee, as their ker-honk startled me-- I was scanning the sky for mallards- I came up as they hit the pond's edge and I swung the muzzle of my "pet" M12 through the long neck and head- the Limey's "Bum, Belly, Beak-then BANG" scenario, and the big honker crumpled and came down, crashing through the brush- as there were more birds working, and I was 95% sure that bird was as dead as Julies Caesar, I sat back down on my camo stool and waited- hoping to take a 3 bird daily honker limit--
Five more birds were incoming, but they "short-stopped" on the pond, and I prefer to have my birds drop on the harvested cornfield, and not in the pond- I lost my Black Lab "Khartoum" last winter to cancer-age 6, but's that's another story-- so and pond dropped birds means I get the camo canoe out from the brush hide on the pond's West side shoreline and do my own retrieving. As the pond is fenced all away around, as sometimes dairy cattle move around the pond, "Khartoum" was not always as rock-solid on water retrieves there, as he is/was on the Flat River where we live (Smyrna area, below Belding) where there are no fences or livestock on the farms I hunt that access the river-
3 years ago, he went after a mallard in another farm drain pond, but the 4 strand of wire fencing was electrified- top and middle strand had the insulators- and I carry a ground line hot circuit detector (you can get them a TSC-good investment if you hunt fenced farms, IMO)- anyway, he bumped the bottom strand into the next strand above it, which was hot- dropped the dead duck and ran off howling like Hillary Clinton after the election returns came in and she knew she had lost-- and as Mark Twain once so sagaciously observed about cats in a kitchen with a hot stove, he shied away any strung fence wires after that.
I decided to find the dead bird, and with the sun up and the cloud cover fading rapidly and a 15 mph (est'd) NE wind, I thought, well, as Nash Buckingham advised, always carry your shotgun with you when looking or a downed bird- dove or duck--
Somehow I went down the very muddy two-track, walking carefully along the grassy edges, thinking that the big honker landed further away than I had first thought, apres the shot-- then I turned and looked back to the North to the old barbed wire ence line and the locust tree where I had been sitting when I shot the bird- and I saw the black and gray of the wings, and abit of the white chin strap- Now I should have walked straight back towards the big dead bird I had shot, but as there were two older 16 foot steel tubing gates (rusty) laying in the grass and weeds ahead of my straight-line approach to the tree and the dead goose-, I foolishly decided to walk the edge, right alongside of the greasy muddy and wet puddly tw-track. Big mistake- I lost my footing, and dumped into the water and greasy mud- thank God the farm turdsmen use another two-track less greasy when they haul the "turd hearse" out to spred the cowshit- if I had falled into wet cowshit, I don't think I'd care to admit it- Anyway, the Model 12 went into the puddle, and when I picked it up, the brown greasy globby mud made it look like the Duck Dynasty rednecks had just dipped it into a vat of tanish chocolate syrup, to camo it I guess. Of course, the muzzle was plugged with mud, and I could get the two shells out of the magazine tube with the help of a Buck knife, but not the one in the chamber, as the action was jammed shut-
Long hike back to the Quad, left the decoys and the bag there, but took the M12 and the dead bird back to the main farmyard and milking house, where I park my Jeep, and I knew there were two water tanks (full of crap and what all- but better still- a hot water pressure hose in the milking parlor, where the big stainless steel raw milk tank is, and with floor drainage- So I hosed of my muddy camo pants, the Cabela's camo parka that dates back to 1986, when I became a DU Sponsor member, and we all received a camo parka along with our membership sponsor pins as well- And I blasted steaming hot water down the muzzle of the M12- and into the ejection port, with the bolt closed into battery, and that freed up the jammed action so I could get the live round out-put in back in the Jeep but not in the case, no sense in getting a Boyt case all crapped up--
Headed for home- shower, clean clothes, the muddy pants and camo Parka hung outside on the back deck area- boots awaiting a later "de-mudding"--
I have dropped that M12 3 times in the Flat river when I slipped, wearing waders- before Khartoum and I became a "hunting team" and have always detail stripped it down, let it dry out and used Hoppe's and WD-40, re-assembled and went on shooting it- but this was heavy clay soil mud, compounded by having one of the rainiest October's on MI record in last 35 years- So a wipe off, with paint thinner, and a complete detail strip, including removing the bolt-- and of course, the magazine tube was included- ull of water when I removed the end cap and slid out the magazine spring, 3 shot wooden plug with red steel end cap- and the magazine follower/cap-- As I use a Kick-Eze slip on pad with the M12 in early season, I slid that off and removed the buttplate, and sure enough, a few drops of water came out when I did the old "pour that piss out of a boot with instructions on the hell" scenario- so I also got out the long extension screw driver, and removed the buttstock completely, drying out the bolt and washer and spraying with WD040- I set the now stripped buttstock butt hole upwards in a padded vise, and put a 200 watt worklight over it, directed into the butthole bored into the buttstock for locking bolt access.
All the machine screws, front magazine cap locking pin, trigger housing group locking machine screw, were dried, cleaned with a toothbrush with Hoppe's, and then sprayed with Rem Oil- Last night after supper, I re-assembled the action and barrel/magazine ube group- 100% A-OK- and I will let the buttstock air dry until Sun night, and then will re-assemble it to the receiver-with WD-40 on both the bolt and washer, but also into the receiver boss extension, which I cleaned out with a Q-tip dipped in Hoppe's-
I'll take it our again Monday 14th- last duck hunt for two weeks, as our firearm deer season opens 15/Nov. and I don't mix deer hunting with a .30-06 with waterfowling with a 12 gauge.
I would like to hear from any of you guys that duck/goose hunt and have taken a dunking with whatever shotgun you were using that day, and how you proceeded to strip and clean it. I grew up with Model 12's- to me, at age 75, there is no other repeating shotgun quite like it-but others will say the same thing about: Remmington 870's and 1100's, Brownings, Berettas, etc. Buy nasty weather and mud, snow and sleet, leave your LC Smith LongRange or AH Fox HE grades in the gun safe, and take a M12 or a Mossenburgher 835 Ulti-Mag- simple pump guns you can strip and clean and get back into action with fairly easily.
And by the way, this was a good day-in spite of my loss of footing- Saw the pink morning sky, the colors even Van Gogh or Vermeer or Monet could never capture on canvas. Nash B. mentioned a "Stygian" sky, have always wondered what that meant. Not sure, but I'll bet a box of Winchester Blindside No. 2 steel that it is pretty darn spectacular- RWTF
