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Hey Run'
Probably ought to keep my mouth shut and my nose out of this, as the "driven shooting" buisness is something I know nothing about But, is there anyone else here who thinks that shooting 1000 (or even 100) pheasants in one day is more about killing than it is about hunting?
Respectfully;
Kraft

Yeah, that last guy looks just like Destry.

Not at all Kraft. I see your point. I'm from this school, as Gene Hill once remarked about his friend Jim Rikhoff, back in the day when Jim worked for Winchester - They were at some fanc cocktail party in New York City, when their hostess asked Jimmie Boy why he had to kill animals- Jim, perhaps a tad to windward on the Scotch, replied-"Oh, I dunno Lady, guess I just like to hear bullets smacking some solid flesh every now and then"!!

In LimeyLand and in Europe, game is a cash crop, from what I hear, and the invited "guns" take home brace of birds, the rest and cleaned and sold on the open market for food. Over here, on the game clubs on which I have shot birds, your limit is based on your checkbook and how much recoil your shoulder will accept in a day. The game preserves are regulated by the State DNR, and no native bird stocks are affected. For me, the same $'s that takes me to MT or SD almost every other Fall- can be spent on shells, birds, side bets, meals right here in MI-

I shoot birds because I love the art of wingshooting and I love to see feathers fly and birds drop dead out of the air. I do NOT get the same pleasure from shooting clay saucers. As the late Nash Buckingham (my gunning hero) wrote in "The Dove"-- "You've had about all the thrills shotgunning offers when you crumple a high overhead dove in a wind"!! Yessiree--

The late Robert C. Ruark summed it up best-- "After all is said and done, the sound of a shotgun tends to cheer one up a great deal" I'll drink to that (after the guns are cleaned and cased and secured however)--

So, would I kill 1000 dove a day in South America if I had the chance, no matter who is "footing the bill"? At near 70, probably not- I would rather kill cleanly 100 doves or pigeons in a high wind with 200 shells from one of my "pet" 12 bores, than kill 1000 of the same with "sugar shots by a baited field or watering hole. Age is the "Achilles Heel" of the devout wingshooter!!

Dammit, what a death!

Re: 7 birds with one stone, I'm convinced that there are so many variables in hunting (and life in general), and they tend to coincide in such a bizzare fashion, that almost anything just might happen. Once, unintentionally, and with zero chances of consciously repeating, but just might happen. Like killing big game at 1000 yards with iron sights - you can't do it, shouldn't even try, but the bullet has to hit something, and once in a while the something would be the deer or whatever. I mean, birds don't always drop to the ground like bricks, if the wings are spread, that slows down the fall, if the bird goes down rolling, wings spread, it slows down the fall even more, sometimes the apparently dead bird would even glide for a while, and some cripples glide quite consciously. (I don't think it could happen to pheasants, but once my Dad shot a crow, which was doing a bird-of-pray imitation glide, and it dropped the head and legs down, but the wings remained fully spread, and it was coming down very slowly, like on parashoot). So, what if it just coincided, that on that occasion, the first one or two or three of the birds His Lordship shot were of the slow-falling variety?

HD: Along that same note my business partner since 1967 is a country boy and an avid quail( "bird" to us here in South Carolina ) hunter. He is also a Deacon in his Southern Baptist Church, so he don't lie, tells of the only time he went deer hunting. It was the last day of deer season and as he was coming home several "white tails" crossed in front of his car. He didn't own a rifle and so he went a few miles into town and asked the man at the hardware store what kind of rifle he needed to hunt deer. The store owner showed him a 30-06 Remington something or other for about $300 and said "this is all the gun you need" I is a bolt action with open sights (I've seen the gun) He bought the gun and a box of silvertips and went home.

When he got home it was late afternoon. He got on his hunting togs and walked across the road to near where he saw the deer cross. Nothing happened until it was almost dark when he looked down a side fire lane and way off inthe distance (about 300 yards as near as I could tell) he saw a big buck with a big rack.
He raised his new gun & fired and saw the buck jump. When he walked down to the spot he found a small spike buck drilled through the head. He told the friend with him "that's not the deer that I shot at" They brought the deer back to the house and his friend left to go rabbit hunting.

A little while later his friend drove up & had a big eight point buck in the bed of his truck shot through & through just behind the shoulder. They loaded the other spike buck & took both to the processor. That was his first and so far his last deer hunt and he still has nineteen shells left.

When I first heard his story I said: "The Devil's Going To Get You For Lying" but he showed me the pictures, the gun & the nineteen remaining shells.

Best Regards, George (I hope that this wasn't too boreing)

Boring- Hell no- I loved it. As a true Southern Gentleman, George, may I recommend my favorite of all the deer hunting stories I have ever read, and I've read a bunch. 1990 Magazine (I have it in my Library) a Southern writer named of Nicholson wrote "A Deer For Cholly Dorman"- being a poker player and a semi-raccoon-tuner and con-a-sewer of good cigars and better bourbons, I really enjoyed it- Holding 4 Aces with a Jack and having someone hit a straight flush in the middle in draw poker has to be a heartbreak-Nicholson wrote it well- enjoy my friend!!

RWTF: What's the name of the magazine?
Perhaps it's also in my collection.

Best Regards, George

And just think Fox six months ago you were going to your first tOwer shoot.

Wrong windage there Joe-- I went to my first Tower shoot back in 1990- Oct- at the now Defunct Bourbon Barrel Hunt Club near Lapeer, MI- Don Capman was out host- it was a DU Sponsors shoot and Banquet week-end- we shot released pheasants from circular stands, and we had "bonus birds" barn pigeons they had netted and each one had a colored ribbon tied to one leg- and a $ amount written thereon with a Magic Marker-

They usually released about 10-12 birds from a 250 bird shoot in the AM- after a great buffet breakfast- believe there were 12 stands and you and your partner shared a stand, and stopped, unloaded, opened the gun and moved to the next numbered stand upon hearing the "Hunter's Horn" blown by Mr. Capman, a gifted musician (great Billy Joel pianoman)--

We had various DU pals and pro dog handlers doing the dog handling, mainly Black Labs- but truth to tell, there were quite a few birds hit with multiple shots-I used (back then) my GrandFather's 12 Parker- 30" barrels 1.5 size frame DT ejectors tight chokes and was "high gun" also nailed 3 out of the 5 $$ pigeons-then later on, after coffee and sandwiches (NO Booze during the shooting day--) we had a "pick-up" hunt.

This whetted my interest and I began to read about the driven shoots, especially High Pheasants (our Limey Pals call them Archangels I hear) and as I have always been a devout barn pigeon shooter, I looked for other areas and clubs to try more Tower birdies-

If you get up here to MI I'll take you to the FruitRidge Farms where I am a member and I'll be pleased to show your our Tower programme- and shoot you for $- you name the stakes- just bring cash, I don't take checks for gamblin' wagers!!

George- it is in the January/February 1990 issue of Game Country-- subtitled "The Journal of Big Game Hunting"- may be no loner published. If you don't have that issue, or access to a copy, PM me and I will send you my copy on open ended loan. Great story, one of the best. I know nothing about Charles Nicholson, except that he wrote one heck of a great short story. Boss Bishop and his "Teddy Roosevelt pinch mes" eyeglasses, sippin' Early Times, a hunting cam named "Pineapple Bend"--roadside dawgs with red chili peppers, etc. He also wrote some great "words of wisdom" advice on the last page of that issue entitled "Important Stuff" two of which I'll quote as being apropos to the thread and theme of the DoubleGunWorkShoppe herein- (1) "Hunting birds with anything but a good double is like shooting pool with a broom handle" and (2) "Any gun with two barrels should have two triggers too"-- I'll drink to both of those "pearls"--

Another great "hard luck somewhat" hunting story I treasure is Jack Curtis' "The Prairie Queen" it appeared in the Fall 1977 issue of the old Gray's- and Ed liked it so much he featured it in his "best of GSJ" anthology- great read--Yankton. SD- late 1960's old time farmland. Yankton was the site of a major POW camp during WW2- many captured german soldiers were kept there, and assigned to road and ditching work--

Anyway, Sir- you advise and if you need it, I'll send it your way- I am 100% sure you will enjoy it- I have re and re-read it more times than I can count.