One of my earliest memories of of one of my great uncles is when he came in from duck hunting, early one morning. He had a pair of Black ducks in his left hand, his old Winchester Model 97 pump in his right hand. His coat had a smear of mud and what I am sure was dried blood from one of the birds. Cap was low to keep his ears and neck warm. Face red, from the cold wind which had made it chapped. He gave me one of the Winchester paper empties from his hunt. I remember the clean, fresh, strong smell of powder in that old shell. In that morning I knew that I was going to be a duck hunter someday.
To this day I still love to sniff paper empties after the have been fired. The pump gun sits in the gun room. One of the few guns that I have never been tempted to fix up or improve in any way. That is Uncle Bo's gun and I am just keeping it until he returns. While not a classic duck gun to many, it is to me.
