My shooting student Joe Wood and I took our English single shot hammerguns hunting Wednesday. They are both 16 gauge with Damascus barrels. Joe's has 28" barrels and is the fancy one on the left. Mine is an Ebrall Brothers, of Shrewsbury, and has 30" barrels. Both weigh about 4-1/2 pounds
We handloaded Cheddite paper hulls with 2-1/2 drams of blackpowder and 1 ounce of 7-1/2s and roll crimped them. We used the CircleFly waxed fiber wads:
It was about a perfect day. I estimate the high at about 60F and a light breeze. Sunny.
This is my Ebrall Brother with a Bob:
Molly and Red are on the left. Dubya has the point, they are backing.
Joe just about to shoot after a covey rise. Several birds show up in the shot if you look closely. Joe looks like he is out of a AB Frost painting with that goofy hat:
This was taken just after a covey rise. I love the expression on Dubya's face. Looks like pure joy to me.
Belle is pointing and Molly and Dubya are honoring:
Another covey flush. I got the bird you can see above the brush. That is Red in the foreground. That backward question mark makes him look like he belongs to the "The Riddler", one of Batman's many nemises:
Here is Joe about to miss again.
Yet another covey flush, taken right after I shot. If you look closely you can see the bird falling on the right below the horizon but left of the small "tree" to my right:
This is the same picture but I added it because I think it shows the chaos and excitement of the covey flush:
As always we took my truck loaded up with my dogs and went to my lease and killed my birds. In addition I furnished the new 16ga Cheddite paper hulls for the handloads. But Joe knows how to pull his weight; he brought a ham and cheese sandwich and a banana for my lunch.
We walked for about seven hours, moved seven covies, put twelve birds in the bag, lost two. Certainly one of the most enjoyable days I have had hunting. Bragging a little now but no feeders, mules or 4 wheelers. Just shoe leather, sweat, dogs, old guns and old gunners.
Best,
Mike
