So many misses, it's hard to know which one to pick. A couple standouts from this year include a kamikaze grouse that flushed off a steep hill side as I was stepping up onto a rock. The hill was steep enough that it took off maybe 20 ft away and at eye level. It must have seen Gus, because it twisted in midair and charged just over my head causing me to duck. I managed to get two shots off, including one from just a few feet away - but no feathers were touched.
My most egregious misses of the year were at pheasants, of course. Pheasants are big, fairly slow, and generally very much in the open, so missing them always seems more traumatic than missing a grouse or a dove, or a woodcock. They happened after a late afternoon hunt where the conditions were perfect, the birds were exactly where I expected them to be, and perfect dog work put up really easy shots. Big birds flushed, time slowed down, and each shot was perfect. In 47 minutes, I had a limit. I felt like I had a good grasp on pheasants this season. Two days later conditions were very similar but the birds were harder to find. Eventually, however, we found them, one at a time, again with great dog work, and three easy shots were presented, everything slowed down, three similarly perfect shots were taken, and three perfectly impossible misses resulted. No other birds were seen, and we went home empty handed. Pheasants can humble a guy that way.
| 