I posted this on the "Best Gun Writers" thread, but it's worth repeating this day

Shotgunner's Notebook "Our World Without Shotguns"

"No shotguns, no poetry. No shotguns, no exuberant competition. No shotguns, no silent days alone, or with a dog, to merely walk and think. Take the shotguns from my life and take the books that go with them. Take the paintings and the etchings and bronzed pointing Setters and Labs with a proudly carried duck. Take my decoys and my marsh boat and my string of calls. Take my old photographs of friends at gun clubs and duck camps and at the simple farms. Take my faded coats and briared boots and old soft hats. Take my whistles and dog bells and red and yellow field trial ribbons from their frames.
What friends I have, what days I treasure most, what places I think about and smile...these are because shotguns are. Without them I would have been empty. They have made my life full."

I'm thankful for the dogs that have given me such joy. My life would have been so much less without them.

I'm thankful for friends to share days afield, and even the "imaginary internet friends" I've met here

I'm thankful for Robert Ruark and The Old Man and The Boy which, along with the Boy Scouts, changed the direction of my life as a young man. I'm sorry he couldn't defeat his demons.

I'm thankful for living in MO. and KS. where hunting was part of the culture, and though quail have certainly declined, one could still have good hunts for quail, pheasant, waterfowl, deer and turkey.

I'm thankful I now live in the most gun friendly state in the U.S., with Mearns, but there aren't any this year, so no reason to come

I'm thankful that when the world seems to be sliding into chaos and evil is rising, God is still on His throne and pray the decline in our national character and morals can be reversed.

I could WAY do without the drama and pathologic narcissism here, but I'm still thankful for this place where we can share our interest in double guns and ask for help.

How 'bout you?

Happy Thanksgiving folks.

Very nice and very well said!

Happy Thanksgiving to you and your families!

God Bless!

Greg

Happy Thanksgiving and thanks for sharing Drew. Nice words




'28 Chevy Sedan
1920s Double corn crib
1909 Hollenbeck Three Barrel gun - Damascus 16ga and .32-40
1940s Woolrich Parka
7 point VA whitetail.

Happy Thanksgiving. My family and I just finished enjoying a wonderful meal. I grilled a turkey breast this morning, now we're off to make hay while the sun shines ......... ehhrrr, pick peanuts that is.



I am thankful for all my blessings, Stan

PBS just had a documentary about the first Thanksgiving. Excellent program explaining how the Wampanoag tribe decimated by disease interacted with the Pilgrims to form a mutual defense against the numerous enemies of the Wampanoag. Finally a documentary that states that the American Indian did not get along very well with other American Indians.

just makes Thanksgiving all that more special!!!

Marks21,

Nice picture. Tell us about the gun. Damascus double rifle?

SRH

Cool kitchen knife Stan. What's the story on that serious looking pig sticker?...Geo

Happy Thanksgiving to all.

That is a gift from a friend who lives in N. Georgia, near Helen. He has made damascus knives for many years, and used to sell them at the rendezvous he would attend with the muzzleloading community. It is called a Rifleman's Knife, or Longhunter's Knife. It is patterned after the knives carried by frontiersmen in the early 1800s on their long (sometimes several months) hunts for meat and skins. The maker's name is Ivan Boggs, and his trade name is Habersham Forge. I have watched him make a blade from 5 layers of carbon and nickel steel. He usually ends with 320 layers in the finished billet, welding and folding it 6 times. Watching a knife maker forge a billet of damascus steel is quite a memorable event, for me anyway. He once told me that it took him the better part of a day to forge one blade.

Ivan, and his lovely wife Blanche, used to come down from the mountains and hunt deer on my place. He was always trying to do something for me to repay me for letting him hunt. He had given me a couple damascus knives, but one trip down he told me, "I want to make you a special knife. One that is exactly like you want. What would that be?". I replied that I had always wanted a big coffin handled Bowie. He said for me to draw the knife I wanted and he would make it. I did ....... and he did. He made me an ivory scaled, coffin handled Bowie fighting knife that I treasure. Every steel part of the knife is damascus, even the guard. It has elephant ivory scales, and is really a handful. It is basically useless to me right now, except to admire and remember his friendship, but if we ever lose our right to bear guns (God forbid), I may need to carry it. If you'd like to see a pic I can take some and post them.

I miss seeing Ivan. He doesn't drive down anymore, says his daughters won't let him, since Blanche passed away. Friends like him are few and far between.

SRH

I figured it was a custom job; bet it will work on a turkey carving job. Nice story to go with it. If you get a chance post a pic of that coffin handled Bowie
Best...Geo

Thank you for posting Drew

A Hollenbeck, 3 barrel gun.

Great story on that S guard bowie, Stan. Sure, if you could, put up a picture or two of the coffin handle bowie. Thankful for good friends.

I'm thankful for Presidential term limits...

I'm thankful to be a Honorably Discharged Vet. who served his Country, back in an era when Vets were spit on and called "Baby Killers", and to be a Christian in a Free Country, where non-Christians )Camel Humpers and Ragheads( may try to destroy our Nation, that they call the "Great Satan"-but will never succeed in their evil and nefarious schemes- in spite of our first Muslim POTUS, who has pissed away his first 6.5 years, due to lack of the military service all our great Presidents (Washington, Teddy Roosevelt and Ike had--

I'm grateful to be here. I'm thankful for a lot.
Most of all, I'm thankful for my dad. We buried his body last Saturday. He was 85 and went like he lived, as much on his own terms as possible. He and I only hunted together a couple seasons, when I was still in high school. But he made sure I knew how to be safe and then let me to find my own way.
I miss him.
As I was sitting next to him in the hospice, just holding his hand and occasionally speaking to him in his mother tongue of German - though born and raised here he didn't speak English regularly until he started school - I came to the conclusion that "honor your father and mother" is most fully fulfilled by living your life as best you can, whatever that life might be.
I'm grateful for that insight, too.

You are in our thoughts Dave, as you adjust to your loss. I'm glad your Dad passed peacefully. Mine did not.

May God bless and comfort you.

SRH

2 weeks ago I gave the message at my skeet shooting buddy Byron's funeral; possibly the first time the Ward had a Baptist preacher participating. But the Bishop and State Director both told his wife it would be OK. Byron served in both theaters in WW2.
Here on the day of his 96th birthday at Ben Avery



After the service a member of the Ward thanked me and said "It's not as hard as doing your parent's funeral."

Next week I will be doing my mother's funeral in KC. When I shared this won't be easy, my cousin commented "This is your gift to her." I'm thankful for the opportunity, and for having a family, despite the dysfunction of EVERY family, that loved and encouraged me, even if they never quite understood my joy in bird dogs, bird hunting and shooting My father is teetering at 91, but his father lived to 107 so hopefully no more funerals for a bit.

Dave, absolutely the right conclusion. All my parents wanted for me was to be well and happy. I try to honour them by being so.

Drew, so sorry to hear about your mother's passing.

Dave, also to you for your father's passing.

Drew, "Newfoundland" on your buddy's jersey and your mention both theatres: flying in US Navy?

You'll do just fine for your mother and family next week. Words usually come easier when we talk of what we know and how we feel about it.

Dave, Drew, you have my condolences. Dad's been gone for 10 years and not a day goes by without me thinking about him. They may be gone, but they are always with you. Gil

Drew,

My thoughts will be of you, as you do that. I eulogized my mother at her funeral, about 13 years ago. I pray He gives you the peace and ease of delivery He did for me. My condolences to you, and your family.

SRH

My condolences to Dave on the loss of his Dad and to Drew on the loss of his Mother. It's tough when you lose your parents, and their passing really hits home at this time of the year around the holidays.

King: Col. Byron Meader was a Mainer, born in Ellsworth. He spent 1943 in support service of the Army Air Corp field at Guadalcanal, returned to the U.S. to join the Air Corp, but was given a medium artillery unit, trained, then shipped to Europe to help in the Battle of the Bulge where for the most part he was within 200 yards of the front lines. His 69th Division met the Russians at the Elbe April 25, 1945. I'm thankful, and honored, to have been his friend.
BTW: my father's brother-in-law was in the Seventh Army's 45th Infantry Division that liberated Dachau.

Sorry to be so tardy in posting these, craigd and Geo.. I put the "pro" in procrastinate.

All my best, SRH

I'm thankful for the Incarnation
https://sites.google.com/site/anotherdaysjourneybackhome/immanuel---god-with-us

And a very blessed 2016 to all!

And to you Brother Drew.

Bill

Amen.

Stan

Thanks Drew, I’m spending Christmas with my daughter in LA then it’s back to Sierra Vista AZ. I’m sorry to hear about your mothers passing but I’m glad to hear that, God willing, your father has a few years left. Merry Christmas my friend.

Steve

Drew, Dave: Very sorry to read of your losses. Sciatica has got me up with a scotch at 1:30 catching up on my DG reading. I sorely missed this past season for medical reasons (read the beginning again)and I've sorely missed the words of my electronic friends King Brown, Rockdoc, Stan, you two, et al...

I hear my 10 year old Brit Gabriel stirring, he no doubt wants to cash in on that "elimination ticket" he slept through earlier this evening. By the way, he's the best bird dog in history, but you no doubt have knowledge of this established fact. Somehow he's forgiven me for not letting him work slavishly for me routing out the impossibly hidden birds of the New England woodlands this past Autumn. Guess he knows there will be plenty more to come.

Lost my dad in 96, 80 year old WWll vet 71st battalion Seabees. It's true, not a day goes by I don't think of him. Oh boy, now my wife stirred, came down wondering what on earth the old man was doing up. Gotta do my best to run fellas. Godspeed.

EDIT: Had to squeeze in this praise for those knives, Stan. Yowza!

Thanks for checking in, KK. I hope you beat that sciatica soon. That can be a debilitating thing. I've never had it but have been around others with it. Thanks also for the kind words about the knives. Ivan also made me a beautiful damascus tomahawk. Every time I pick it up I get hit the urge to throw it at a Redcoat, (not really). It reminds me of a scene in The Patriot.

All my best, Stan