doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion DoubleGun BBS @ doublegunshop.com Your very best day afield

Well, bird hunting seasons are a long time gone, now. It's 50 days, 14 hrs., 58 minutes, and 46 seconds until dove season opens here on Sept. 3, but whose counting? Reminiscing about so many great days afield over the years is a fine way to pass that time until we can legally pursue feathers again. So, let's pass some of that time this way.

What was your most memorable bird hunting day afield? It may have been a day that you were literally in birds all day, one that you did some of the best shooting of your life, a day that the dogs were in supernatural form, or just a day with a special friend who has passed on into eternity. It may have been a day that you spent in the field alone, and felt the powerful presence of the Creator as you gloried in His creation. These memories are special, and remembering and sharing them may make them even more vivid for you.

I don't care how long-winded you get. As I said before, it's 50 days until I leave this keyboard, and monitor, in favor of the real thing. Let's hear 'em.

All my best, SRH

Stan,
Thanks for the memories, but there have been so many "best" days that to be honest, it would take several categories to do it. Let's just say many of the best days in my life were spent afield hunting.

Best day afield? I'm hoping it is coming this Fall!...Geo

C'mon Geo., get that old grey matter cogitating.

SRH

Stan in 1974 on November 20th opening day of bird season I went out in my brand new red and white Bronco and I quit at 230 with the most bobwhites I have ever bagged.I am ashamed to tell how many I bagged. Missed just a few with the little 20 gauge side by side. Bobby

2004 in Montana hunting very wild very large roosters in a creek bottom. Smart birds in nasty nasty cover. However we has some fantastic flushing dogs with great noses who had no problem with rooting them out and making some fantastic retrieves. Three of us limited out on a cool crisp fall morning. We are all older now and all the dogs who made that trip have passed on. It however was a very special moment.

Perhaps not my best day afield, but certainly my most memorable, was the day I killed my first pheasant, which I did as a 12 year old with my father's 16 gauge Stevens Springfield sxs. The cock bird was rocketing down a hollow along a stream and I was standing on the hillside. Mounted the gun, swung on the bird and missed with the first shot. The gun was muzzle heavy enough that it kept moving in spite of me and the second shot dropped that bird like it had hit a wall. Probably the most excited I've ever been in all my 50+ years of bird hunting.

In South Dakota, what a beautiful state. What a great week, not day, of hunting. Sure like to get back there someday.

October 1966, it was a cool day with a clear blue sky. My Dad and I drove up near Marianna Fl (Ocheessee) to shoot dove. The field was about 120 acres of harvested corn, and there were doves over the field all afternoon long. It wasn't quite S. American style dove hunting, but I don't think more than a minute passed without someone, somewhere in the field shooting at a bird. I was 14 and had just graduated from a single shot JC Higgins .410 to a 12ga Winchester Model 50 semi-automatic. I burned up the shells that afternoon.

My dad and I killed our limit and went and sat on the hood of the car to watch the shooting. A neighbor came up who was shooting his dad's 12ga LC Smith. He had only killed 2 birds and had run out shells. He said the barrels were warped on the gun which was why he didn't shoot better.

My Dad passed away in 2014 at the age of ninety one years and five months. The same neighbor came to the house to pay his respects and he still remembered that dove hunt. We laughed about the warped barrels excuse, which he also remembered. That day, nearly 50 years ago now, was just about perfect. Of course looking back, any day that I got to hunt with my Dad was a blessing.

Tut, Just curious, what breed of flushing dogs??