The crisp air is invigorating for both you and your pup as you ease along the final 20 yards of the tall grass prairie field before it ends at a two-track farm road. Your pup is birdy as hell, and you can easily hear her inhaling gulps of hot pheasant scent. One more step and the flushes begin! Two hens rocket out and peel back around you in an attempt to return to the CRP. One more step and a beautiful, mature cock bird launches at a rising, slight right to left, quartering away angle. The perfect shot, you instinctively surmise. You lift your favorite 12-bore to your face, swing through the bird and shoot your first barrel – nothing. Then you keep swinging and reach for the back trigger – Bang! – again nothing. The rooster cackles in laughter as he flies away, headed for a cattail slough a quarter mile away.
Gun empty, you chide yourself. “How in the hell did I miss that simple, quartering away shot? It was a layup as they say in so many other sports.”
Denne historien er fra Spring 2021-utgaven av The Upland Almanac.
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Denne historien er fra Spring 2021-utgaven av The Upland Almanac.
Start din 7-dagers gratis prøveperiode på Magzter GOLD for å få tilgang til tusenvis av utvalgte premiumhistorier og 9000+ magasiner og aviser.
Allerede abonnent? Logg på
Tailfeathers
The essence of fly fishing, I think I've decided, is time.
Ten Questions with Tim Flagler, Fly Tyer/Cook Extraordinaire
Culinary Creations from Gordon Hamersley
GREY on the Wing
Hands clutching the wheel of a large, lumbering vehicle whose vintage and purpose partially prompted the invention of \"powering steering,\" disengaged the clutch and applied the brakes, bringing it to a stop.
James Purdey & Sons Ltd.One of London's "Best"
At the conclusion of a recent breakfast meeting of the Shrewsbury Men's Club of Massachusetts, I was packing up my show-and-tell aids after giving a presentation.
WAWAWAI
I don't chase chukars anymore, but from the time I was 16, chukar hunting had been my favorite bird hunting endeavor.
A FAIR EXCHANGE
Among the concerns faced by many small community gun clubs here in the Northeast is our inability to attract and maintain new and younger shooters.
Coming to Heel
I'n the world of gun dogs, it's not unusual that retrievers are taught to heel.
Bird Dogs - Health Matters
Avoiding Medical Mishaps on the Road
MATT HART
Matt Hart, owner, designer and artist of Hartist Metals, is a highly skilled metal sculptor based in the picturesque Catskill Mountains of New York.
Luigi Franchi Imperial Monte Carlo Extra: One of Italy's "Best" SxS Doubles
As on London’s gun-maker’s row, Italians had skilled craftsmen who made “Best” guns of superb quality