65-including the Stateside dove and quail hunting I managed to get in during my years in the USMC--Best experience was hunting quail with Dad and Uncle Ed, when home on leave for 2 weeks in the Fall of 1964- we were in Kansas- and managed to get into some good quail and pheasant hunting, over pointing dogs. I remember Uncle Ed's big English Pointer named "Jake" stopped on a rock-solid point, and the quail was right by his front paw-- Bird refused to flush, and Jake never moved, in spite of my efforts to boot the little rascal airborne-- finally Jake got tired of the bird's refusal to fly, so he dropped his head and picked up the bird in his mouth, and looked up to me. "One hella of a bird dog you got there, Ed" said my Dad. "He'll get you a limit and you don't have to shoot".. I took the bird from Jake's mouth, wrung it's neck, and added to my game pouch. Today, at age 75, if I had a repeat of that scenario, I'd toss the bird and let it fly away to freedom. All of hunting is NOT in the killing.

"The field is the touchstone of the man"..