I am shocked and horrified:
In the early 1980's you were no doubt using lead shot, thereby raping and destroying the environment, you killed poor defenseless ducks as if they were created for mankind's benefit and you treated misty like a dog.
Nice story.
I am glad you and Canvasback enjoyed the story. Sometime I will have to start a thread on old dog stories. I had many wonderfuls outings with Misty and four of them stand out and are worth jotting down
As for the lead shot. When the lead ban was being discussed in the sporting magazines and exposees' on the fallibilities of steel shot were being printed, I was rather vocal locally and perhaps somewhat unpopular with my opposition to the idea. Quite frankly, I have been of the opinion for a very long time that the banning of lead as projectiles in shotguns would lead to the same in rifles and handguns and thus create a gun ban by the removal of a what is likely the cheapest, most ballistically efficient material for said projectiles and thus the anti-gun crowd wins! I have mentioned this many times over the years and was told, "your crazy, they can't do that!" Many of you might have noticed the shutdown of the last lead smelter in the good ol' USA recently. Perhaps even learned of no lead pellets for your airgun and you are relegated to use other less efficient materials. Perhaps you have even noticed some states calling for banning lead in .22 rimfire ammo and lead can no longer be used for centerfire rifles in some states proposals. Even the Army has annouced it will be using "green" ammunition exclusively by 2018. Sadly, I am afraid I saw this comming and few listened then. So, HELL YES I WAS USING LEAD SHOT! Although the feather cutting qualities of nickel or copper plate on lead shot was sort of new back then some of us jumped at the chance to buy a few bags of that shot and experiment with it. Hence, my favorite duck and pheasant load in the 20 gauge: 1 1/8 ounce of #5 coppper plated chilled lead shot in a 2 3/4" Federal case with a little bit of Hercules blue dot with appropriate wadding. If I can't use lead, I guess I am still boycotting the whole thing!
As a side note on Misty, she survived Parvo Virus at ten years old and could hunt all day for four days without tiring until then. My dad took her out hunting the first time because I was working and she retrieved a Canada Goose that weight twelve pounds across a picked cornfield at the age of 15 weeks. She was too small to pick it up and could only drag it by the wing. Dad told me how determined she was with that goose. He said she would stop and look back to see how far she had to go and he would back up a few steps and she would look back again, when she turned her head to start dragging that goose again dad would back up a few more steps, doing this dance 5 or 6 times before he thought she proved her mettle. She also had very thick long hair, she was not a field bred ESS but rather from show stock, and she loved being outside. Back in some of those years we had some rather cold winters. I can remember one moring when it was -27 degrees F. and one stretch had the high for the day was -18 degrees F. for almost a fortnight. I would always want to have her inside when it got cold and really wanted her in the house all the time. She would start panting, then laying down by the front door where the cold air would steal its way in, then she would whine until you let her out. I would open the door and she would dive headfirst into a snow drift and roll around for a couple of minutes and then she would go to the kennel to stay in the doghouse overnight. She really didn't care how cold it was, that still amazes me. Use mere mortals are always preferring comfort in old age ... I guess the cold was comfortable to the old girl.
DISCLAIMER: I apologize to any and all those that might be ********* that cannot tolerate any opposition to your current chain of thought about what is right, wrong, or inappropriate for fear of finding out you are wrong on the topic at hand. If this knowledge causes you great distress and you find life is no longer worth living because you are not as smart as YOU thought YOU were and YOU have an urgent need to find a way out, please remember to GO GREEN. Thank you for your attention in this matter.
