1987- Black Tuesday in Oct-if memory serves- but the stock market is always a gamble. Hunting with my old HS pal Bob out on the Big Horn River area, where he guided fishing parties in his Lavro boat. We floated the river from the Yellowtail Dam downstream and stopped at islands and access fields, with his two Labs- Mork and Mindy, and our lunch and coffee, and our shotguns. Bob had an older field grade LC Smith 20, a gift from his grand-father, but a client from Texas gave him a used Browning 20 O/U, which Bob liked better than the Smith, due to the single trigger on the O/U-- I had a Model 12 I still have today, a 1921 Nickel steel barrel 28" Full field gun-- with 3 shot plug. We would stop upriver of an island, and I'd do a "pawnee sneak" downside on the water's edge, and wait for Bob to let Mork and Mindy move out- birds flushed like crazy, all the pheasants pushed by the few hunters in that area flew to the islands for safe haven, I guess. We both shot our limit of 4 roosters before noon, and a big rooster dropped in the water like a duck sure looks different than one dropped on land. I also had a shot at a drake wood duck, a species which I do not usually shoot at all back home, but Bob wanted it for the feathers as well as for the dinner table, as he was a first rate fly-tyer as well as a great fly fisherman-
Two days later, a strong wind was blowing all day- and as they say out West- the wind doesn't keep hunters inside-you only have so many days, as each one counts-- We were hunting a private ranch where Bob had permission, I was downwind a bit as he and the dogs approached a small stream, I heard the pop-pop of his 20 bore, saw a duck drop, and then a large rooster, with the wind up his ass was coming at me at about Mach 2- I swung through- the "Bum, Belly, Beak, Bang technique I love for incomers, and shot- the bird dropped like a bowling ball, and bounced hard off the grassy ground ahead of me- about 30 feet or so-- When Bob and the dogs came up, he said: Wow- what a hellofa shot that was. That rooster folded up like a cheap cardboard suitcase in a hailstorm--"" Still remember that shot- I was using Federal Premium coppered No. 5 1&1/4 ounce loads on that trip- wish they still loaded them yet today.
I have fotos and great memories of that trip-and others as well. Bu8t to this day, I reflect on what my pal said- and wonder: "Is there such a thing as an EXPENSIVE cardboard suitcase- Louis Vuitton, Gucci??
Last edited by Run With The Fox; 07/15/16 11:51 AM.
