Probably my most memorable hunt was my first Pheasant. My Father was not a hunter but I had older cousins that were. We had heard hunting stories from them both and got to taste some game at family dinners. I knew next to nothing but made a pain of myself asking questions and spent every weekend exploring the local woods. An old retired feller who was a close family friend told my older brother and I tales about duck hunting and shooting some little birds that he cooked on a wood fire by packing them in mud feathers and all and cracking them open and picking out the meat. Any way he loaned my brother and I a 10 ga Winchester 1901 lever action we of course told him that it was ok with our parents who I think never knew. It was heavy and we bought shells for it one at a time at the local hardware store and shared it .My Older brother turned 16 bought a car from afternoon and weekend jobs. I borrowed a 12 ga model B savage Fox. So at 15 borrowed gun and a brand new hunting license pinned to the back of my jacket My Brother Tom and I went out to a place where it was rumored to hold some Pheasants. To tell the truth it was pretty crowded and I started walking around a large field edge just inside the tree line.
I climbed a large hill looking down into the field and saw a Cock Pheasant fly out into the field way below me into an island of trees and woods far below. Several other hunters saw the bird too and went running into the island from different angles and from my vantage point I was high enough to see the entire island from above. After some time the hunters left the small island of woods and nobody got shot including the pheasant and I was sure he did not come out either. I decided to go down and have a look. After about 20 minutes of tromping around the quarter acre patch of woods I looked up and there he was. He got nervous as me and began to take off . I threw up the 12 bore and fired my first shot ever from that gun I had pulled the rear trigger (full choke ) barrel and center-punched that poor bird at maybe 5 yards . My older brother had seen me going in to the trees and came in at the sound of the shot He looked at the bird and saw the mess so he reached down and pulled the tail feathers out of the mess I made of the bird for me. Funny after all these years Im 65 now I still remember that bird and that shot.

Last edited by GMCS; 07/16/16 09:38 PM.