[Linked Image from hosting.photobucket.com]

Day after Christmas. Middle son and daughter in law. I am the old fellow, on the right side. Guns, Ruger 20, Ithaca 37-20 bore and mine is AYA 28 ga. These birds are released birds, hence the smaller gauge choices. Shooting reserve does not encourage .410 shooting, I am sad to say. So I went bigger for the day. Not in the picture, is my black lab who decided to find a hiding hen about ten yards behind the I-phone taking the photo. Like me, she would rather do anything rather than take a picture. It, the hen, got added to the bag. Ended up with 15 pheasant and two residual quail. Not wild birds, but fun none the less.

Owner told me that they had a tower shoot a couple weeks earlier and those shooters were unable to hit anything. Something like 57 for 185 birds. Corporate shoot for employees and customers. None wanted to do walk up shoots afterwards. So the next day one group ended up with 53 birds across six shooters in one large field. They paid the standard residual bird rate and had one heck of a shoot. Kind of wish I was there, with my .410, but they frown on most .410 use. I guess if I had to watch bad shooting, I'd want better odds, with twice as much shot.