No turkeys, but, pheasants in Olgilvie, MN. On Friday past:



The boy, dog, a friend, and I went to Pheasant Ridge. I had been promising a trip to the game farm for, well, all winter, but, it would snow about a foot every weekend for the last 5 months, or, be -50 degrees at high noon. The trip was a comedy of errors. The kid forgot his boots (remembered TWO devices, games for both and vehicle charging systems, however) and only hunted about half the day in tennis shoes. The owner’s dog decided to join us early on, and I had to catch the pooch, (8 month old male German Stupid Pointer) walk him through standing corn and sorghum by his collar, and return him to where he belonged, maybe a half mile away. Nice enough pooch, but my Setter was terrified of him. I had my friend Bill along, and some of you might remember a Bruchet Darne R11 that was reviewed in Shooting Sportsman back in the 1990s- that gun, along with Bill, took a swim in a creek that was way deeper than it looked. If you could convince them to build you that gun today, I’d bet it would blow a big hole in 10K. I did not intend to shoot (vision issues from surgery to repair a detached retina) and did not even bring a gun, but, when my kid could no longer stand his wet and cold feet, I took his gun, a Mossberg youth 20 gauge with a 26” barrel fitted by me, and knocked a rooster down that Louise nailed, in what would have been a magazine cover quality point on the edge of standing corn. Next point, I muffed, having forgotten to pump the little 20 gauge. Bill picked up a few birds off Louie’s points, and then we called it quits. It was a beautiful day, and, inspite of everything, pretty fun.

We will do better, next time. I think. I hope.

Best,
Ted