Shooting

Hail Marys and Blind Chance

Circumstance has at times forced me to hunt with people who seem to feel compelled to fire at every bird that gets up, no matter how far out or at what angle. I often have enjoyed the companionship, but I don’t appreciate the attitude.
I     came by my distaste for this sort of nonsense early on and, I believe, honestly. When I was a kid, my father and I had to travel about a hundred miles to hunt pheasants. There were no pheasants to speak of where we lived—and in fact there was no pheasant season in the two southernmost tiers of Iowa counties. It’s different now, but that’s how it was then. So we’d drive north to Cedar Rapids, hook up with an old friend of Dad’s and drive even farther north to some little towns that probably don’t appear on a current map.
    Dad’s friend shot a Browning A-5 16-gauge, which in those post-war days was the ne plus ultra of guns. You just weren’t with it if you didn’t shoot an “automatic.” And Dad’s buddy shot... Read More »

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