Firesteel Redux

As Sinatra once warbled, “Love is lovelier, the second time around.” Dunno about teenage amours, but in the delightfully not-quite-real world of hunting trips, Ol’ Blue Eyes may have gotten it right.

One of SSM’s annual Readers & Writers Adventures was a return visit to Firesteel Creek Lodge (http://www.firesteelcreeklodge.com/), in Isabel, South Dakota. We usually visit a different lodge each year, but Firesteel put on such a good shoot for us last year that we returned by popular demand. We had eight returnees from last year, four graduates of other SSM shoots and two most welcome new members of the club.

As usual, the Lindskov family treated us like their own. There was hearty brown food and plenty of it, plus enough smoked pheasant and marinated sharp-tailed grouse to please the discriminating Epicurus himself.

Due to what must be the Lindskovs’ arrangement with Higher Powers, the rain and cold weather predicted in the forecast did not materialize. It was great hunting, with sunshine and temperatures mostly in the 60s. As usual and expected, there were tons of pheasants, but there were also some Hungarian partridge and fleets of elusive sharptails. While ostensibly a pheasant hunt, our group (alias The Lead Curtain) was very successful in tracking down the elusive sharpies in the vast sunflower fields. By the end of three days of hunting, the majority of our crew had claimed at least one of each bird species.

On the second night of these hunts we usually have a “show and tell” where folks can show off their guns after dinner. While most of us bring a couple of guns, one of our party brought a small gun show. It consisted of about a dozen fabulous antique hammerguns, including a Manton original. These were working guns, too, and accounted for their fair share of birds. Another brought a half-dozen high-end works of art. We also had a McKay Brown in the mix. It was great to see so many fine guns being used as intended instead of being squirreled away in some sanitized and untouched collection.

Luncheons were in the field—in the sunshine and sheltered from the prairie wind. On the second day it was decided to serve pheasant for dinner that evening. One of the guides was asked to haul a bunch of birds back to the lodge. Haul he did: in his own little two-seater helicopter. I was lucky enough to go along for the ride. During the trip over the seemingly empty prairie grass, I saw a pair of bald eagles, a trio of antelope, deer, cattle, Huns, pheasants, sharptails, Merriam’s turkeys plus a couple of prairie dog towns. There was more life down there than in Times Square.

And speaking of prairie dogs, one of our group brought along his .223 and spent a morning dealing with them. Very successfully, I might add.

While I certainly don’t want this to be yet another mindlessly gushing review of the usual pheasant hunt, this SSM Readers & Writers hunt at Firesteel really was something special. It was a special group of guys and a special place.

And in the evenings, it was most definitely: Boots off. Beer open.