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< 16ga. General Discussion ~ Chapter III--An Indiana Story: The Buck and the Rooster |
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Posted:
Sun Nov 27, 2005 9:36 am
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Joined: 15 Oct 2004
Posts: 787
Location: Indiana
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My dog and I were out very early Saturday; I had breakfast at the local "watering hole" with a group of farmer friends at 5:30 am. I like to get the latest on who's seeing which birds where. By a little after 8 we all had solved the world's problems, so Pal and I were in the field, working a weedy, sandy ditchbank full of foxtail assorted weeds and "sand dollars"(a big, green fleshy weed that resembles a cactus). To our north lay an open, harvested corn field with an irrigation system, and a woodlot about 200 yards north of that.
We were working the ditchbank, and later, the crescent of heavy weeds which curved out into the south end of the same field. I happened to look up and see a very big buck, standing under the irrigation pivot, maybe 175 yards away. He would lower his head, peer at us curiously and stamp his hoof, moving from side to side. All at once, he trotted toward us, prancing with a high-stepping gait, looking for all the world like a Tennessee Walking Horse in the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade. I was not sure what to make of this, because we're in the middle of Indiana's deer season and continued behavior of this sort in an open field will certainly get this buck killed ! The deer approcahed to within 100 yards when Pal got birdy,and a rooster erupted from a tangle of weeds to my left.
I had the Merkel 1620 with me, and raising the SxS, I fired a shot from the IC barrel and the bird fell. When I looked back for the buck, he was long gone.
We finished out the morning by hunting a huge field of CRP, harvesting our last bird from the canary grass; it was a close shot as the Golden froze in his tracks, tail straight out, pinning the bird, so I had warning and when the rooster flushed I shot him 10 yards or so out, too close; the wind blew the spray of feathers straight back onto me and our hunt was over. Pal flushed another rooster on the way out, but we were done for the day. The buck was another adventure in a season that's rewarded us amply thus far.... |
_________________ One Man with Courage is a Majority
---Andrew Jackson |
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Posted:
Mon Nov 28, 2005 9:44 am
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Member
Joined: 24 Aug 2004
Posts: 225
Location: San Rafael, CA
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Wolfchief: Keep up the journal; the writing is of better content than some of the hunting books that I sell. |
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Posted:
Mon Nov 28, 2005 4:56 pm
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Joined: 15 Oct 2004
Posts: 787
Location: Indiana
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Parker: I'd love to; a further installment will take place after next Saturday's hunt. There always seems to be an adventure in the area I hunt; I really came upon some good friends and good fortune when I came to be President of a rural community bank about 16 years ago. My hunting area was once a marsh of some 60,000 acres. When it was partially drained and farmed in the early 1900's, there were and still are some relatively remote areas (for Indiana, anyway) which hold a lot of game, especially pheasants, waterfowl, deer, rabbits, and coyotes. I feel truly blessed.... |
_________________ One Man with Courage is a Majority
---Andrew Jackson |
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Posted:
Tue Nov 29, 2005 6:18 pm
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Member
Joined: 20 Nov 2005
Posts: 117
Location: Jonesboro, AR
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wolfchief, where are you from anyway. I load watermelons around Vincennes every summer. Looks like some good quail/ pheasant hunting around the white river bottoms around there. I have a house south of Vincennes at my disposal. If I thought the bird hunting was good up there, I would go(it's about 5 hours from Jboro, AR) let me know if we're close. I'm always up for a good shoot with folks who know how. mod11rem |
_________________ If I can't throw lead from a 16, I'd just as soon throw rocks. |
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Posted:
Tue Nov 29, 2005 7:33 pm
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Joined: 15 Oct 2004
Posts: 787
Location: Indiana
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We're about 15 miles from the Michigan line; west of South Bend. It would be roughly 5 hours north of Vincennes....you are probably right about the quail in the river bottoms around Vincennes, but there would be very few pheasants down there---they like prairie soil. I tried to set up a duck hunt down there a year or so ago, but the owner/outfitter told me the ducks never really made it down there in force due to the dry weather... |
_________________ One Man with Courage is a Majority
---Andrew Jackson |
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