Benelli 20 gauge Montefeltro
16 Gauge L C Smith
A5 Browning 20 Gauge
I have been guiding at Bird Fever Hunting Preserve quite a bit in December but I haven’t been hunting or training dogs to have anything to write about on my blog so I told Keith that I needed some time off. I have been off all week and the wind chill has been below zero each day. Too cold to train dogs or hunt.
A friend, Dennis Garrison, left me a message about a lost gun that he would tell me about the next time we talked. This got me to thinking about driving off and leaving my gun lying beside the road several years ago.
A lot of years ago I was hunting in Caldwell County, Missouri. Back in those days there were lots of birds but I don’t remember whether this was a good day or not but it was early afternoon when I was quitting. When I got back to my truck the farmer was pulling into the field, on his tractor, near where I was parked. Following him were 3 large dogs. I laid my A-5 Browning 20 gauge down in the ditch beside the road and loaded my dogs into their boxes so they wouldn’t get in a fight with the farmers dogs. I waved at the farmer and got in my truck and drove away.
I was stopped at a stop sign, about 20 miles down the road, waiting on a car to pass, when I reached behind the seat and squeezed the gun case. This is a habit I have picked up over the years because I know how forgetful I can be. Needless to say, the gun case was empty. I made a U-turn.
When I got back to the place I had parked I could see the gun lying in the ditch. Anyone that happened to look would have seen it. I was very lucky it was still there. This is one of the guns that was stolen off of me and I found it 17 years later. Go to October of 2013 to read about that.
A few years ago I was working on some reloads for my skeet shooting. I like to shoot 3/4 ounce loads, for skeet, even in 12 gauge. This saves money but the big thing it cuts down on recoil. The Missouri Conservation Department has a really nice skeet and trap range about 2 miles from my house so, although it was really cold, I decided to shoot one round to see how the reloads shot.
Usually the range is manned by volunteers but on this day, no one was working. As I was getting my stuff out another shooter showed up. Ray was going to shoot 3 rounds so we shot a round together. Then I placed my 12 gauge over and under in a gun rack by the skeet field and pulled for Ray. When he shot his last target, because of the cold, I got in my truck and went home. I park my truck in the garage so I didn’t notice my gun being missing.
A couple of days later I went to get the gun from my truck to clean it. My heart almost stopped when I felt the empty gun case. I drove to the skeet range and asked the volunteer, that was working, if he had seen my gun. He said he hadn’t seen it but it was at the office. Ray had taken it to the office when he found it after I left. I still hear about this from time to time.
In the late 1990’s I had a back operation but before the operation I was taking some really heavy duty pain killers. With enough pain pills I could still bird hunt. I was hunting in Marshal County, Kansas. I had belonged to a hunting club. After hunting the available cover on an eighty acre place I went across the road on some walk-in property. I was hunting a young dog and he made a point in a grassy water way. I walked in front of him and 2 rooster pheasants got up right at my feet. I raised my gun, a 20 gauge Bennelli, to my shoulder and pulled the trigger. It snapped. I had forgot to load my gun.
Later that month I was hunting near Hutchinson, Kansas on some club land. I had hunted the cover on a 320 acre place and came back to the truck to load dogs and go to another farm. I laid my gun on top of the dog box and loaded the dogs. When I got to the next place I reached into the back for my gun. When I felt the empty gun case I knew immediately what I had done. I rushed to the back of the truck and the gun was still lying on the dog box.
A few days later I woke up really early and as I got a pain pill I noticed a paper, with the pills, listing the side effects. One of the side effects was forgetfulness. As forgetful as I am I don’t need anything to make it worse. I quit the pills immediately and an operation fixed my back.
This is a few of the things that have happened to me in a long life of hunting. If I wasn’t so forgetful it could have been a lot longer story.
After I posted this, I got to thinking; Dennis Garrison and I have talked since his message about the lost gun. He forgot to tell me about it and I forgot to ask.