recoil resulting from firing angle with
the extra-heavy loads steel shot requires on high overhead shot.
But they are awkward and heavy to carry when walking. Jump-shooting
ducks, as I do it, is an on-foot game and, at my age, a good
retriever serves as a double blessing because I can forgo the
weight of waders or hipboots without getting my feet wet. For
that reason I carry a better-balanced, easy to carry over/under.
Having shot my share of birds over the year, I compensated to
the "small gauge" by refraining from taking a poke
at ducks out on the fringe or proven killing range.
Perhaps the shot I took was questionable because it wasn't a
clean kill. But the charge propelled out of the lower tube, choked
improve cylinder, was No. 4 shot, the 3-inch 20 gauge shell being
comparable to a lot of 12 gauge loads. It was delivered by another
cheap gun, a Russian-made Baikal with a stock having more drop
and 3/8 inch shorter than I my costly doubles to accommodate
heavier clothing and, believe it not, among other practical features,
mechanical triggers. For less than the cost of a good pumpgun,
I can shoot the gunstyle to which I've become most accustomed
with a tool that can be cavalierly treated in skiff, blind or
auto or banged about in a saddle scabbard.
I've long ago given up blaming gun and load for a poor mount
and swing. If a shot is on the sloppy side, no sweat. Virtually
assured recovery of anything that folds is why I spend time training
good gun dogs. I also reduce the incidence of slop shooting by
the perverse practice of shooting heavy loads of course shot,
out of open chokes and light loads a fine shot out of tight bores.
This shot put a duck down on the water with a broken left wing.
Knowing I hadn't killed it I fol |
lowed it down, prepared to try to deliver
the coup de gras with the modified barrel. A real cool gunner
would not have squandered his opportunity to score a double.
But after it hit the water and was momentarily still, the rest
of the small flock were out of harm's way. Ever the optimist,
I glanced to make sure and when I looked back at the duck on
the water it was frantically making its way angling toward shore.
The head would have been a small target for even the loads of
No. 8 shot every duck hunter used to stash somewhere when lead
was legal (to headshoot crippled diver ducks which, in open water,
even the best retriever had no real chance of catching) much
less my steel backup load.
With that I turned to my ace of spades and she was where she
was suppose to be, head swiveling, tail fanning the bed of the
trail but butt |
anchored to the ground. There was no way
she could have seen the birds. She surely heard them and the
shot fired. But true to her off-season training she remained
steady and was ready to be the trump card. However, outside of
taking casual directional casts, she had no handling training.
This was a blind retrieve. Nonetheless, I figured all I'd have
to do is start her in the right direction, chances are the splashing
duck in open water would catch her keen eye and she'd herd it
ashore and catch it.
As had been done in training sessions when she flushed a bird,
sat and held to command until I sent her from some distance away,
I just released her and waved her down the west shoreline rather
than "lining" her from my side as is the classic manner
on blind retrieves.
Something clicked in or I got lucky. A couple of bounds broke
her |
