Hunting 2020 - the finale

Okay I know I've teased this one enough but one of the real reasons for these posts being slow is that Google Photos is just KILLING me. It uploads what it feels like uploading when it feels like uploading it. I've got a ton of pictures in my hunting album that it just will not upload. Then it gives zero error messages, just "Nope, I don't want to upload that." I made a negative review yesterday and Google basically said "It's not us it's you." which, combined with a bunch of other negative recent reviews makes me think they know they have a problem but don't want to admit it. *Sigh* the Google Photos to Blogger workflow was so good...

Anyway after I came back from deer camp I had a couple weeks where I was working nights, class started at 7pm and went until 2am. This left me with a bunch of time during the day so I thought I might go see if I could find some pheasants. I went out once early in the season and while I found other hunters I didn't see any birds. This time I tried a different spot and the foolish things were waiting in the road for me when I drove up.

That's my grandfather's Remington Model 31 shotgun in 16 gauge. I've always had a soft spot for 16 gauge, its a little unusual. The 31 is commonly regarded as the smoothest pump shotgun ever made. I really like that its light and easy to carry, although that first bird was really easy I still spent a bunch of time stomping around looking for birds.

When I was a kid my uncle Reg (really my great uncle) told me that sometimes deer would step out of the woods and look at a truck driving by, so if you were following a truck you should leave a big gap so you could catch that deer. The second day I went out I didn't see any birds in the field but as I was leaving I paused and let some bow hunters out in front of me. As they drove out this pheasant stepped into the road behind them. By the time I got out it had retreated into the ditch but I'm not too proud to shoot a ditch bird. ;)

Having gotten a couple birds with the 31 I thought I might try my 11ga side by side muzzleloader. You might remember this from some previous posts. Its a fine old gun although its long so its not a great bush gun. It was fine lugging it around in the field though which is really what it was intended for.

I actually shot two birds with this gun, the only time I managed to get two in one day. I'm working on a story that I'm going to try to get published in "Muzzleblasts" which is the periodical of the National Muzzleloading Rifle Association. If that happens I will, of course, let you know.

So anyway I ended the season with 5 pheasants which we can add to 5 ducks and 5 partridge and zero deer. Yes, there, I've said it, I got skunked. It was a tough year, we had some snow early in the season and then nothing toward the end. It got really cold, then warm. The deer didn't move the way I expected them to and pressure from other hunters took them out of the honey hole I shot my late season deer in last year. So it goes, better luck next year.