Hunting
Scott Mclean
I’ve commented how marksmanship was important in our family. We ate a lot of wild game so hitting what you aimed at was critical. The first shotgun I hunted with was a H and R M48 Topper. This was a break action 20 gauge single shot that Dad had started with before me.
I still have it.
Dad had gone to a Noble 12 gauge pump by this time.
They were sold by Montgomery Ward and I have it as well.
They would let me go out with a pocket full of shells and I was expected to bring some quail or pheasant home.
No birds no more shells!
Dad hunted with Mom’s brothers most of the time. Before I was around he had a bird dog that was a good hunter but kind of a K9 jerk. Sounds like Steve’s pointer Izzy!
Something was going on with Dad’s shotgun and he had been loaned an old double barrel 12 gauge from Grandpa Sorenson. Evidently this gun would sometimes fire both barrels at once. It seemed the hammers would also sometimes let go without a trigger being pulled. Dad said he damned near shot his bird dog when the thing went off on its own.
Dad sometimes would get badgered into meeting a bunch of coworkers from H&H meat packing for deer or elk hunting. He usually wrote those days off as going to be unproductive.
He did make a few bucks on these. He would sometimes take me along when I was 8 or 9. I had gotten proficient with the old Springfield 30-06 that would eventually be mine. The bunch would start bragging about marksmanship and Dad would tell them that the kid could knock a branch off a log or something similar using that heavy old open sight rifle.
Not having been raised in our family, they weren’t used to the idea of a kid my age firing something like a 30-06. Dad always told us to move with the recoil.
Anyway, it would end up with something like a 20 dollar bet that I couldn’t hit said target. This was 65 or 66 and 20 bucks was a good amount. He eventually won about 80 bucks on me before he ran out of suckers. I think I got a couple of milkshakes out of the deal but it was fun.
Dad taught us right and I’ve always been able to hit what I aimed at. The next generation of the family carries that on.
That’s it for now. Bye.