Bird Time

Behind Enemy Lines, Friends and Family, Hunting

Because Mr. Free Market is a Foul Evil BastardTM, he decided to send me a few scenic pics from his current sooper-seekrit location in Scottishland.  Here’s the general milieu (note the complete absence of freezing rain, for the first time ever in this event I’m told):

(Note that Mr. FM is not wearing a face condom, despite Scottish law.)

Then it’s off to the “boxes”:

 

Note the careful arranging of reloads in pairs, ready for the old Load & Slaughter routine in his Beretta O/U (gawd help us, but the man has such terrible taste in shotguns).

The group shot down several hundred grouse and partridge, but here’s a pic of one brace, taken by Mr. FM with a single barrel.

When I say “taken”, I mean “shot”, of course, not clubbed out of the sky with his shotgun (which would be poor form, of course).

I am so jealous I could spit.

7 comments

  2. Kim, I am not on the same page with you about the Beretta O/U’s, I just returned from our annual Dove Hunt out of Abilene, TX where there were only ten of us this year. The shooting was decent and my son who came down from Colorado used the 12 ga. Sporting Clays, Beretta O/U I gave him years and years ago when I decided to go with my 20 ga. Sporting Clays, Beretta O/U and we limited out two days in a row once more. My son does have a nice looking restored 12 ga. side by side with straight stock and splinter forearm that he brings along to finish out his limit once he hits 12 or 13 doves, so there’s that. As for me I have shot my 20 ga. on quail, doves and pheasant tower shoots and with a 30 inch barrel it brings birds down.

    While I appreciate the traditional looks of the side by side shotguns I have never shot one enough to get in the groove like I do with my 20 ga. which my son had custom stock bending done for me for my 70th birthday a half a decade ago, it shoots where I am looking when I take the time to shoot it properly. Since doves are all I shoot anymore every year it takes me time to settle down and let each shot develop instead of just shooting holes in the sky. My last six dove the second evening were brought down with 12 shots and that felt good.

    Any day out shooting is a good one and bringing down game for the table makes it an excellent day.

    1. My comment about Mr. FM’s gun choice is something of an inside joke. The store manager at Purdey once remarked, when I made some comment about Mr. FM’s Berettas, “Well, he has such deplorable taste in guns” — which I have used to dig at him ever since.

      The plain fact of the matter is that Mr. FM is an absolutely deadly shot with his Beretta O/U, usually getting something like a 75% kill rate at birds and around 90% at clays. When he tells me he got two birds with a single shot, I believe him.

      So I mock him about his guns, because he sure as hell has the last laugh on me once it comes to shooting time…

  3. Gorgeous! Except anymore, it seems everywhere there is a beautiful vista, it is befouled by those fucking wind turbines.
    I wonder if they have have killed off birds by the hundreds there as they have many other places?

  4. Mr FM is free to not wear a facemask because he is outdoors and socially distant from anyone else. Note that in the 4th picture the two people are the requisite distance apart.

    1. I thought Your Nicola had mandated masks at all times, regardless. Maybe my info is out of date. Wouldn’t be the first time.

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