My First Hunting Trip

It was a Saturday morning in the fall. It wasn't raining,Jeff was nice enough to use the 12 gauge even
but it wasn't real warm either. After all, summer wasthough he knew it would really kick. I really liked the
over, the days were getting shorter and the leaves20 gauge. It had very little kick and was light, so it
were starting to fall. It wasn't cold enough to gowas easy to carry.
skiing. In other words, I had no idea what I wasWe walked around the field and shot pigeons
going to do that day. Just when I feared that mywhenever they flew by. Most people that shoot at
mom was going to ask me to rake the leaves, thebirds make the mistake of shooting right at the bird,
phone rang. It was my friend Jeff. He wanted tobut I had some experience at shooting skeet, so I
know if I wanted to go hunting that day, naturally Iwas familiar with principles of lead. After we took a
said yes.few shots, I was really glad that I didn't have the 12
Jeff's dad was an avid hunter who had plenty ofgauge. Jeff was an experienced shooter, but his
guns and two hunting dogs. Both dogs were Germanshoulder was turning red, even though he was
Shorthairs, which is a good breed for hunting. Sallywearing a coat.
was the older dog; she could barely walk, so Jeff andAs we walked around the field, we had to go around
his dad didn't usually take her out hunting anymore.a large batch of blackberry vines. As we walked
Betsy was young and hadn't been on very manyaround the vines, a flock of quail surprised us by
hunts, so she still had a lot to learn.taking flight right in front of us. They were way too
I went over to Jeff's early on that Saturday morningquick for me, so my shot missed. Jeff's shot,
not knowing what to expect. As soon as I arrived,however, got one, so I got to see where experience
Jeff got out two shotguns. One was a 12 gauge andhelps.
the other was a 20 gauge. Sally, the oldest dog,One time we spotted a pigeon sitting in an oak tree.
absolutely went nuts as soon as she saw the guns. IWe both threw rocks at it because we figured it
couldn't believe it, Sally was running all over the housewouldn't be very sporting to shoot a pigeon that was
like a puppy. There was no way that we could leavejust sitting there. Rocks didn't work and yelling didn't
her behind as we originally intended. We loaded thework, so I shot it. Neither one of us wanted to take
guns and the dogs into Jeff's car and only had toit home though because we were afraid that maybe
drive about three miles to the field where we wereit wouldn't fly because it was sick. The dogs
going to hunt. It was a field then, but 40 years laterperformed about like we expected. Sally was good
the only crops in that field are office buildings andat fetching downed birds, but Betsy didn't know
parking lots.what to do. She would pick up the birds and run
After we got to the field I noticed three or fouraround. We ended up retrieving a lot of the birds
duck blinds around the field's perimeter. I figured thatourselves. At the end of the day, we had 15 pigeons
the farmer must rent the field to a hunt club duringand Jeff had gotten a couple of quail.
duck hunting season. I used Jeff's dads 20 gauge and