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A First Hunt With Judge Parker & Doc Bismuth
After losing out on a morning hunt to two medical appointments after arriving home and having lunch I figured you can't kill birds sitting on the couch so I set out for an afternoon sit in the blind and I invited two new partners to join me, Judge Parker and his good friend Doc Bismuth.
After arriving at the spot we decided on I set out a whole dozen and a half Big Al's X-14 Snow silos while my senior partners relaxed and patiently waited to do their part in the hunt.
Todays adventure was a first for Judge Parker, Doc Bismuth and yours truly to get together on a hunt and I have to say I foresee many more adventures as the three of us had much in common and it was as if we had known each other for years.
We connected well without a word exchanged between us in the blind all afternoon. Somehow each knew exactly what the other was thinking and needed to do as a team when a few geese came into good shooting range.
The Judge is definitely senior to me having been born in 1911 at the Parker Bros factory in Meriden, Connecticut. He is of VH ancestry with a #2 sized frame and sports a set of full choked 30" barrels.
Doc Bismuth was born at the Eley Cartridge Company and packs a very potent punch for only a 2 3/4 dram equivalent, 1oz of # 4 shot in his short 2 1/2" length. The two of them working together absolutely stoned flat out the accused after The Judge handed down sentence.
We hunted an area next to a small drainage ditch spilling it's banks over into a livestock winter pasture. The geese have been using it as a day loaf after feeding in nearby fields the past two and a half days.
We sat and watched as geese, ducks and even a couple Bald Eagles cycled back and forth over the next two hours from their main roost one mile south.
The Judge, Doc and I picked our shots carefully owing to close proximity to buildings and livestock but we managed to collect 5 nice mature Snows before the geese took flight around 4 pm to head out to feed.
The three of us sat another 30 minutes in silence just taking in and appreciating the miracle before us of the annual cycle of life in all it's spring glory as birds fattening up on waste grain traded back and forth from water to feed before their biological clocks would push them to move on and get home to the breeding grounds.
We looked at the bounty tucked in the corner of our solo blind that mother nature had decided to share with us and we thought we have done well and there is no need to be greedy, there will be another hunt tomorrow or another day soon.
It had been a great couple hours with my new partners so we decided to pack it in with our 5 geese rather than wait for the birds to return after feeding opting instead to give the returning birds a quiet loaf to water and rest prior to heading to their overnight roost and we promised each other to get together again Friday for another quick afternoon hunt.
I retrieved my truck parked in the landowners bin yard, packed up our gear and put it in the truck.
The Judge and Doc wanted to have their pictures taken with our brace of Snow Geese. The Judge could not remember when he had last been invited by his previous hunting partner on a goose hunt though he was certain it had been many decades.
I had wondered how The Judge and Doc would perform together and if the three of us would be able to work well together?
It was obvious The Judge and Doc were a well oiled duo but throwing my experience, or lack thereof with double trigger guns into the mix showed there is much room for improvement, not an easy task getting my slow moving brain to engage and realize that both barrels cannot be fired by one single trigger, that after the first shot the finger needs to find the second trigger for the second shot to be fired, preferably before the remaining geese have slipped out of range.
Overall though I would say the three of us had a very successful first hunt and I look forward to many more hunts with my senior partner and his younger upstart Doc Bismuth.
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After losing out on a morning hunt to two medical appointments after arriving home and having lunch I figured you can't kill birds sitting on the couch so I set out for an afternoon sit in the blind and I invited two new partners to join me, Judge Parker and his good friend Doc Bismuth.
After arriving at the spot we decided on I set out a whole dozen and a half Big Al's X-14 Snow silos while my senior partners relaxed and patiently waited to do their part in the hunt.
Todays adventure was a first for Judge Parker, Doc Bismuth and yours truly to get together on a hunt and I have to say I foresee many more adventures as the three of us had much in common and it was as if we had known each other for years.
We connected well without a word exchanged between us in the blind all afternoon. Somehow each knew exactly what the other was thinking and needed to do as a team when a few geese came into good shooting range.
The Judge is definitely senior to me having been born in 1911 at the Parker Bros factory in Meriden, Connecticut. He is of VH ancestry with a #2 sized frame and sports a set of full choked 30" barrels.
Doc Bismuth was born at the Eley Cartridge Company and packs a very potent punch for only a 2 3/4 dram equivalent, 1oz of # 4 shot in his short 2 1/2" length. The two of them working together absolutely stoned flat out the accused after The Judge handed down sentence.
We hunted an area next to a small drainage ditch spilling it's banks over into a livestock winter pasture. The geese have been using it as a day loaf after feeding in nearby fields the past two and a half days.
We sat and watched as geese, ducks and even a couple Bald Eagles cycled back and forth over the next two hours from their main roost one mile south.
The Judge, Doc and I picked our shots carefully owing to close proximity to buildings and livestock but we managed to collect 5 nice mature Snows before the geese took flight around 4 pm to head out to feed.
The three of us sat another 30 minutes in silence just taking in and appreciating the miracle before us of the annual cycle of life in all it's spring glory as birds fattening up on waste grain traded back and forth from water to feed before their biological clocks would push them to move on and get home to the breeding grounds.
We looked at the bounty tucked in the corner of our solo blind that mother nature had decided to share with us and we thought we have done well and there is no need to be greedy, there will be another hunt tomorrow or another day soon.
It had been a great couple hours with my new partners so we decided to pack it in with our 5 geese rather than wait for the birds to return after feeding opting instead to give the returning birds a quiet loaf to water and rest prior to heading to their overnight roost and we promised each other to get together again Friday for another quick afternoon hunt.
I retrieved my truck parked in the landowners bin yard, packed up our gear and put it in the truck.
The Judge and Doc wanted to have their pictures taken with our brace of Snow Geese. The Judge could not remember when he had last been invited by his previous hunting partner on a goose hunt though he was certain it had been many decades.
I had wondered how The Judge and Doc would perform together and if the three of us would be able to work well together?
It was obvious The Judge and Doc were a well oiled duo but throwing my experience, or lack thereof with double trigger guns into the mix showed there is much room for improvement, not an easy task getting my slow moving brain to engage and realize that both barrels cannot be fired by one single trigger, that after the first shot the finger needs to find the second trigger for the second shot to be fired, preferably before the remaining geese have slipped out of range.
Overall though I would say the three of us had a very successful first hunt and I look forward to many more hunts with my senior partner and his younger upstart Doc Bismuth.
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