I'm fortunate to have done enough work for a gentleman that I have access to his big ass ranch up around the 5 and 138 that I can hunt quail on. My father who is going on 75 has been wanting to go and I finally had a chance to take him this past weekend.
He has been out of hunting for a long time but got his license for this trip and I loaned him my beautiful condition Belgium A5. I only own two shotguns, that one and my old go to SKB Model 100 side by side. The entire drive up my dad kept crowing on about how beautiful the gun is, how much he hopes that I care for it enough to hand down to my sons and that by god that gun wasn't going to hit the ground under any circumstance. Crap like "son if I start to fall I will break my body before your gun hits the ground". "Son your gun will not get nicked, banged or chipped, I will shoulder roll and protect it." Talking smack (love my old man, it is where I got my masters degree in BS from) the entire way up.
Well on day two we busted up a covey and were rounding up the singles and doubles. At one point we were going up a sand wash and from the distance I hear "oh shit". As I look over my old man is at 45 degrees, straight as a board like doing push-ups holding my gun like a barbell with him doing upside down bench presses. What did he do to break his fall? Jammed the damn gun straight into the sand bottom first. It literally filled up the action through open bottom part entirely. We were banging on the receiver and sand was pouring out like a hour glass. It was the funniest thing I've seen in a long time. Fortunately for him this was our last walk of the trip before packing up and going home because the action was non op after that.
It is going to take me forever to fully clean out the action and I'm looking forward to a solid years worth of busting his balls over this one.
I have hunted with him once in the last 15 years and enjoyed it so much I hope he and I can get back there once more before season closer. Epic weekend with a great story. This weekend has been a great reminder of how special family is and makes me long for the day my two sons are old enough hunt with me.
As for the birds, no pics. We got into a couple small coveys on day one and I bagged a few. Day two pre A5 incident we got into a freaking massive covey and I couldn't have hit the broad side of a barn from point blank. I missed enough gimmie, layup type shots to have easily limited but it just wasn't my day evidently. I didn't even get a tail feather to fly.
He has been out of hunting for a long time but got his license for this trip and I loaned him my beautiful condition Belgium A5. I only own two shotguns, that one and my old go to SKB Model 100 side by side. The entire drive up my dad kept crowing on about how beautiful the gun is, how much he hopes that I care for it enough to hand down to my sons and that by god that gun wasn't going to hit the ground under any circumstance. Crap like "son if I start to fall I will break my body before your gun hits the ground". "Son your gun will not get nicked, banged or chipped, I will shoulder roll and protect it." Talking smack (love my old man, it is where I got my masters degree in BS from) the entire way up.
Well on day two we busted up a covey and were rounding up the singles and doubles. At one point we were going up a sand wash and from the distance I hear "oh shit". As I look over my old man is at 45 degrees, straight as a board like doing push-ups holding my gun like a barbell with him doing upside down bench presses. What did he do to break his fall? Jammed the damn gun straight into the sand bottom first. It literally filled up the action through open bottom part entirely. We were banging on the receiver and sand was pouring out like a hour glass. It was the funniest thing I've seen in a long time. Fortunately for him this was our last walk of the trip before packing up and going home because the action was non op after that.
It is going to take me forever to fully clean out the action and I'm looking forward to a solid years worth of busting his balls over this one.
I have hunted with him once in the last 15 years and enjoyed it so much I hope he and I can get back there once more before season closer. Epic weekend with a great story. This weekend has been a great reminder of how special family is and makes me long for the day my two sons are old enough hunt with me.
As for the birds, no pics. We got into a couple small coveys on day one and I bagged a few. Day two pre A5 incident we got into a freaking massive covey and I couldn't have hit the broad side of a barn from point blank. I missed enough gimmie, layup type shots to have easily limited but it just wasn't my day evidently. I didn't even get a tail feather to fly.
