- Joined
- Feb 28, 2002
- Messages
- 13,348
The perceptive among you will have gathered that there will be a hunting theme to this post - so it comes with the usual caveats - if that's not your particular deal, this probably isn't your particular thread.
But there is knife content - I promise!
Oh - and it's rather long and image intensive - dial up users and the like may wish to just go to the gallery here:
http://www.fototime.com/inv/446AF199706E9B2
*******
Okay, so I've pretty much been jumping out of my skin for three weeks waiting for this weekend to come. That's when I got the call from Dan inviting me to come along for a three day weekend at Camp Farr. Last year was my first opportunity to take hold of a few different custom hunting knives and put them through their intended paces. It was an absolutely invaluable learning experience and a HECK of a lot of fun to boot.
Let's say it didn't take long for an enthusiastic YES to follow the invite.
Dan said that, as an added wrinkle, we would take the dogs out for a Pheasant / Chukar hunt on the Friday before deer season opened.
Roger: "Great - sounds like a blast!"
Dan: "Good - I have a 20-guage that you can shoot."
Roger: "We must have a bad connection - sounds like you said you were going to put a gun in my hands."
Dan: "I did."
Roger: "Um, Dan, you've heard of Dick Cheyney, right?"
Dan: "Don't worry, you'll be fine."
Roger: "It wasn't precisely ME I was worried about, but I guess I can add it to the list."
What the heck - I didn't think I could forge a knife either, and Dan managed to walk me through that.
A leisurely 3 1/2 hour drive brought me from the suburbs of Oakville, Ontario, to the beautiful fields, streams and woods surrounding Dan's cabin. I do wish my back yard looked more like this, but hey, it just makes me soak up every minute of the time I am there:
I had a quiet afternoon to myself, then by nightfall I was joined by Dan, his brother Eric and our general partner in crime, Matt Gregory.
And being a bunch of knife guys, we had no shortage of quality custom blades with us:
It was too dark to practice any shooting, but Dan gave me about a 1 hour talk and demonstration on how to safely handle a shotgun and use one to knock a bird out of the sky. At the end of it, I felt fairly confident that I would get through the day without shooting Dan or Matt. Or the dogs. Or myself. But less confident that I would get a bird in the few seconds it takes them to fly out of the effective range of my gun.
Matt brought Big 12 to the field...
Which looked like this:
That's about the best view we would get of Duke (and his hunting companion Penny) for the next two hours, because the tall grass not only provided excellent ground cover for the birds, it made keeping an eye on the dogs a real challenge:
Matt bagged a Pheasant right out of the gate, then graciously chose to hang back and shoot his camera instead to capture the rest of the afternoon in images. The superb shots which followed are all his.
With Duke on point, and a Chukar frozen a few feet from his nose, Dan and I approached in tandem, about 20 ft. apart. Dan: "If it breaks left it's yours, right and it's mine." The Chukar flew left, then directly away.
I remember Dan saying "It's yours".
I remember seing it streaking away.
I remember seeing it fall.
I don't remember aiming.
I don't remember pulling the trigger.
I didn't hear my gun fire or feel it kick.
I actually had to ask if I got it.
Duke had the conclusive answer.
Wow. Very surreal. And very cool.
END - Part 1 of 4
But there is knife content - I promise!
Oh - and it's rather long and image intensive - dial up users and the like may wish to just go to the gallery here:
http://www.fototime.com/inv/446AF199706E9B2
*******
Okay, so I've pretty much been jumping out of my skin for three weeks waiting for this weekend to come. That's when I got the call from Dan inviting me to come along for a three day weekend at Camp Farr. Last year was my first opportunity to take hold of a few different custom hunting knives and put them through their intended paces. It was an absolutely invaluable learning experience and a HECK of a lot of fun to boot.
Let's say it didn't take long for an enthusiastic YES to follow the invite.
Dan said that, as an added wrinkle, we would take the dogs out for a Pheasant / Chukar hunt on the Friday before deer season opened.
Roger: "Great - sounds like a blast!"
Dan: "Good - I have a 20-guage that you can shoot."
Roger: "We must have a bad connection - sounds like you said you were going to put a gun in my hands."
Dan: "I did."
Roger: "Um, Dan, you've heard of Dick Cheyney, right?"
Dan: "Don't worry, you'll be fine."
Roger: "It wasn't precisely ME I was worried about, but I guess I can add it to the list."
What the heck - I didn't think I could forge a knife either, and Dan managed to walk me through that.
A leisurely 3 1/2 hour drive brought me from the suburbs of Oakville, Ontario, to the beautiful fields, streams and woods surrounding Dan's cabin. I do wish my back yard looked more like this, but hey, it just makes me soak up every minute of the time I am there:
I had a quiet afternoon to myself, then by nightfall I was joined by Dan, his brother Eric and our general partner in crime, Matt Gregory.
And being a bunch of knife guys, we had no shortage of quality custom blades with us:
It was too dark to practice any shooting, but Dan gave me about a 1 hour talk and demonstration on how to safely handle a shotgun and use one to knock a bird out of the sky. At the end of it, I felt fairly confident that I would get through the day without shooting Dan or Matt. Or the dogs. Or myself. But less confident that I would get a bird in the few seconds it takes them to fly out of the effective range of my gun.
Matt brought Big 12 to the field...
Which looked like this:
That's about the best view we would get of Duke (and his hunting companion Penny) for the next two hours, because the tall grass not only provided excellent ground cover for the birds, it made keeping an eye on the dogs a real challenge:
Matt bagged a Pheasant right out of the gate, then graciously chose to hang back and shoot his camera instead to capture the rest of the afternoon in images. The superb shots which followed are all his.
With Duke on point, and a Chukar frozen a few feet from his nose, Dan and I approached in tandem, about 20 ft. apart. Dan: "If it breaks left it's yours, right and it's mine." The Chukar flew left, then directly away.
I remember Dan saying "It's yours".
I remember seing it streaking away.
I remember seeing it fall.
I don't remember aiming.
I don't remember pulling the trigger.
I didn't hear my gun fire or feel it kick.
I actually had to ask if I got it.
Duke had the conclusive answer.
Wow. Very surreal. And very cool.
END - Part 1 of 4
Last edited:
The Pheasant made straight for an adjacent tree line and dipped. I shot the second barrel.
