quote:
I need to save my pennies for one of these. I had a squirrel wake up and chew a hole in a vest once, and the following season a dove woke up and worked his way out of the extra hole in my vest and took off flying ... or maybe I just need to do a better job of incapacitating squirrels and birds.
quote:
Please tell me this is a true story.
100% true. The story starts when I won a
Winchester Model 9410 in a NWTF banquet that my dad was volunteered at several years ago. The 9410 is a really cool gun - kind of looks like an old 1894 30-30, but it's a lever action .410 that only shoots 2 1/2 inch .410 shells. However, it was full choke with decent sites, and so I got a wild hair to go squirrel hunting with it. Now, my dad and I have a long tradition of squirrel hunting together (followed by a dinner of mom's squirrel gumbo later), and I usually take one of my grandfather's old .410's, so this wasn't a new idea. However, I never tried it with 2 1/2 inch shells.
When I went to buy the shorter shells, I had a bit of trouble finding them, and the only ones I could find were #6s. Undeterred, I took it to the woods with my trusty old game vest I bought with my allowance in about 1992 when heading out on my first dove hunt in Abilene, TX.
Anyway, I had a bit of a problem that day in the pineywoods of East Texas. I kept knocking squirrels out of trees with those #6 shells, but then they'd hit the ground running and I'd have to shoot them again or knock them in the head. My count was off at the end of the day, but I found a hole gnawed in the corner of the game bag portion of the vest. I didn't notice the offending escapee, which isn't really unsurprising as I spent a lot of the day sitting against a tree when I guess he could have slinked out without my noticing.
Fast forward about a year, and as I couldn't find a cheap replacement in time, I planned to use the same old game vest for dove hunting. I was in Breckenridge opening morning with a little Stevens 512 Goldwing o/u .28 that I acquired, and was heading in for lunch with a full bag when I felt a rustling in my bag and out popped a dove. He took off flying, but due to his injuries he stalled in mid air and just hovered in front of me. I dispatched him in a puff of feathers from about 3 feet away, and then I finally retired the old game vest.
