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| A Great Day on Blues in Texas |
I came across this picture of me, self-taken, after a day hunting blues in the TX panhandle. You can't see it but there is a limit of the little cotton-tops on the ground by my knee. I was driving out after a frustrating day, thinking about moving on up to SD, when I saw a bird flush to my left. I stopped, grabbed my gun, my dog Ace, a pocket of shells, and stepped off the graded sand road of the ranch. Right then the world exploded at my feet when 30 blues got up all around me. I mean, I stepped into the middle of them, and a bunch more ran off into the brush. Ace locked up to the flush and I watched as they scattered out along a stretch of flat, brushy, sandy, grazed-over pasture. The sun was at my back, the breeze was in my face, it was 30 deg. and there was a big grin on my face as we set out to some great shooting. Ace locked up time after time pointing two or three of the little buzz bombs before they erupted out of the cactus, shin-oak, or grass pile. We took our time, easing along and hitting all the cover, ditches and vegetation. What seemed like 5 minutes later (actually an hour or so), I grabbed for more shells and came up empty- with a dog on point, the sun on the horizon and the temperature dropping fast. I had one shell left in the A.H.Fox 20 ga. double and was one bird shy of the limit here in TX. (Limits never held much fascination for me. I rarely get close enough to worry about them on quail, but today it would be nice to round it out.) Ace was locked down at the base of a cactus as I eased on up alongside him. I glanced at his face and it was set in that stony look bird dogs get when they are dead center of the scent cone mesmerized by the smell. I kicked at the shrub and 5 gray blurs came out of that cactus heading in all points of the compass! As a lefty, I locked down on the one heading from my left to right. I checked his location down the barrels and pulled the trigger.......
It was a day to remember.
