Issue link: https://www.e-digitaleditions.com/i/528216
S P O R T I N G C L A S S I C S 3 0 me to carry the gun for you, Daddy?" "Thanks . . . I'm good." Then in another few minutes: "Dad, you sure you don't want me to carry that gun?" And suddenly I realized that my darlin' little daughter actually wanted to carry the gun herself. "Well, it is getting a little heavy," I replied as she wrested it from my hands. "You sure you don't mind?" I watched discreetly as she carried the little beauty through the show that day, properly broken open with its muzzle always pointed safely to the floor. "What'cha got there, honey?" became the still-recurring question. "A. Hill and Son . . . little English 16 gauge." "She for sale?" "Nope." I honestly think I lost the gun to my daughter by the time we left the show that day, though in the years since she has graciously allowed me to hunt with it. I have taken more quail and grouse and pheasants and woodcock with that gun than I could ever count. I first carried it to Georgia a couple of months after we brought it home, where I met up with John Skinner of Orvis fame. John took the gun back to Vermont and thoroughly checked it out and cleaned it and fitted it with a new leather butt-pad. When we returned to Georgia later that fall, John and I, Bruce Bowlen, and Todd Rogers headed out onto the plantation, where I took my very first quail with it. Old Barney, Todd's high-spirited English cocker, flushed the bird from in front of the pointers. It was a hard right-to-left crossing shot through the live oaks and longleaf pines. Having never swung on a live bird with the gun, I wasn't quite sure what to expect, especially with the little auburn-colored rocket erratically disappearing and reappearing through the thick autumn foliage. But sure enough, at the shot he folded up pretty as you please, and a moment later Barney was back at Todd's side with the warm, feathered confirmation that the old gun and I were now officially a pair. Three singles and a double fell before I missed a shot, and by evening's end Skinner and Todd were trying to buy her from me. They might just as well have tried to buy my daughter. S ince that memorable quail hunt, I have carried it for more miles than I can ever hope to recall. A few months ago my friend and gun-finishing wizard, Brian Board of Timberluxe fame, touched up the scarred wood and refreshed the worn, flat-top British checkering, and now she's good to go for another decade or two. This past season I took her down to Rio Piedra in southern Georgia for quail with Jim Carmichel and the gang, along with Jim's Holland & Holland, Mister Marc's new Merkel, my old 1929 Purdey, Brian's custom-stocked Winchester Model 21, and Murph's new Galazan RBL. As always, she fit right in with the more elegant guns and did me proud. In the end, I'm certain she will outlast me. But no matter where the future might lead, I find great satisfaction in knowing this lovely little gun will always be my most faithful field companion. Note: Signed copies of Michael Altizer's latest book, Nineteen Years To Sunrise, can be ordered online at SportingClassicsStore.com— click on "Books." Or simply call 1-800-849-1004. The author always welcomes and appreciates your comments, questions and input. Please keep in touch at Mike@AltizerJournal.com.