Fox Smallbores Quail Hunt in Old Virginia

[Sporrns]

A couple of shots of yesterday's quail hunt in the hilly tall pine country between Charlottesville and Richmond. The day was WAY too hot for dogs, men, and birds, but just hot enough that Fox smallbores ruled! The straight grip gun is my 16 ga. 26" Sterly SKUGG and the lower gun is Bro Tom's A grade 26" (thanks, Harold Lee!!). Both guns bored wide open and perfect for the tasty little bullets - great dog work but had to change braces twice because of the high heat. Great day afield! Kevin

[vaturkey]

Kevin, that is super indeed. Foxes and Quail and bird dogs. Good as it gets. PS. I leave for Michigan tomorrow morning. My little Fox will be with me.

[Jim Cloninger]

That is great, Kevin. Thanks for the pictures.

[Sporrns]

Kevin, that is super indeed. Foxes and Quail and bird dogs. Good as it gets. PS. I leave for Michigan tomorrow morning. My little Fox will be with me.

Good luck in MI Tom! BTW - last weekend's NY grouse opener would have been a complete bust except buddy Pete made a nice shot on a lone woodcock, which we rarely encounter in the covers we hunt up there. Something has definitely happened / is going on up there. In 2 days of hard hunting, we heard exactly 3 grouse; this in covers we've hunted in for almost 35 years through thinning & trimming cycles in the forests, etc. The birds are simply not there. Did not hunt last year (got rained out). I'm beginning to think the well-documented PA grouse study on West Nile Virus' effect may show a migration of the virus into lower NY State - God, I hope not!! Two years ago in 2 1/2 days of hunting 5-7 separate cover tracts, it was nothing to move 9-12 birds per day!

[bbman3]

Kevin your skeet and upland Fox has very nice wood great hunt. Bobby

[Sporrns]

Thanks Bobby - I continue to be impressed at how much nicer the wood on that gun is than some of my higher grade Foxes. It was the perfect gun for that job!

[bbman3]

I put a Philly splinter on my 16 ga SU and it looks a lot better to me and shed about 2 ounces. Bobby

[birdawg]

The best of times, thanks for sharing

[Jeff S]

Kevin, that is super indeed. Foxes and Quail and bird dogs. Good as it gets. PS. I leave for Michigan tomorrow morning. My little Fox will be with me.

Good luck Tom. I went out Saturday morning near Williamsburg, just about 5 miles east of Traverse City. All I got was soggy feet. (heard one grouse flush). With your fine dogs I'm sure that you will do much better. Jeff

[DaddyWill]

Not smallbores but spent many days in my youth following my grandfather as he trained bird dogs. His gun was a 12 gauge Sterlingworth Fox, which was bored modified and improved cylinder. The interesting part was that back in those days of paper shells he used #12 shot before Christmas and 10 1/2 or 11 after Christmas. Reason being that the birds, supposedly, had more feathers in the colder weather.
We still have that old gun, almost 100 years old now.

[Sporrns]

Did they look anything like this?

[DaddyWill]

Don't remember the brand as he died in '66 so its been a while, although in my mind's eye I seem to remember both the yellow and green of Remington as well as the Winchester box.
Two separate notes if you don't mind. Several years before his death he lost his left hand in a farming accident. Afterwards the big Fox was to much for him to rest over the nub, so he borrowed a friends 20 gauge Ithaca double. Never had the success of before but how much of that was physical I don't know, but its indicative of his love of the sport.

Lastly, he was good friends with the judge in Brunswick County, they hunted together, and the judge would get him to guide he and his legal friends bird hunting. One particular time the group was from Ohio. At the time my grandfather had a matched pair of setters, Nick and Jake. One of the judges from Ohio was quite taken with Nick and after the hunt offered to buy him. While "refreshments" were being passed around the discussion continued and since the dog was not for sale became a bit, shall we say warm. Finally the Ohinean(sic) pulled out a check, signed it, slapped it on the hood of the truck and exclaimed "fill in the amount you want, Judge Baugh will tell you I'm good for it. The dogs going to Ohio with me."
Nick, rest his soul, died of old age years later in Meredithville, Virginia. Only time in my life I've truly seen a blank check.

[birdawg]

Great story. I had a upland loving Ranch owner in Kansas offer me a very large sum for my dog Max to the same outcome my boy Max passed years later in Idaho and All of the memories are worth more than all of the money that has came and gone since that offer.

[DaddyWill]

Still see those dogs and those days. When life happened and I moved on I didn't realize how fondly I would think about it some 55-60 years later.

Now in the twilight, or so the doctors tell me, I would love to relive at least in some way those experiences. Problem is Uncle Sam cured me of the desire to kill anything. So I guess I will have to settle for the memories.

[birdawg]

Still see those dogs and those days. When life happened and I moved on I didn't realize how fondly I would think about it some 55-60 years later.

Now in the twilight, or so the doctors tell me, I would love to relive at least in some way those experiences. Problem is Uncle Sam cured me of the desire to kill anything. So I guess I will have to settle for the memories.

Killing a lot of game isn't all it cracked up to for me either. I do love good guns, especially Foxes and watching my dogs hunt. My new Gordon pointed 2 pheasants this morning. I didn't need to shoot. In my mind I have the memory of a beautiful solid point and a gaudy ringneck in the air. But the dog broke so I chose not to shoot this time. Still it was a win for all three of us.