The accumulated cost of a 10 year-old Springer Spaniel bitch: $6600
A classic bird hunting library: $1200 [Gene Hill, Spiller, Harden-Foster, Knight, Woolner etc.]
A custom stocked Beretta 20 gauge Sporting with 29 �� barrels: $2500
One 20 gauge shotgun shell: $.75
The exhilaration of shooting a ruffed grouse on the wing: priceless!
The thrill of it all coming together again in a nano-second after seven and a half hours of hunting this season with only one viable flush, in spite of the handicaps of age: bursitis at the shoulder, tendonitis at the elbow and carpel-tunnel at the wrists. The miracle of tumbling a hard flushing grouse after hours of pushing bush felt like the past twenty years had been lost in an instant. When I cracked that biddy with the first barrel and feathers drifted back to earth - time stood still.
I�m batting 1000 on grouse for the moment. Yeah!
The past winter was hard on our upland bird population; there are very few turkey, grouse and seemingly no woodcock in our woods this year. This may be the only bird I shoot if I don�t encounter a higher flush rate.
Last edited by olgrouser; 10/13/14.
