It was a perfect winters day, the sun was out, a sprinkling of snow on the ground and not a whisper of wind - so not expecting to see much I agreed to take him out for his 1st session with a 12 bore; thinking we may see a pigeon or two on the hawthorn trees down the Suffolk marshes which would give us a chance to see if he can handle a 12 bore well enough to make the transition from a 20 bore.
We got down the marsh around 3pm and there wasn't a feather in sight, by 4pm the sun had dipped, things were getting cold and still no sign of a bird - no pigeons, rooks, ducks or even a snipe dared to make a move and only the faint sound of Pinks feeding in the distance to keep us entertained.
by 4.30 and in pretty much blackness, I had had enough and questioned Henry if he was cold and wanted to go home, but the little chap was so keen to have his first shot on a marsh with his 12 bore that he said no and commented 'You never know, something may turn up' and pretty much instantly 'Wink Wink' 4 pinks passed high to our right.
Initially i didn't bother to call, as they were obviously off to roost somewhere; so i didn't think it would have any effect. But then they swung around a Marsh about half a mile away and seemed interested in landing somewhere - so the call came out the the little monkeys turned and swung our way, chatting to me as they came.
500 yards and closing fast, they set their wings and dropped to 30 feet - swinging their heads side to side and looking hard for a goose to land with in the twilight. We crouched low in the dyke, and i kept calling them - they crossed the dyke 40 yards down and were quartering towards us.
'Now Henry - Take em' - he jumped up, fired one and missed, then folded a bird clean dead with the second shot. I followed in but couldn't get another one.
Ben soon picked the bird up for our inspection, Over the moon with this bird - we started to gather our gear for the walk home - then all of a sudden, we could hear hundreds of geese in the air, and could just make our a skein heading our way, i called and once again they came, but were looking to cross further down the marsh, so i told Henry to make a move and get under them. He kept low and ran - managing to get under the line- 2 shots rang out, closely followed by the unmistakable sounds of pellets striking feathers, a bird dropped but didn't fall.
I got the things together and walked down to join him, thinking that would be it. But no sooner had i got to him than a bunch of pinks were heading for the top of the marsh. Off he sped again Bang, Crack, Bang Crack and a goose dropped 20 feet from the pack, I cheered and thought it was down - but only to see the thing gain height again and re-group.
It was pretty much pitch black by now, but there were hundreds and hundreds of geese in the air - you couldn't see them coming but you could see them when they got within 100 yards. I really wished I had something heavier than the 32grm 4's for Henry to shoot - In the excitement i had totally forgotten that my Franchi had a 3inch chamber and i had a pocket full of 3inch number 1 heavy load steel !
I gave him a hand full and he loaded up - the next skein came and boom - crack.. I strained to see if one was coming down and could make out one was loosing altitude above us, all of a sudden there was no question of it falling, it was stone dead and coming straight at us in the darkness - thud, it hit the deck 5 feet behind me.. I hate to think of the bones that would have broken it it had landed on me.
We had a few more shots and I brought one down, then decided we were wasting our time shooting at shadows and packed up.
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| One happy boy - with his first 12bore outing. n.b The gun was unloaded and double checked before the picture |
The ground was white with frost by now - and Henry's hands were so cold he couldn't even unload his gun. Funny how you don't feel it when the adrenalin is flowing, but as soon as you stop you cant move.
Double treat for Henry as he got to off-road the truck on the way back ; -)
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