Growing up, I followed my father around the fields and woods, chasing pheasants and grouse. I thought it was normal for the bird to always fall when you shoot at it. Little did I know how challenging it would be to shoot something out of the air. We didn’t have extra cash for practice shots, so when I asked Dad why he was so accurate on birds, he gave me the gift of snap shooting.
Snap Shooting: A Skill for Life
Snap shooting is a technique where you don’t even have to fire the gun to get good at it. It’s as easy as pointing the gun. You pick an object, snap the gun to your shoulder, and pop off the safety in one motion. Of course, make sure you unload your gun! You don’t have to pull the trigger; just practicing snapping your gun and pointing it at an object while taking off the safety teaches you the muscle memory to be fast on the draw and accurate on target. I must have pretend-shot everything we owned and every bird that flew near me. It paid off big time, and the birds started falling.
Gear Up for Snap Shooting
The Lucky Shot: A Pheasant Hunt to Remember
One day, while pheasant hunting, my English setter Bandit went on point. When we moved in to flush the bird, it had run about seventy yards out and flushed. I snapped my gun up ahead of him and pulled the trigger. He dropped like a rock. My friend Brian was flabbergasted. “Holy moly,” he shouted! I acted like it was no big deal, but I knew I must have gotten a lucky BB in the head of that bird.
Hunting Essentials
The Amazing Double on Woodcock
Another day, I went hunting with my brother-in-law and his buddies and pulled off a double on woodcock. We were pheasant hunting with Bandit again and walking on a harvested soybean field. Bandit made a loop out into the mostly bare field and went on point. The guys all thought he was crazy, so I walked out into the field alone. Those two woodcocks were picking worms in that wet harvested field and Bandit smelled them. When they flushed, of course, they went in different directions. I swung the gun to the right and dropped the first bird and spun around for the second. When the second bird hit the dirt, all I could hear was hooting and hollering from the other guys. When I took the second bird from Bandit and patted him, telling him what a good boy he was, we rejoined the group. They said it was like watching a TV show and an amazing double.
Double Down on Success
The Squirrel Hunting Miracle
Sometimes we just get lucky. One day, I went squirrel hunting with some friends in a spot we called the Gulf. We were all walking together along a ridge that dropped off into a swamp. Two gray squirrels must have been preoccupied with nut gathering because we walked right up to them. They took off like little gray rockets for an old beech tree. I had my single-shot .22 rifle with an old Weaver scope on it. You could shoot a ten out of ten in the bullseye with that gun. So, I took aim at one of the squirrels as he ran up the tree trunk and squeezed off a shot. At that exact moment, the squirrels crossed over each other. The bullet went through the first squirrel’s chest and hit the second squirrel in the head. Both squirrels dropped out of the tree dead. We high-fived for ten minutes over that shot. Nobody would have believed me if two friends hadn’t witnessed the miracle shot.
Squirrel Hunting Must-Haves
Whether it’s the thrill of the hunt or the satisfaction of a well-placed shot, the memories and skills I've gained from these experiences are invaluable.
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