I've had a couple memorable ones.
The first was about 15 yrs ago hunting with a buddy in Iowa, south of Des Moines down by the state line. Working the creeks beds for quail, the pups locked up on a nice size covey. I let my buddy have the honors and he whiffed on 4 straight shots with his Browning pump 20. I watched the majority of birds fly another couple hundred yards and settle back down on the other side of the creek. We jumped across and proceeded to walk them up. Sure enough the pups pointed them right where I expected. My turn this time. I walked in and flushed about 15 birds. Five shots with my Browning B2000 20 ga brought down 5 quail. My buddy looks at me shaking his head and says "I guess that's how you do it"
The key I've learned when shooting on a covey is to pick an outside bird or a high one to shoot each time. It's easier to focus when there aren't all those birds in your direct line of site.
The second time was with my best buddy on one of our Thanksgiving week trips in SD 5 yrs ago. We were pushing some public ground toward the road where there were cattails in the roadside ditch. We knew we were pushing birds and figured we'd get them up at the road ditch. Sure enough they all busted up about 25 yards in front of us. About 25 birds with 6 roosters all flushed at once. As the birds flushed it was a bit frantic trying to see the roosters cleanly. I spotted a pair of roosters angling off between my buddy and I and dropped each one between us. Not missing a beat, I swung back on another, dropped it cleanly, then pulled up for my last shot and dropped my 4th rooster at about 45 yds. All ended up dead where they landed. I looked over at my buddy and asked why he hadn't shot. He said "Dude, every time I pulled up on one, you dropped it. It was like you knew which one I was going to shoot before I did." Then he said "How come you let those last two get away?" I just held up my Benelli 12 ga and showed him the open action :thumbsup: "Cuz I didn't have a 5th shot"
