cimmaronkid
03-06-2007, 05:31 PM
Being a member of the Grand National Quail Hunt and a land owner that had quail always had been a benefit of my ranch in northwest Oklahoma. While everyone clamored for the stars from Hollywood, I went for the guys I associated with most, the factory people. During the 4 day hunt I would have the Remington guys for 2 days and the Winchester guys for 2 days. I also got my share of stars and other glitteratti, but I catered to the reps and they loved it. One year, Dr. Bruce Hill, a vice president with Winchester and his two factory reps wanted to have a hunt with Col. Charles Askins and Bill Jordan. Since the Col. was a personal friend and part of the family, it took little to convince the committee to assign these guys to the ranch. I think it might have been hard to look these two men in the eyes and say "NO", especially with their backgrounds. Even in their older years, you could look these men in the eye and know they were not to be taken lightly. Together, they stood out in the crowd, two men that were born almost too late for what they did. Getting my pick of dog men, I had my usual guys, Frank Richards from Lawton and Roger Henikee, a vet and long time friend and school mate, both breeders of champion working dogs. We headed out on a cold overcast morning running 8 of the finest pointers anyone could ever hunt behind. The dogs work was flawless and the shooters all experts, misses were few and far between. Limits were getting close to filled when we came to a valley between a couple of sand hills filled with what we call sand plums. Suddenly, the dogs were locking up all over the place, forming a wall in front of the hunters. You could look ahead and see quail holding everywhere, ready to be flushed. The trophies and awards that had been won by these five men would fill a large U-Haul truck so I figured that this would be a scene to end all scenes. It was! The 5 men advanced in to the quail and a covey of close to 75-80 birds flushed and fanned out. The Winchester boys were all shooting X-1's, the Colonel shooting a 16 gauge Browning superposed and Bill Jordan shooting a vintage Remington 32 in 12 bore. All hell broke loose and it was said later by those that heard the shooting was that "the invasion had started". Three Super x-1's had bolts locked back, nothing in the magazines and the two O/U's were ejecting their spent hulls. And the kill? NOTHING! Not even a damn feather was pulled from a bird. Five of supposedly the best shots in the world had failed to down a bird and stood there red faced and looking rather sheepish. I didn't know what to do until Col. Askins yelled out, "Hell, Bill and I got an excuse as were old and got bad eyes, but you SOB's don't have one unless you want to blame those Winchesters your shooting!" At that time Dr. Hill made a statement about the factory sending out guns with bent barrels and would have to have that problem corrected. Everyone started laughing and we went on and limited each man out. Later back at the ranch, the excuses flowed free and everyone said they would never forget that hunt.