Pennsylvania Game News - March 2009 - 13

saying he was on it, intent on “setting” this bird for me, putting me into the position where I might wreak grouse havoc. We crossed trails, close for a moment, in one of those glorious Evan moments, and I encouraged him, told him I would follow him anywhere. For a change, I meant it. Both of us could feel this grouse — no foolish youngster, but a savvy, older bird. I sensed this bird’s challenge to us: I have played this game with coyotes, gray foxes. What makes you think you are worthy of me? We wanted this one. Another 30 yards into the tangled saplings stood an ancient beech. Evan followed the scent toward this tree, checking back to make certain I continued to follow. Closing on the beech, he initially faded to the trunk’s left, took a step forward, as if to follow the bird’s scent, then suddenly stopped, and scooted to the right. Here he established a gorgeously taught point, his squared head high and fine nose riding up on the body scent. Two steps closer, I witnessed the grouse Evan had pinned between us flush, a roar of magic and thunder. Above the saplings it arced left — until the Webley & Scott’s No. 8s intercepted this path, tumbling the bird. Evan and I soon held our prize in hand, a wonderful cinnamon-ruffed male, a treasure of the ANF. Nancy, still on the logging road, heard the shot, my whoop, and then an enormous quantity of heart-felt, “Good Boys” bestowed lovingly on Mr. Wonderdog. She witnessed us pop out of the woods, smiling wide, bird in hand. Did we have a story to tell her . . . In that moment, seeing it all together, I realized the significance of this occasion: It was more than a dead grouse for a gunner and his dog. What we had experienced was a turning point, a benchmark, a new level of expertise: Evan maneuvered that bird; he truly set that grouse for me. He was letting me know he had what it takes to become the great bird dog I suspected was inside him. During the next two seasons this promise came to fruition. The young pronghorn- and jackrabbit-chasing bonehead of 2003 and 2004 would show me productive points on half the grouse I flushed during the 2006-2007 season; nearly as many during 20052006. His 2005 late season brace-mate points and honors with Shana were truly calendar art. And during September of 2006, he demonstrated some of the finest sharptail handling — true sets — I’ve ever seen. Any doubt I had about his ability was erased, only the confident slash of a maturing young bird-handling artist remained. To know it all came together in the ANF’s November woods was an uncommon joy. I am truly proud of young Evan. When I thought the grouse held all the cards, I really had an ace in the hole. Books in Brief (Not available from the Game Commission.) Vintage British Shotguns, by Terry Wieland, Shooting Sportsman Books, 1-800-6857962, www.shootingsportsman.com, 310 pp., hardcover, $40. The gun trade evolved in Britain beginning about 1800 and became the world standard by 1900. The author shares his love of the English shotgun, as well as his fascination with the trade as it grew, despite wars and economic depressions, through the Victorian and Edwardian eras. The guns that survive are monuments to both a way of life and to a level of universal craftsmanship seldom seen before, and never to be seen since. MARCH 2009 13

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Pennsylvania Game News - March 2009

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