I got a call last week from the gentleman that introduced me to this addiction we call turkey hunting 26 years ago, he said he wanted to chat with me and to stop by his house. I stopped by last Thursday evening after supper and we shot the breeze for a bit and he said you told me one time you wanted first dibs at my shotgun when I was ready let go of it, well here you go, it’s yours.
A Winchester Model 1200
I honestly didn’t know what to say, I was speechless for a bit. He let me know that he’s hanging it up and won’t be hunting anymore. His only request was that I hunt with it from time to time. His health has went downhill in the last few years and he doesn’t hunt like he used to and has eluded to calling it quits but he’s had some bad falls recently and had to spend sometime in the hospital as a result of one where he broke his wrist. I felt honored and sad all at once, he’s had this gun since the mid 70’s and it’s caused the demise of a lot of fall and spring birds. He had it camo dipped about 12 years ago and sent it off to Rhino chokes to get a choke tube for it. Up until then he used the full choke and Federal 2 3/4” 4’s. The guns only chambered for 2 3/4” shells but he has a few boxes he’s going to give me and I’ve ordered some Hevi 13 2 3/4” 6’s I found clearanced online for cheap, plan to pattern it this weekend if possible. We’ve spent a lot of time turkey and squirrel hunting together and he has taught me a lot, especially woodsmanship. My patient, sit in one spot for several hours hunting style is because of him, he said to me years ago he screwed up more hunts running around the woods when he should’ve kept his butt where he was for a little bit longer. Things would get quiet and he’d go looking for another turkey and one would gobble from where he had just been or he’d come back thru where he started the morning out in the fall and the whole woods would be scratched to pieces where he had been. I know we all have that day coming when we’ll know it’s time pack it up but seeing the man that taught me so much retire from something he loves is hard, I plan to carry that gun as much as possible because it’s still got a lot of hunt left in it.
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