Several coworkers and I attended an upland game bird hunt a couple of weekends ago, hosted by one of our premier partner companies, people we have known for years. It was great fun. I had never hunted with the help of dogs before. It is definitely the way to go for game bird quarry! Oh, and what a gorgeous January in Texas day it was, sunny and high 60’s, maybe low 70’s. I had purchased a suitable coat for hunting in the cold specifically for the hunt (although I *did* actually need one anyway), but the coat didn’t even come out of the truck. I was in shirtsleeves all day. The hunt itself had been rescheduled from an iced out date in December, so the contrast was even more welcome.

Before heading out for the hunt, we first shot 5 stand clays. It was fun, though I did miserably at it. I think I used 3 boxes of shells and got maybe a half dozen clay pigeons. It was pretty pitiful 🙂

Though I didn’t realize it right away, my old Stevens Model 67 20ga shotgun lost a screw. It may have actually been lost during the clays, but I didn’t really notice until I couldn’t get the action to move for followup shots at actual birdies. My pump became a cumbersome single shot. After a couple of these snag up events, I looked more carefully and finally noticed that the screw was missing.

Our host loaned me his 12ga Browning Goldhunter for a while; he was taking a lot of pictures anyway. I, having shot the old pump action 20ga intermittently but pretty much exclusively for about 30 years, tried to pump the forestock of the autoloader. *I* laughed. Even so, I was able to take at least my first bird with it.

The folks from the the lodge brought out a spare for me to use, a 12ga H&K, which I am pretty sure was actually a Benelli M1. In any case, it seems to have liked me well enough. I dispatched a Hungarian partridge, several quail and a pheasant rooster with it.

The club handles your take in a clever and sensible way. Your guide counts up your group’s whole take and splits it evenly between the team members. Then they send you home with dressed out frozen birds to meet (or exceed) that count. You don’t have to clean your own nor wait for someone to clean them for you. You just go home with ready to thaw and cook birds. In most cases, a few more than you shot.

As for the missing screw, it is for the cartridge stop pivot. The jamming was largely because there was usually a new live shell in the bottom of the action, blocking everything up. I located a new one and it’s mating nut at Numrich and ordered them. A whopping $8.40 for both. They are expected any day now.

The order confirmation email included a USPS tracking number. It occurred to me earlier today that I had not seen the parts arrive, so I thought it wise to check the tracking of the package. The last status said it had been picked up on Friday. Makes sense; it was actually Thursday afternoon when I ordered it, so I’m sure the tracking number had been generated then but the package not actually picked up until Friday. Even so, that was the last entry in tracking.

I have always wondered about the value of package tracking as provided by USPS, at least as compared to UPS and FedEx. I have often checked tracking several times with no updates, then received the package. After the package would already be in my hands, tracking info would suddenly update with all these way points and dates, all of which mattered very little since I had my thing already.

Ironically, as I tracked this package, USPS.com popped up a survey page, so I went through the whole survey, noting that I was 3 out of 5 dissatisfied with their tracking in general because usually I check their tracking and it shows no updates until I have the package in hand, then suddenly there will be some details…

So, I finished the survey and went back to the page and pretty much out of habit, refreshed the screen. There was a new update! My Numrich package left the Austin sort facility today… that wasn’t on there before the survey popped up.