Drive - A Memoir 93rd Installment
and
now missed two shots. To add to my misery both missed shots were at
the same rabbit. Then my mood was lifted, Russ missed a running shot
he should have made, saying he couldn’t keep the darn thing in his
scope through the weeds. I realized the advantage of the scope’s
accuracy was lost to the difficult running shot – great, zero sum
game. The next three were unsurprising: Victor, Me, then Russ had
‘easy pickins.’ Victor flushed up ‘a two-fer,’ and they took
off fast at a good clip; I was watching the jack rabbits when “pop,”
one went down, and then two seconds later, “pop,” the second one
went head over paws. What! Did Russ cheat and shoot one, I thought as
I looked toward Russ, but his eyes were wide as mine. Glancing at
Victor, I saw the bullet in his teeth was gone and he was still the
leader with no misses.
“How’d
you do that?” I squeaked.
“When
you shoot all your life, and all you have is a bolt-action, single
shot, you learn to reload fast,” was all Victor said.
“But
– but you’re from the city,” I stretched out the word c-i-t-y
like it was a foul tasting dirty word.
“I’m
from the city but on the edge, and the foothills are an easy walk
from where I live. Shooting is what I like to do since there are no
work and no play opportunities in the city. I’m the only boy in our
family; all the rest of the children are girls, and I practically
live alone in the foothills learning to shoot. I did some target
practice – ground squirrels, marmots, but mostly birds. They’re
typically smaller, thus a greater challenge, and I’ve even taken a
few flying,” Victor said, finishing his longest commentary all day.
We
were still competing by hunting jack rabbits when a flock of black
birds lit in the grass and brush. It was Victor’s turn, and he
plopped on his butt, knees up and with an elbow braced on his knee.
He steadied the rifle and plinked off a bird while the rest of the
flock flew. I must admit, and I know Russell would agree, we were
beginning to respect Victor more and more as the hunt went on. The
chatter and laughter increased; we were not competing as much as
having a great time. We were becoming fast friends.
As
the 3:30 deadline came, Russ and I also tried for some birds. We got
a few, but missed some lowering our score. Victor also missed shots,
but still won overall – a feat Russ and I thought was impossible! I
increased my poor start and ended at 32/44 or .727. Russ with the
scope advantage had 34/42 or .809 and Victor had a highly regarded
35/40 or 0.875. We started for home with only a couple hours to make
it before 5:30 milking.
What a day!
500 more words tomorrow
0 comments:
Post a Comment
Comments