HAMLET – About the time Red became a fully broken bird dog, there came some lean years for bird hunting. I suspect the DDT in insecticides was the culprit because, after its banning, the birds started to come back.
Mike shot an old pump with a taped grip that looked like it came over on the Mayflower. It was the only gun he ever used. He carried it as though he didn’t even really want it. He shot best that way, in a relaxed position.
Mike had twice been convicted over the years for hunting posted land in South Carolina. Naturally, he became petrified of a posted sign. It was as if he was shell-shocked when he saw one!
Mike and I started hunting in the Dunbar section of Marlboro County, SC in the 1960’s. It was the bird hunting paradise – isolated soybean fields, ditches and lots of quail. Georgia-Pacific surrounded the farms with 40,000 acres. There were no deer, no deer season and no posted signs! We could hunt all day and see maybe one or two cars and very seldom another bird hunter. At the time we didn’t realize how lucky we were. In good, cold weather seven or eight coveys were the usual average. Over the years, I guess we shot a tractor trailer load of birds.
Unfortunately, in the 1970’s the SC Department of Wildlife introduced deer season to the area and that was the end of the Promised Land. Today there is a posted sign on what seems like every tree.
One particular hunt I remember was when Mike and I were hunting west of McColl, SC. We had been in birds all day and had a coat full of birds. Upon returning to the truck we missed Puff, his pointer named by his boys. I looked and spotted about 3” of her white tail sticking up in the few weeds surrounding a telephone pole next to the railroad tracks. It turned out Puff had found the biggest covey of the day. I shot three on the rise and Mike bagged one. We left with 20+ birds scattered in a broom straw field. That was a great day!
In memory of Mike Cochran
11/18/44 – 10/1/18
