© 2012 Aaron Atkinson

Lucky > Good

The Kansas rooster leaped into flight 15 feet behind Scott’s back from the bottom of a long draw, on which I was hunting the high ridge. The bird quickly caught a 45 mph gust of wind and hastily widened the gap between itself and the business end of Scott’s Benelli.

Scott heard the flush, spun and squeezed off a single, long shot. He missed cleanly, or so he thought.

From my elevated vantage point, I watched the rooster fly off, hoping it would land back in the draw and give us another chance to bag it. But it flew up the ridge, across the dirt road and over the corn field 500 yards away. It then got a little shaky on the wing, and did something that pheasants sometimes do when they’ve taken a single pellet to the heart or lungs, it flew straight up in the air, then dropped to the ground stone dead. I looked for a landmark in line with the bird, but there was nothing but corn stubble. Unfortunately, there was nothing that we could do to recover the lost bird.

At the end of the draw, I recounted what I’d seen to Scott. We hunted back to the truck, loaded the guns and dogs and headed out of the field. Half way down the lane, the bright sun peeked out from behind the cloud it was hiding behind and it illuminated something shiny and red in the cornfield 30 yards to my left. In disbelief I stopped the truck and looked hard at the metallic, glowing object five feet from the edge of the corn stubble. I shifted into park, stepped from the cab and walked over to the Scott’s still warm, dead rooster.

Unbelievable.

Some guys have all the luck.

2 Comments

  1. Eddie the Q
    Posted February 7, 2012 at 3:03 pm | #

    Lucky>good is the theme of your fishing career, isn’t it? 🙂

  2. Aaron Atkinson
    Posted February 8, 2012 at 3:07 am | #

    Nope. The theme of my fishing career is more > big.

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