2005 Pheasant Hunt

   
On February 4th, 2005, eleven brave American Bowmen ventured out to Quint Valley Game Preserve in pursuit of the wily Pheasant with bow and arrow.
   
   
The morning started out with some much needed practice on clay pigeons. We all should have known that it was going to be Morgan Montgomery's day when right off the bat, he crushed one in flight. That superb bit of marksmanship was followed by a lot of near misses, but no more direct hits. Never-the-less, everyone left with a bit more confidence - NOT!
   
 
From the practice range, it was off to the field for the real thing. Someone came up with the clever idea of tying a piece of flagging tape onto one of the birds legs to help us find them in the tall grass fields. This, combined with hand releasing them one or two at a time, and then immediately pursuing them resulted a lot of exercise, but at least it provided us with a chance of finding them and flushing them multiple times if they choose to honker down in the tall grass. If they decided to stay on the ground and run, they became fair game and that was a sight to behold - eleven archers chasing after a fleeing bird and shooting on the run - not an easy task (as we found out), but doable.
 
 
Morgan Montgomery continued to dazzle us all with his superb marksmanship by knocking four birds out of the sky in addition to the clay pigeon that he got earlier. After it was all over, he let everyone in on his secret. Its simple he said - "Just close your eyes!"
 
 
It was a great day of the American Bowmen - not so great for the pheasant! 21 of 24 birds in the frying pan. A pretty good day for a bunch of crazy bow hunters!