Back when I was guiding I had to keep records of parties I had out and I just naturally kept a record of the birds shot..weather and any other out of the ordinary things that happened. In late October of 1978 I actually called in and shot a brant in a hedgerow blind on the farm where Pintail Point is today. Really out of the ordinary. When I started reloading in 1959 I kept a record of how many shells I reloaded and shot. In fact I still have the records. In 1960 I reloaded 77200 12 ga shotgun shells. The man that taught me to shoot paid for most of the reloading supplies and I did the loading. Most of those shells were 3-1 1/8-7 1/2 trap loads. Paper shells too. No 600 Jr back then. Had a Mec 250 single stage. I reloaded all the time. But boy did I get a chance to shoot. Also loaded some pigeon loads of 3 1/4-1 1/4-7 1/2. Just changed the shot size to shoot ducks with. #5's for them..used them for geese too...for the little bit of goosin we did. Not many geese in the area then...but 5 yrs later..oh wow!. We traveled from North Carolina to New York shootin pigeons crows blackbirds trap..whatever. I know I shot 45000 shotgun shells that yearHad a Ruger 77 in 25-06 at one time. In 4 yrs shot 3100 rounds through it..mostly at ground hogs. Way back in the early-mid 60's I had bought 100 lb of surplus 4831 from Hodgdon. That is the powder I used loading that 25-06 and a couple of 270 Winchester Rifles I had. Sold a lot too. Used the same powder in a pre 64 M-70 243 target gun I bought. Had a 6x24 Bausch and Lomb in target mounts. Killed my longest hog with that rifle. Somewhat over 600 yds. Just wasn't that ol groundhogs day. Pure luck for me. One late winter I loaded 386 boxes of 410 skeet loads. Shot them all by the middle of June. Got tennis elbow from pulling that darn handle!!
