Pass that old Winchester down

My 13-year-old grandson Isaac shot his first pheasant last week. He was using the shotgun I’d given him last year. A Model 1200 Winchester pump, it had been a Christmas present to me from my father more than 50 years ago.

I never saw the bird that Ace flushed from a thicket of willow saplings as it rose cackling into a stiff wind blowing off Fort Peck Lake.

I yelled “Rooster!” but Isaac and his father, Aaron, didn’t need the warning. The bird dropped at Isaac’s shot and their English cocker Chloe made the retrieve.

It was a magnificent first bird, gaudy in its coloring with long tailfeathers.

I shot a lot of birds with that gun including my first pheasant. It was the gun I brought with me to Montana in 1970. My first new shotgun, it replaced the old Model 37 single shot I’d gotten when I was 12.

The bluing is worn off in a few spots and the walnut stock has a couple of scratches, but I’d always taken good care of that gun, cleaning it after every use.

Over the years I acquired a number of other shotguns and the Winchester pump hadn’t seen much action for a long time. It only made sense to hand it down to my oldest grandson, who’d shown an interest in hunting since he was small.

Isaac never met my father who passed away shortly before he was born, but Dad would sure have been proud of him for carrying on our family’s hunting tradition.

He may have even been a bit surprised that we’re still hunting. A staunch defender of the Second Amendment, Dad always worried that some day we would lose our right to bear arms. He’d be glad to know it hasn’t happened yet.

Only time will tell how hard Isaac’s been bitten by the hunting bug. A talented soccer goalie, he and his dad were only able to come up and hunt last week because covid cut short his season.

I’m hoping the memory of that bird crumpling at the shot and falling out of the sky will burn inside him like it does inside me, like it did for my Dad.

Maybe some day he’ll be able to pass that old Winchester down to one of his kids. Dad would like that. So would I.

Parker Heinlein is at [email protected].