Written by: Jack Montgomery
Greensboro, Pennsylvania
| At was the 1986/87 grouse season and I was hunting in Armstrong County, Pennsylvania with the late Judge Robert S. Grigsby and Chuck Thompson, who for years was manager of International Angler in Pittsburgh. Both were experienced grouse hunters. I was in the middle of our hunting formation. Chuck was about a hundred yards to my left and Bob was at least a hundred yards to my right. Both were out of my sight. I was trudging up a small rise, with a cut populated with approximately twelve foot saplings. My setter also was off to the left. As I shifted my focus to his direction on my left, here came a grouse, silently skimmimg along the top of the sapplings, apparently bumped by my dog. The grouse was coming fast and I decided to take the shot going away, rather than hurry a shot out front. As the bird passed over me and as I was rotated to my right, my view momentarily went black. As he passed over my head, the grouse had pooped and the missile had landed squarely on the left lense of my glasses. Nothing on my face. Nothing on my hat. Nothing on my clothing. Entirely on my lense. I was too startled to return fire. I called for Chuck and Bob, and Bob got there first. He thought I had suffered some sort of injury, but I said that I did not want to move until he or Chuck had arrived on the scene and therefore would be able to verify the event. The poop still was on my glasses. Chuck arrived a moment later. The Rocky Bleier movie, “Fighting Back” was released about six years previously, and Chuck’s comment was that the grouse are “fighting back.” |
