My Hunting Heritage (or lack thereof)

I’ve been fishing since before I can remember. My mother grew up with a fishing rod in her hand, and she did me the courtesy to raise me similarly. My uncle on my mother’s side took me for an annual October fishing trip on his old yellow fiberglass boat through the streams and canals in the marshy landscape of Salem County. We would catch so many Crappies on our standard issue red and white tube jigs that we would regularly toss back keepers that were less than 14” because they didn’t seem worth fileting.

One of my favorite memories was crabbing from the dock with my mom. Armed with a net, a bucket, and raw chicken on a rope, we caught enough blues one by one to feed our group of 6 people on a vacation houseboat. I’ll never forget seeing a pair of bald eagles pluck a fish out of the water some 50 yards away from us and fly back to their roost while I was dutifully stooping over my crab rope that day.

That said; guns and hunting were never part of my childhood. My grandfather duck hunted on the Chesapeake when he was younger, but the tradition stopped with my father and never made it to me. Couple that with the general mistrust and misunderstanding of firearms (and their owners) in our state, and I admit I am an unlikely candidate to take up wing shooting.

The sport appeals to me, however. Perhaps walking with a dog through a vast field reminds me of a long lost childhood. My interest is only encouraged by my wife, who has recently made it her (read: our) goal to eat locally grown and unprocessed foods, of which game birds certainly qualify.

The next step in my shooting life is a shotgun purchase. I’ve owned a few shotguns, but ended up selling them to fund projects that needed to be completed for us to put our house on the market.

My favorite action, by a large margin, is a side by side. A trip to Holland and Holland in London this past fall has certainly done more harm than good, because I now have an itch to own a higher quality double than my previous guns, all of Miroku make. Even though the Mirokus were well-built guns, they couldn’t save me from my fateful meeting with a Merkel.

I was at least generally aware of the Merkel brand, but after researching guns of the next class up, I fell in love with these hand crafted Germanic beauties. The double under lugs are a feature generally found on high-volume breech loaders, but add in the greener-style cross bolt and side clips, and you have a tank of a gun that is sure to outlast most shooters’ grandchildren.

When I handled a used Merkel at Cabelas, I was surprised at how nimble this over-built gun actually was. It fit me like it was made for me, and really displayed a high level of craftsmanship. It was love, a level of “feel” I’ve never experienced with a shotgun before.

Merkel 147e

I’ll update my blog with some toys I’m parting with to make [financial] room for my beautiful German mistress.

All the best,

TSS