Great Days Afield

Noted outdoor writer Bennett Kirkpatrick at Black's Brier Shooting Preserve

Photos by L. Ross

Patrick Rogers with 275 pound hog

photo courtesy of Rogers

L. Ross with a couple of deer taken recently.

photo by Patrick Rogers

On a recent hunt, I met a Patrick Rogers at the landing where we were both launching boats to go deer hunting. Rogers is a friendly, well-mannered 25-year-old that reflects the attributes that we all wish to see in outdoor persons.

We went our separate ways and I filled one of my doe tags and also took a small buck. As I was shooting a couple of photos, Rogers came by and stopped to chat. He shot a couple more photos for me and since I was in a canoe and two deer was quite a load, he volunteered to haul one to the landing for me.

Rogers is an all-around outdoorsman, enjoying kayak fishing and hunting for waterfowl, turkeys, deer and hogs. Subsequent to our meeting, he was hunting at another upstate location and shot the big 275 pound hog pictured above with a shotgun and slug.

This is the kind of person that you enjoy meeting in the woods. Congratulations to him on the big hog!

Lowcountry Hunt

Recently, I attended the fall meeting of the South Carolina Outdoor Press Association. On Friday of that week, I had the good fortune to be able to hunt with Bennett Kirkpatrick. He has

written for sporting publications for decades and in addition to being an excellent writer, he is an all-around good guy.

Kirkpatrick was shooting an old Parker 12 guage that was a thing of beauty. It was smooth from hand wear, almost devoid of bluing and had a piece of tape around the grip. You could tell that it had seen many days afield.

Age has not diminished Kirkpatrick's ability to shoot quail. We took 25 birds on the hunt and were pretty equally divided with the successful shots. It was the first hunt of the season and the dogs soon tired, but made a valiant effort to give us a good hunt.

Our host was William Peagler and our guide was Allan Weiss. They made our hunt most pleasant and we had a great time.

It was a privilege to hunt with Kirkpatrick and I hope we have the opportunity again in the future.