[Picher]

Last week my grown son and I went grouse hunting in the North Maine Woods. We stayed at Historic Pittston Farm Lodge and hunted more northerly than that. It rained most of the time and we don't have dogs, so except for a few jaunts down grown-up woods roads, we rode logging roads.

Staying two nights and hunting three days, we both managed to get our 8-bird possession limit by 2:00 PM the third day. That, despite rain or drizzle for most of the time.

Although I brought a 12 gauge, Rem 1100 Special Field with turkey and other chokes and rifle sights mounted on the rib, I only used it for one bird. My gun of choice was my Franchi Diamond, 20 gauge O/U with Skeet2 and Full chokes. It points quicker and better than my index finger.

Full choke was used for 40-yard ground shots and the skeet choke for closer shots and wing shots. I'm pleased that at least half of my kills were wing shots, either flushed or as a back-up to my son's ground shot.

My son used an old Stevens single-shot full choke that will nail birds out to 50 yards with #6s. He also had a 20 ga, Weatherby O/U, Im/Mod that we used on our walks, but he didn't shoot it. His third gun was a 12 ga, Rem 1187 with screw-in chokes, but he never took it out of the case.

Accomodations at Historic Pittston Farm were wonderful and food was the best we've had there in many years (they have a website).