Beretta 686 Silver Pigeon: Quail Unlimited Covey Model

My sons and I arrive at the abandoned homestead site and make ready for the hunt.

- Ernie Foster

The hand-dug well sits near the stone foundation, still sporting the remains of the stone fireplace and chimney. The walled enclosures must have once provided pastures for livestock, and the flat stones surrounding the dugout area in the banking suggest the former location of the barn. A scattering of tired fruit trees outlines a space that years ago was cleared for gardening, evidence that, at one time, a family worked hard to establish residency here in the Berkshires of Massachusetts. Now it has become the home of deer, bear, moose, turkey, songbirds and many other living things. Most importantly for this upland hunter, it is the habitat of the ruffed grouse and woodcock. This cover is familiar to me, and I have enjoyed many years of the hunting pleasures it offers under the watchful, generous eye of Mother Nature.