Spotting a roving flock of long-beards and jakes, I crept into a row of round bales for concealment. With two fall turkey tags in my pocket, I screwed the full choke into the barrel with anticipation. Prairie chicken, sharp-tailed grouse, pheasant, turkey, and an abundance of waterfowl can keep the barrel of your favorite smoothbore warm. The Sandhills of Nebraska is a bird hunter’s playground. The upgraded chokes plus a lengthened forcing cone improve performance, resulting in a chicken getting a ride in my upland vest. The Affinity 3.5 has a vented rib and improved ergonomics to provide faster handling and target acquisition, which comes in handy with the speed of upland birds. Prairie chickens are known for flushing out of range, and a full choke was a consideration. I had put a modified choke in the Franchi Affinity 3.5 to balance pattern with range on these flighty fowl. A sense of accomplishment had me running to collect the downed prize. At the report of the gun, the bird crumpled mid-flight and tumbled to the ground. The holdout was not going to let walking danger get closer than 55 yards, and as it took to the wing, the shotgun slid to my shoulder and the barrel swung out in front of the fleeing feathers. One bird was still visible, and as I closed the distance to less than 60 yards, I bristled with excitement. Three more birds flushed before I was close enough to raise the shotgun.
Keeping track of moving heads was difficult.
Prairie chickens scurried through the grass to hide. Still 100 yards from the base of the hill, the first two birds broke rank and headed for safer ground.
Walking focused and watching for flushing birds or the sound of beating wings, I hoped to cut the distance before the birds evacuated. The clucking of excited or nervous birds placed them about 200 yards ahead on a sidehill. The prairie chickens of the Nebraska Sandhills had given an audible clue that they were close. Nebraska’s Sandhills upland bird diversity puts Franchi’s semi-auto to task.Īfter crawling through the tight strands of barbed wire, I quickly reloaded the shotgun once on the other side.
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