The chiming of Big Ben in London signaling the 2014 New Year also marked the beginning of a momentous celebration for all involved with storied gunmaker James Purdey & Sons Limited: reaching the incredible milestone of 200 years of manufacturing sporting shotguns and rifles.

Throughout its history, Purdey has held numerous royal warrants for the manufacture of sporting arms, as appointed by both British and European royalty. Purdey has always designed and built best guns–that’s the Purdey Way.

We worked dogs for a very long time up a long, gradual slope to a position at the top of a rolling Oregon hill. From that elevated vantage point, I swear I could see the curvature of the earth. My moment of reflection about the bright blue sky, the puffy white clouds, and the cascading hills…came to an end in a snap: Titan, a wiry griffon, was locked up on point. I had no choice but to walk him up along the edge.

When I got close, a single chukar partridge erupted out of the grass. The bird flew in my favorite direction, a straight right-to-left, with an added variable: the cagey critter was descending the slope. If I waited too long it’d be out of range, and I reacted.

The best bird hunt I can remember…? How could I pick one day above all the rest? It would be like saying one covey rise was the best one, better than all others, when covey rises are generally a blur in real time and are impossible to describe or to illustrate, regardless how talented the artist.

Quail-hunting memories are stored somewhere in my brain and ooze out periodically, not in wholes but in parts–in flickering memories of confused excitement and of joy and wonder.