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.

We meet for lunch at Pine Creek Sporting Club, the exclusive hunting-and-shooting destination located in central Florida, equidistant to Orlando and south to Palm Beach. Professional-golf icon Nick Price offers a sincere welcome that instantly puts me at ease.

As I admire the immaculately appointed members’ lodge, I’m impressed by this residential community built exclusively around hunters and shooting sports. Conceived by cable television magnate Stephen Myers with the support of founding members, including golfers Nick Price and Jack Nicklaus, former NFL running back Tucker Frederickson, and famed gunmaker Tullio Fabbri, Pine Creek provides a charming oasis for shooting sportsmen.

A dog you love should live as long as you do. How often now have I said this to myself since I began hunting over dogs? That was 59 years ago, when I toted by single-shot .410 on some of my father’s shorter forays into the field. At nine, I didn’t shoot much game, but when at long last his gun dog died, I recall–more vividly that I do most things from that time–how I protested the plain injustice of it all. Like a father, a dog was surely meant to endure forever.