On permanent loan from my Mother’s brother, Neal, the little single-shot. 410 single-shot, a similar single in 20-gauge, and a Fox B Grade, also in 20-gauge.īut despite this wealth of wonderful weaponry, all of which performed quite admirably on sparrows, as well as the occasional starling, crow, and passing pigeon, I had quite the unusual favorite field gun unusual, at least many would think, for the task at hand. I took my avian eradication responsibilities very seriously, a task made much simpler due to the fact that thanks to my father, Mick, I had access to quite the arsenal of English sparrow-sized firearms, including such fine pieces as a Harrington & Richardson. “M.D.,” he told me often, “you’re in charge of keeping the birds out of the corn, especially those damned sparrows.” Always the farmer, Dzedo, Slovak for grandfather, put the back 14 acres into sweet corn, with a huge family garden on the side. WHEN I WAS 13 or 14 – NOTE: For you mathematicians, the years would have been 1977 or ’78 – my Slovak grandparents moved from the family farm, which like many in northeastern Ohio had been swallowed by progress, onto a much smaller parcel some 10 miles to the north and west. Johnson reviews the Remington Model 514, a sweet little. The sparrow slayer of the author’s youth gets a second look with the eyes of experience.