"Like many of you," Cheney said, "I grew up close to the land, learned from my dad how to handle a gun, and still look forward to every chance to join up with friends to go hunting. I take my hunting seriously, in part because I think Lynne still expects me to bring dinner home once in a while."
Despite Cheney's penchant for privacy, his hunting adventures have made headlines before.
In December 2003, he and his hunting party drew fire for bagging hundreds of pen-raised pheasants at a private game club in southwestern Pennsylvania. According to press reports, Cheney brought down the most -- more than 70 -- in a controlled shoot in which the birds were released from cages and then fired upon by Cheney and his crew.
Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas) was along for the hunt that day and later said, with apparent regret, that it seemed more like "how Tyson's and Pilgrim's Pride and other people do it." A slaughter, he meant.
"I must tell you," Cornyn told the Dallas Morning News, "people don't necessarily hunt the same way in Texas that they hunt in Ligonier, Pa. But it was enjoyable."
A year later, in January 2004, it wasn't the hunt but Cheney's companion that prompted criticism. He and Scalia hunted in southern Louisiana at a time when the high court was considering a suit demanding that Cheney reveal the names of his secret energy task force.
Despite the political recoil that resounded back to Washington, St. Mary Parish Sheriff David Naquin was quite impressed with Cheney. "The man's been around hunting before. He knows guns," Naquin said. "That wasn't the first time putting a gun in his hands, that's for sure."
For two days, Naquin joined Cheney and Scalia in firing at ducks from fixed platforms. The hunting wasn't very good. In the evening, they sat around a campfire, and Naquin took the opportunity to update the vice president about erosion problems in the bayou.
But Naquin said his office would use Cheney's accident last weekend as an example to teach youths in Louisiana gun safety.
Simpson recalled that on hunts with Cheney, hired crews were paid to clean the dead birds and pack them in dry ice for the flight back to Washington. At the Armstrong ranch in South Texas, fellow hunter Negley said she was unsure what came of Cheney's kill.
But the day, she said, began with such promise.
