THE FLYWAY

“ Despite warnings of my demonic hex, he had to find out the hard way just how serious my condition was .”     By SEAN CARR I  have lived a blessed waterfowl life and have had the good fortune to shoot both a lot of ducks overall as well as many different species of waterfowl but as of January 20, 2015, I still had not taken a canvasback duck. To give a little history, I started tagging along with my dad on duck hunts when I was 4 years old back in the 70’s. He had a blind that he regularly hunted on a public slough that is now part of Ted Shanks Wildlife Area in Ashland, MO. I started hunting with a gun for waterfowl when I was eight so it had been about 38 years prior to the hunt I will be writing about that I had gone without taking the King of ducks.   Granted, I did not focus on getting one most of my early duck hunting years, but once I began to target a prime bull canvasback for a mount, some kind of demonic hex possessed me that would not allow it to happen. ...

The main flight of ducks had stopped and thinking the morning’s hunt was finished, Nels and I excited the pit blind.   Wading into the shallows and starting the task of decoy retrieval, we heard the faint, far-off music from incoming honkers.   Quickly, we splashed our way to the blind and changed over to Winchester Super-X 2’s.   Onward they came, 16 big, white-cheeked bombers on steady wings, 250 yards out and 40 yards above the latte-colored river channel.   I flattened myself against the shadowed pit wall, daring not to move as I peered beneath a layer of natural grass laid atop the ring of excavated soil. Using his Herter’s Numara Canada goose call, Dad sent out a perfect, goose-attracting riff!       AH-OOO, AH-OOO, AH-OOO!   The lead gander responded, banking his flock toward our setup.   The slight variation in   flight pattern looked as if it would bring them just over the outer edge of our decoy spread.   The final, slow-m...

A fantastic SHORT pod show with Lee Kjos of BOSS Shotgun Shells and Arkansas-based outdoor host Trey Reid.   In this excellent Arkansas Game & Fish production, Lee lays out a shocking cripple loss picture (it's worse than you think) and how hunters like us can turn it around...  https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/arkansas-wildlife-podcast-episode-5-lee-kjos-from-boss/id1651250209?i=1000587145884

 

By George L. Hopper Of all the Chesapeake Bay retrievers, or any other kind of retrievers, it has been my pleasure to shoot over. Old Bob of Spesutia Island stands out, in my personal recollections, the peer of them all. He was a most perfect specimen of the rough or curly-coated dog. His outer coat was curled and twisted as close and as tight as the wool on a Guinea native’s head. It felt to the hand like the wool of a Merino sheep; in color like the sands on the shore. And he weighed about 80 pounds. At tolling Old Bob was unexcelled. We would saunter along the shore of the island until we located a raft of ducks within a half mile of shore. If conditions were favorable we would hide behind an old log or a pile of driftwood, as nearly opposite the ducks as possible. Bob was then coaxed into the hiding place and a red bandana, borrowed from old Aunt Melissa for the occasion, was made fast about midship of Bob’s tail.   When the bandana was made fast and secure, out would bound Old...

 

 

  By Worth Mathewson In 1913, the very   important Weeks-McLean Migratory Bird Act was passed by Congress. The principal aim was to outlaw market hunting and to protect non-game birds. A part of this  Act was to outlaw the use of guns larger than the 10 bore. The aim was to put an end to punt guns, but of course it took the 8 and 4 bores with it. (Four bores are not punt guns; they are shot off the shoulder.) But in reality, the ban on 8 bores wasn’t necessary.   While 8 bores were used by some market hunters early on, by the late 1890s, they had turned to pumps and autos. The old 8s were interesting guns. In England they were greatly favored for waterfowl, especially geese, over the 10 bore. The standard 8 was chambered for 3-1/4 inch shells. Most of these basic 8s weighed about 12 pounds. But it was also made with 3-1/2, 3-3/4 and 4-inch chambers. The massive 4-inch guns weighed up to 18 pounds, and shot up to 3 ounces, the standard load for 4 bores. Very likely...

  By Gordy Gordon, Editor C onvection fog shrouded the duck pond in an otherworldly pall.   A quarter moon hovered - red as blood - on the western horizon.  Pre-dawn, opening day in Missouri’s North Zone. In smartweeds frosted by stillness, I huddled with my aging Lab, Jack.  It was quiet as a chapel. Nine decoys mirrored dimly on dark water out front. Waiting for shooting time, I tried to tally how many duck openers I’d hunted.   This would be No. 46.   Lord – can that be right?   It was. No need to cipher how many seasons I’d hunted without Dad.   He had passed away at the tag-end of last season. “Chilly this morning,” I finally say to the dog, the words sounding like a foghorn in the smothering silence.   Jack's otter tail thumped in reply, but otherwise he stared at the sky and said nothing more. I tugged a big brass zipper on the heavy canvas coat I wore. The coat was snug because it wasn’t mine. It was Dad’s WWII-pattern canvas hunting ...

ARKANSAS DUCK HUNTIN’ PIONEERS ---    Celebrating its 70th season in 2023 is the Bill Byers Hunter Duck Club. Bill and Louella Byers bought 3,000 acres in the 1950s, founding the Hunter Club to help pay off the investment. Guests ranging from Ordinary Joes to baseball pros paid $10 a day. Bill put up a lookout tower over the treetops to see where the ducks were landing, and    put    his gunners in the right spots the next day. A third generation, Cason Short and family, carries forward the Bill Byers Hunter Club with devoted repeat clients and a filled-up reservation book.    Bill was a Browning A-5 man, while Louella    holds a Breda autoloader in this 1960s post-hunt picture. For more on the Byerses and their club, see Greenhead Magazine’s excellent feature; it’s online at  https://greenhead.net/post/132530/booked-solid-at-bill-byers-club.  Mega-thanks to Cason Short for loaning us this classic photo!

 

 

 Less Calling is More,   Dad Lands a Dandy, and Remembering Trey     By Barnie Calef Tradition…. Beliefs or customs passed on from generation to generation. At my age, I seem to be passing on way more than I am receiving. For the most part, I don’t have any issues with passing the torch so to speak. In exchange for my experience and knowledge the young bucks carry the load. I get to stay in the duck boat while they arrange decoys {per my direction}. I don’t have a problem making coffee and cooking breakfast instead of wading in bag deep, icy water in the dark no les s, especially when there is heat running. Now with the eastern sky giving way to daylight, I take every opportunity to pass on my knowledge via the duck call. Most of my hunting buddies are well beyond average call operators but it amazes me how much they call at the wrong time. My philosophy is, “less is more” approach. Blow the call less and make it mean more. How, you say? Limit calling at approaching ...

Ducks of the Great Salt Lake  by Kenneth L. Kieser Imagine watching a huge flock of pintails flying through an azure sky, framed by the snowcapped Wasatch Mountain Range. The first flock propelled through cold air, searching for open water. They quickly were gone and another flock of pintails entered our airspace over the Great Salt Lake Marshes that is shared by high-flying military fighter jets from nearby Hill Air Force Base.   Moments later another flock made a much lower approach from the west for a closer view of our set. A couple of drakes dropped down, never to rise again as Chad Yamane and Rob Friedel of “Fried Feather Outfitters” filled their daily limit of one pintail each. Our sky soon filled with scores of ducks inbound from every direction.   Widgeon, mallards and cinnamon teal slipped through the air, some responding to our calling and whistling or perhaps just studying the brilliant-colored decoys highlighted by sunlight reflecting off ice about 40 yards a...