Arkansas Duck-Huntin' Legends

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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!



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