Innholdsfortegnelse for June/July 2018 i Wildfowl

IT WAS A GOOD morning in Arkansas for (top) Bill Dickey, N. Terrell and Bill’s brother Gus; (bottom) John Mathews and Samuel Byrd. All were baseball players, but Hall-of-Famer Bill Dickey was the only one to play in the Big Leagues. The others were probably toiling in the minors—called the “Busher Circuit” by famed duck hunter-writer Nash Buckingham who also played minor-league ball—and only Bill Dickey achieved fame from his 17 years with the Yankees. The stacked shotguns in front include two Winchester Model 12s on the left and to the right is a Model 97. The Model 12, designed by Winchester engineer Thomas Crossly Johnson, was introduced to the shooting public in 1912. Winchester named it "The Perfect Repeater," and by 1929 they were found in most duck camps.…

THAT BOAT IN YOUR BACKYARD? You know, the one with the battered hull, antique motor and rusted trailer? It’s no wonder your friends always seem to be busy when you invite them on a hunt. Sure, you and that boat had some great times together, but it has been more zero than hero the past few seasons. Do you really want to suffer through another year of uncertainty? It’s time to make a tough decision. The good news? You’ve got countless options for a new boat and motor. Whether you want to upgrade, expand your hunting options or try something new, there’s a boat and motor to fit your needs. Big, beefy sea-worthy boats, light, quiet, man-powered boats, mud motors of every size and style, and combinations that take you…

FRED ZINK NEEDED TO FIND the farmer. The field was loaded with birds feasting on cut Canadian grain, and he was desperate to get permission for the next day’s hunt. Finally, Freddy tracked him down late in the evening. Fall harvest was in full swing and the farmer, his crew and family were eating dinner in another field, back-lit by the headlights of the combines. “I asked the old guy for permission and he gave it to me,” Zink said. “Then I saw what they were eating and told him it looked pretty good. He smiled and asked how many guys I had back in the truck. There were only three of us, so we sat in the field and ate with everyone. That was pretty cool.” It was one…

THE FIRST TIME I encountered a split duck season was unpleasant. Years ago, wed ventured back to the family hay farm in scenic west Arkansas, and I was eager to chase the woodies geese and mallards that are sporadic visitors there. But Dad informed me duck season closed the next day—and it was the Christmas holidays. I’d only lived in states without split seasons: Florida, Washington, Utah, and Illinois. But sure enough, even in that part of Arkansas where waterfowling is poor, our ponds filled with ringnecks, mallards and a handful of geese during the closure, and when it opened, well let’s just say we left a lot of feathers floating on that pond! I’m still not a fan of holiday closures, but I now appreciate the dexterity splits can…

REPORTS OF BANDED resident Canadas don’t typically make good fodder for tales of the travels and travails of big geese. There are, however, always exceptions to the rule. One occurred when Nikolas Perkins, sons Patrick and Isaak and their pals Travis Schuebel, Byron Hahn and Adam Baker set up a couple dozen floaters and five dozen full-bodies a half-mile east of the Pony Express Conservation Are , where the Missouri Department of Conservation has a long-running summer banding program, and resident geese congregate later in the season. “I told the group there was a good chance of harvesting banded birds,” Perkins said. Banded residents carry the same bling as their more migratory relatives, and scoring a band is a treat for any waterfowler. It would be especially meaningful to Schuebel,…

EDGAR MONSANTO QUEENY was a man ahead of his time. His father John Queeny founded the multinational agricultural company Monsanto and in 1928 Edgar took over control of the business, turning it into a biotechnology giant that was worth nearly $1 billion. But Edgar’s true passion was waterfowl hunting and he poured his time and resources into developing a duck hunting paradise in Prairie County, Arkansas. As the surrounding marshes were drained and forests cleared for agriculture, Edgar decided to manage his 11,000-acre property (Wingmead) for waterfowl. To this day, Wingmead is one of the premier duck hunting destinations in the country and over time it has become a model for private-land management of waterfowl habitat. The notion of managing lands for wild game on a private level seemed radical…

SUMMERTIME IS SOMETIMES problematic for dogs and trainers when the temperature and humidity climb and it gets excessively hot, especially in the southern states. If your Lab becomes overheated, the end result can be a heat stroke that can be debilitating for the remainder of his life or even result in his death. So, how do you know that your retriever is overheating? The primary source of heat exchange in a dog is panting. But there are other indicators such as dehydration signs, excessive drooling, or red gums. When training or hunting, I use an easy method for early detection of heat exhaustion and that is to keep a close watch on the tip of his tongue. When the tip starts to turn red, it is time to give the…

VENICE—THEY WERE BACKLIT by gold as the sun leaked in around the corners of the earth, and we could start to see they were indeed ducks, hard as it was to believe. The flocks appeared like dim smoke on the horizon, so dense, more like swirling starlings than waterfowl. Soon we could see they were not only ducks but about 80 percent pintails, the bird that flies against a pale sky and appears to have a gap between their head and their body because of the white markings on their neck. Teal appeared in similar super-flocks. Dogs and hunters peered through the cut Roseau cane blind we had pulled the boat into, surrounded by a bay that was more mud than water, with duck potatoes and pondweed beds scattered around.…

IT WAS A WINTER for the ages. From western Montana to New England and down to the Gulf coast, there were record or near-record cold snaps in late December and early January, setting up what should have been an epic end to duck season. It was, but not where many hunters expected. Waterfowlers throughout much of the south stared at blank skies and wondered why the record-smashing weather didn’t bring them a bounty of birds. Instead, hunters in Kansas, Nebraska and other mid-latitude states pounded the ducks until the finals days of the season. Even hunters in western New York killed birds during the deep freeze. What happened? “Ducks won’t go any farther south than they have to,” says State University of New York waterfowl ecologist Dr. Michael Schummer. That’s…

THIS YEAR I borrowed an original Super Black Eagle from friend Mike Boyd on a quick trip to Mississippi. It has killed a boat load of greenheads in the cypress breaks of Beaver Dam, performing flawlessly. The SBE is known for its reliable operating system. The first time I shot one was at our gun club around 1990. Manager Jim Tyrrell had them for sale, and said, “There’s nothing in them to go wrong!” An exaggeration, but not far from the truth. Based on a 1903 inertia system by the Danish gunsmith Christer Sjörgren, it harnesses the forces of recoil to operate the action. Sjörgren called his shotgun The Normal, but everyone who has shot or handled the new SBE3 has called it, in its slimmed-down form, The New Normal.…

TWO BLUE-WINGED teal parachuted into the decoys so fast Paul Sasser did not have time to react. They swam, unconcerned, 20 feet away—proof his boat blind was working. Sasser was hunting a North Carolina river after a rare freeze. “I had two aluminum johnboats when I was younger, and made a blind on the 17-footer, but it wasn’t what I needed," Sasser said. "I (used to) set up on banks of lakes, but now some of the shoreline is off-limits and the cover in the water is not enough for hiding, so I needed a stable, well-hidden boat blind.” Sasser bought a 2011 1860 SeaArk with a 90-hp Yamaha outboard. He hunts rivers, sounds and water supply lakes. “One lake has some hunting sites without blinds,” he said. “If you…

LAYOUT LUXURY Now cloaked in Optifade Marsh, Rig’em Right’s Low Rider 3.0 has a new steel frame that will pass the season-long grind any outfitter can put it through. The no-pin design will save your ass on dark/cold mornings, and the blind sets up in less than a minute. It’s roomy, and the snow cover (not included) is easy to put on. The backrest is fall-asleep comfortable, perfect for all-day grinds. $350 | rigemright.com 1| LIVIN' ON THE EDGE Our new favorite camo pattern for swampy wood duck holes, Realtree Edge breaks up the human form while blending you into the brush. We tried Edge out during turkey season with great results, and can’t wait to see how it performs in September when early duck and goose seasons…