HISTORIC DUCK HUNTING STORIES THE GOLDEN AGE OF DUCK HUNTING

As a living mosaic of world history, the modern LabradorRetriever possesses a lineage that stretches back millennia through a global tapestry of empires. Before it was America’s cherished companion, this dog was a phantom of the North Atlantic—a rugged worker born from the legendary St. John’s water dog. Tracking the Labrador's history is like sailing through time on a sprawling international...

Hundreds of wildfowlers have left their mark on the history of wildfowling on the Atlantic coast after having given us many historical narratives, but one family, the Cobb family, stands out as having left us with their everlasting narratives and  most of all with their decoy carvings, which set the trend at the time and which were intended to document waterfowl and shorebird behavior. The story o...

It was an extraordinary, exceptional paradise tucked away in the super-funnel of the Mississippi Flyway that Wild Acres came to represent and often described in newspapers and hunting lore as the “Paradise of Duckdom.” Here, year after year, gravel-throated voyagers, migrating down from the north, interrupted their journey to linger on Wallace Claypool’s 1,350 acres of greentree reservoir, where t...

To some, Reelfoot Lake,nestled in the far northwestern corner of Tennessee, was known as the “Paradiseof Sportsmen.” Others referred to it as the “Eighth Wonder of the World,” whileWalt Disney called it “Mystery Lake.” But most referred to it as the“Chesapeake Bay of the South.” With wintery winds sweeping from the north overthe broad breast of the Mississippi River, it looked, at times, like all...

To many, it would become the eighth wonder of the world. It is not an official designation but a reflection on the awe inspiring, spectacular natural phenomenon and wonder that covered the sky with billions of pigeons, but it wouldn’t last, as billions dwindled to millions, to thousands, to one, then to extinction. Sadly, this spectacle was lost forever, driven to extinction in a matter of a few d...

The question must be asked, “Will the canvasback or can the canvasback ever recover and occurin numbers that would allow no closed seasons?” It is doubtful, and if it does it will be through dedicated restoration efforts by transplanting and sowingthe seeds of wild celery, wapato, and a plant I haven’t mentioned for canvasbacks, the pondweed. In doing so, many depleted ducking wetlands can be rest...

E64 LISTS 17 OF THE EARLIEST DUCK CLUBS IN AMERICA, ALL ORGANIZED BEFORE THE CIVIL WAR, SOME OF THE MOST FAMOUS DUCK CLUBS SUCH AS WINOUS POINT, CURRITUCK SHOOTING CLUB AND MORE.

The evolution of the duck call began some 45,000 to 50,000 years ago or earlier and this episode takes you from that time frame up until E16 which was starts in 1854.

Year after year, waterfowl have followed the ancestral Mississippi Flywayand made their usual stops, where along the way they feasted abundantly in theforested White River bottomlands on acres of high-energy pinoak acorns andaquatic plants, like wild millet, Chufa, and smartweed. Before rice production came to the Grand Prairie,ducks were found foraging in the small prairie wetlands, seasonal herb...

The day after Memorial Day, I reflected back to Vietnam and the loss of my best friend when out on night patrol. He had just been in Vietnam after going through basic training for seven days. On the seventh night, he was shot in the neck by a sniper and died. I miss him dearly and Memorial Day made me reflect back on life and what is important.

With their primary breeding grounds inprairie Manitoba, the eastern continental population of canvasbacks stagedduring the fall in the olden days on Lake Cristina and Heron Lake in Minnesota;the Detroit River, Lake St. Clair and Saginaw Bay in Michigan; the IllinoisRiver in Illinois, in Iowa along the Upper Mississippi, and Lakes Poygan, Puckaway, Butte des Morts, Winnebago, Winneconne, and Koshko...

There are in every sport remarkableindividuals that become legends, and thesport of trap shooting as we know it today belongs to three of the mostinfluential and remarkable marksmen in trap shooting history, in what I call TheThree Pillars of Trap Shooting: Ira Paine, Adam Bogardus, and Doc Carver. Thelatter two are in the Trapshooting Hall of Fame and certainly deserving of thehonor; Paine is not...

A continuation of Part I and II of Trap shooting, with Part III covering the three great trap shooters of the time--Captain Adam Bogardus, Doc Carter, and Ira Paine. It covers the period of time when pigeon trap shooting had advanced from live pigeon shooting to glass balls to Ligowsky clay pigeons.

E57 is the history of trap shooting in the United States from its beginnings in the 1820s after the sport had cross the Atlantic Ocean from England. It goes from wild pigeon shooting to glass balls to clay targets, and listen as you will discover how trap shooting developed and progressed in America. E57 covers three famous trap shooters in the early days--Captain Adam Bogardus, Doc Carver, and Ir...

let me tell you about the origin of trap shooting, which began in England. Reporting on sporting events in England began in the 1710s and 1720s, this at a time when the population of England began to double between 1700 and 1800, and a new leisure class of titled, gentry and upper-middling groups emerged. Wagering needed winners and losers, so wagering and gambling has long been ingrained in Briti...

A True magazine article that chronicled Herb’s accomplishments tagged him as the “Showman Shooter” and the moniker stuck. On the way to an exhibition, Herb would stop at a supermarket where he collected what he called his "groceries." He bought oranges, grapefruit, potatoes, cabbages, turnips, and several dozen eggs. Wherever he went, the town’s people were about to witness one of the greatest sho...

With the end of War World II, Olin leased from Crowe in 1945 some 1,880 acres, of which 1,100 acres was timber in Prairie County, approximately six miles southeast of Hazen. It was immediately christened the Greenbriar Club, so name by John Olin’s younger brother Spencer, who was, besides being a duck hunter, an avid golfer and his favorite golfing course was the Greenbriar Club in White Sulphur S...

Three thousand duck enthusiasts slowly gathered around the stage at 2:00 p.m. to watch some of the best: Art Beauchamp, Chick Majors (1945 Word Champion), Tom Burge (Missouri State Champion), Carl Zieglowsky (Iowa State Champion), and W.C. Cross (winner of the championship in 1957 and 1958). Then there was Daryl Cates, of Memphis, the youngest ever to enter at 13 years, having won the TennesseeSta...

Hopefully, someone can unravel the two great mysteries of this extraordinary and historic relic--a monstrous three-barreled punt gun: where is and what happened to this Holy Grail of a unique and unusual monstrous punt gun and who was the gunmaker Lizerad? ­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­

Many gave him the sobriquet the “Rocket Man,” the one who developed the Saturn V rocket that put six teams of American astronauts on the moon from 1969 to 1972. He was the father and superstar of our space program. Werhner von Braun and three others flew from Huntsville, Alabama to Walnut Ridge AFB, where they drove to Jonesboro on December 26, 1959. The four traveled to Wallace Claypool's leg...

Mud flats of the river islands and the sandbar inlets were where sports found Canada geese during the olden times. All along the Mississippi River and its tributaries were located numerous islands and sandbars that were the feeding and wintering grounds for Canada geese for many years immemorial, and since pioneer days it was noted for the goose shooting it afforded. In the olden days, there were...

A TIME TO REFLECT When the shadows from the hills have gown longer, caused by the departing sun, kindly reflect of your days spent amid the solitude of Mother Nature, which were the sweetest enjoyment to you. Sometime, somewhere, in that undiscovered paradise high in the heavens whose scenes are painted by His hand, shall you find a happy hunting ground where the axe of the lumberman has not penet...

There lived in Chicago an Italian about 40 years of age in 1890, who kept a little fruit store on Wabash Avenue, and was known in the game market and among Chicago sportsmen by the sobriquet of “Plover Joe” or “Italian Joe” as he was interchangeably called. His real name was Joseph Paoli. He was considered the authority on one particular bird of passages, having hunted golden plovers since 1868, a...

It is common wisdom that most everyone believes that the punt or stanchion gun, also known as the big gun, saw its beginning in England. In the podcast, I give some history of the punt/stanchion/big gun along with a few of my thoughts on why, how, where, and when the punt gun originated and the general area where it originated. With this podcast, it surely looks like that big guns were being used...

Hearkening back to the Pleistocene epoch, symbolizing good fortune, fidelity, and longevity, the distinctive large winged, long necked, and long-legged sandhill cranes with crimson foreheads are known throughout the world for their mesmerizing courtship dances, their calling, oftentimes heard for three miles away and described as bulging, rattling, or croaking, their longevity, shyness, and being...