What Makes a Red Letter Day?

[Stan Hillis]

I recall a red letter duck day, from 2-3 years back. I've been chasing green heads in eastern AR for 25+ years. When my oldest grandson got big enough to handle a duck gun I took him with me and he killed his first mallards. A couple years later his younger brother showed interest in going with us, so we made it a threesome.

i was shooting my 32" HE Fox with 1 1/4 oz. handloads of #4 bismuth. There were five of us in the big floating blind that morning and it was a good day. Both grandsons killed ducks, and Grandad was on a pretty good roll. I had killed a mallard and a widgeon, with two shots. Then I killed a gadwall with one shot. A drake and a hen mallard circled and made the commitment. Just as I pulled on the drake the hen cut behind him and I dumped them both with one shot. I was thinking that I was five for four shells. Thinking stuff like that can get to you. I said to myself "Myself, if you kill the next one with one shell you will have a 6 duck limit with 5 shells". Next duck I had a shot at was a big mallard drake, all by his lonesome. He circled the dekes four or five times, talking it up. The wind was in our faces, and he came from behind. I hit him hard....... I thought. As he was falling I could tell he had lots of life left in him and would be a swimmer, so I hit him again before he hit the water, with the left barrel.



Ended the morning six for six, and both grandsons killed ducks. That was indeed a red letter day, but I remember another one in that same blind, with that same gun. My friend and his Dad were with me. They own the land. And, another friend from AR was with us. Slow morning. We had killed 6 or 8 when a lone drake mallard starting circling the hole. He was lonesome, but wary. He came from behind and I thought, from the way he was losing altitude, that he was going to set down in the dekes. He saw something at the last minute that he didn't like and starting climbing, going straight away. I put that big Fox's bead on him and sent a load of bismuth chasing him. It hit him hard and he shuddered, but kept going, climbing slightly. When my load hit him he was probably 45 yards out, and many of you know how hard it is to anchor a duck with a straightaway shot, if you don't break a wing. He flew out to about 170 yards then put both wings out rigid and crashed to the water, behind some tall trees. My older friend said that I had the only gun in the blind that would have made that shot, with it's tight chokes and the bismuth.

My younger friend commanded his young black Lab Max to "Mark!". He sent him through the decoys, across the big hole. Into the trees he swam ..........out of sight completely. We waited and waited. I was getting worried about Max because he had been gone so long and there was nowhere the water was shallow enough for him to touch bottom. I mentioned that we might should get in the boat and go see about him. We waited a couple more minutes and my friend said "Look at that!" Max was coming back through the trees and we could barely make out a green head hanging in front. Finest duck retrieve I ever witnessed ........... at least 180 yards, blind retrieve with no correction from his master, out of sight of us, in deep water.

SRH

[Andy]

That's awesome Chris. I'm only a number of months ahead of you with Parkers and my 28 Repro is my favorite gun. Be careful, I'm starting to tumble down the slippery slope. I'm headed to Robbin Hollow in a few weeks to try to unload stuff I no longer use and fund another purchase (or two).

[mobirdhunter]

Stan, your first account reminds me of a particular Gordon McQuarrie story, Bluebill Day, in which he describes a hunt that found him alone and with only a partial box of shells. One of the best duck hunting stories I have ever read. After reading your description of that 6-fo-6 day, I'll bet you'd enjoy it for sure.

Thanks for posting. One of these days I hope to hunt ducks in the flooded timber of Arkansas.

[Stan Hillis]

I'll look that one up, to be sure, but I think I've read it. No matter....... I'll read it again.

Thanks, Garry

[Chris Pope]

Did someone mention 6 for 6? Now that just brought back another red letter memory! About 5 years ago my buddy, with his English Cocker, and I, with my Griffon, hunted an abandoned 100 acre apple orchard. It was tucked away and did not get much hunting activity and was a magnet for both grouse and woodcock. That’s the good news…the bad is that it was severely overgrown and full of bitter sweet and wild roses and tough, even by New England standards, on man and his best friend. But this place was made for a dog that could point and his little buddy who would furrow underneath the prickles and flush whatever was hiding.
We would hunt this covert only once or twice per season and would run the rows, my buddy on one and I would be in the next with dogs coursing their way through. My buddy is an incredibly good wing shot. I am not, even after 40+ years of hunting and clays I’m a B+ on a great day and more frequently a C+. Within 5 minutes that little cocker booted 2 woodcock from underneath apple trees and my buddy took them with one shot each. 5 minutes later he took a third, again with a single shot. No sooner had I started to feel left out when my pup went on point. We called the cocker around and he flushed the bird, which was just swinging behind a thicket of dead apple branches and bittersweet when I shot. Thinking I was behind the bird and late, I was pleased when the griff brought the plump hen back to me. My friend couldn’t help but saying, “Gee…that’s 4 for 4, now you have to get the next 2 with one shot each.” He knew darn well that was jinx talk. Anything he could do to psych me out was entertainment for him. We kept hunting. About 200 yards later at the end of the orchard my pup went on a hard point. Now I’m nervous. There was plenty of open sky and little excuse for missing. I took one step and a woodcock went up. As I shot and the bird came down- phew! On the shot a second bird exploded 15 feet to my left and headed away. With feet tangled in underbrush I did my best to quickly replant my body in the direction of the birds flight. I shot and unbelievably to me the bird folded and crashed over a stone wall in a open pasture. The pup proudly made both retrieves. I was so stunned by my actually having shot the second bird that I had to be reminded by my buddy that we had each taken our limit of woodcock- 3 birds each with 3 shots each. And nothing tastes better than chopped woodcock breast meat in an omelet with some cheddar.
Again, my thanks to all of you for your fond hunting red letter memories and so pleased to hear that old Parkers are still bringing meat to the table and sweet dreams for our hunting dogs…

[Stan Hillis]

Chris, that was an awesome hunt! 6 for 6 on 'doodles is a lot harder than decoyed ducks! Y'all should have gone straight to the nearest lottery ticket seller.

SRH

[Dean Romig]

A great 6/6 story Chris. Very well told!

I’ll have to try that omlette next fall, but with Cabot Vermont Seriously Sharp Cheddar. I’ve eaten all of my woodcock breasts from this last fall of woodcock in the Scrubapple Hillside covert this past October as medium rare sauteed hors d’ouvres.





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[Chris Pope]

Couple of notes on the picture of that red letter 6 for 6 woodcock day with my buddy.
1. We staged the after photo on the back of my buggy when we got home. Actually we are pretty much blue collar hunters.
2. Yes the big dog is a full blooded Griffon from a breeder in Montana that likes, as I do, really tight coats. His coat is half way between GSP and GWP.
3. Don't let the size of my buddy's English Cocker fool you...he was a fearless working bird machine.
3. No there wasn't a parker in this picture because it was a couple years before I became corrupted by ridiculous Parker fever... (:

[charlie cleveland]

good stories...rare moments are never forgotten about hunting....nice field your buggy is sitting in....charlie

[mobirdhunter]

Originally Posted by Dean Romig

A great 6/6 story Chris. Very well told!

I’ll have to try that omlette next fall, but with Cabot Vermont Seriously Sharp Cheddar. I’ve eaten all of my woodcock breasts from this last fall of woodcock in the Scrubapple Hillside covert this past October as medium rare sauteed hors d’ouvres.
.

Now I'm hungry...again! Woodcock breast and Vermont Sharp (Seriously) Cheddar sound very compatible. Hmmm...can you drink a nice red wine for breakfast?