Minnesota Duck Opener with Parker 16's

[Matt Buckley]

Fellow Parker member Jim Beilke and myself opened the Minnesota Duck Season this morning in the Minnesota River Valley with are Parker 16's in hand and 6 ducks to show at the end of the day. The bag was made up of 1 mallard, 2 wood ducks, and 3 green wing teal. The guns for the day were a 16 grade 2 hammer gun with 30" barrels and 16 Trojan with 26" barrels.

[Matt Buckley]

Today’s take. Take notice of the jewelry on the goose leg. Jim decided to go away from the Parker theme this morning but I can’t look down my nose to much at what he decided to shoot.

[Jim Beilke]

Two great mornings with Matt in the Duck slough. 6 weeks ago this slough was nearly dry due the severe drought in this area. We then got near 9" of rain over about a month. Not only was the slough boatable with my 9' double ender but due to a young man near half my age it was wadeable. Not huge numbers of ducks but enough to keep us alert. A very pleasant and unexpected quality opener.

[CraigThompson]

Very nice ! The only thing that would make the Grade 2 hammer any better is if it were in my accumulation :whistle:

[Andrew Sacco]

Wow : )

[Kevin McCormack]

Matt/Jim - what are the gunstock protectors made from? Look like leather but can't tell for sure. Are they a commercial product or did you have them made? Very cool!

[Matt Buckley]

Jim made the gun stock protectors. He can chime in and tell what kind of leather it was.

[Jim Beilke]

Kevin. The leather I use to make the gunstock protectors are made from buckskin,elk skin or buffalo hide depending on what I have on hand. I started doing this on waterfowl guns back in the late 60s.It does wonders to protect the stocks in harsh waterfowl conditions.

[Destry L. Hoffard]

Nice work!