Goin' South
 

"Burt" Bickel and I are heading down to Tunica County, Mississippi this week for our annual pilgrimage to Beaver Dam. We'll meet up with Destry for breakfast at o'dark 30 at the Blue & White on Highway 61. He'll be coming down from southern Illinois. We plan a coordinated thematic gun scheme for our 3 day hunt. We'll have three 12 gauge 3" Parker D grade No. 3 frames (two 34" and one 32") in the blind and I'll shoot my early Remington Autoloading Shotgun Grade 6 (aka a Model 11F) one day and, of course, in honor of:bowdown: Nash Buckingham, my 32" A.H. Fox HE/XE special. The other boys will have 11Ds and their own Fox HEs, as well. The gifts for friends are packed. The waders and shells are piled in the gunroom corner. The Brooklyn Handicap and Tree Top Tall are in the leather bottle bag:shock: I'll follow up with "news from the mallard front" and jez hopes dem eloosive fowls is goin' tah pile in de cypress hole dat weez in...

Someone will have the camera, right ??

Please give my regards to Russ.

"Bo-Woop"
 

I hope you shoot like Harold Money.Remember to give Horace a big draw on the Bourbon."The shootineest Gentleman" reincarnated.Tell old Molly hello.

I'll give Molly a pat on the head for you Edward, but she'll be picking up the ducks for us not cooking them. Molly is the name of one of our guides black labradors.


Destry

Cap'n Whofort, you jez makes sho' dat you packs dat afromatic o' yohs and aw'll be waitin' by de flatfom til de fass train frum Kayrow dun come. I stul hass a piece o' Molly's red britches dat she an' Mr.Smathers tain't usin' no mo'. T'il be on de lantern to flag dat ol' train down. You jez watch wen you gets off de train dat you don slip in ho'frost liken you di lass time you dun a'lighted der- Always a servant, Ho'ace

Dang I wish I was going with you guys! No ducks at my hole just south of Yazoo City, MS so I'm interested if they're holed up in Tunica. If they are please encourage them to come on down.

Please give my regards to Esquire Boyd and take lots of photos....especially of Destry!

Mike

I might be down Yazoo City way the week between Christmas and New Years actually. Was down there last year for three days and had a fine time. Killed my first ever specks and first ever Ross geese along with a heap of ducks.


Destry

If you can give me a shout & we'll see if we can get together.

Mike

Sounds good, I'll let you know.

DLH

Good luck to all. In spite of the hype by USFWS and DU etc. about the current state of duck populations (lots of them) I am currently experiencing the slowest year for shooting and seeing ducks since I started waterfowling in 1974.

Im envious.... a trip outta state about now sounds grand as the duck shooting here in south Jersey is quite slim to put it kindly... Brooklyn Handicap?? Tree Top Tall?? I may be wrong but I think Mr Buck was a T-totaler..if in fact that is the case ...Im sure he would'nt mind a gentleman having a tug of something southern say maybe Blantons or even better Pappy Van Winkle after a day in the woods marsh or field.
heres to a fun trip

There's always been some question about Mr. Nash and his drinking. He talks about people drinking in nearly every story, and several times you get the impression that he's joining in, though he does actually say in only one tale (that I can think of) he doesn't drink himself. I think he maybe didn't drink at one time but did drink at other times. There's a picture of him in Life (Don will correct me if I'm wrong on the magazine) holding what's obviously a cocktail of some kind in his hand.


Destry

Yes, in a 1944 issue of "Life" Nash is photographed with a highball in his hand sitting in Cousin Evelyn's home after a quail shoot. He also has a O/U in his hand in another Photo at Ev's gate. Things look very slow down here in Tunica. Baver Dam itself is very high but quite silent with ony a few (a very few) fowl. It is 65 degrees and raining...

"Things look very slow down here in Tunica. Baver Dam itself is very high but quite silent with ony a few (a very few) fowl. It is 65 degrees and raining... "

Hang in there "Boys" the cold weather should hit you today or tomorrow. Good luck....

Well, Beaver Dam was slow today, we were out in the Electra 225 Blind in the Southe Trails. To use Nash's phrase, "provender was scarce" We had a 32" DH and a 34" DHE ,both 12g factory long chambered 3 frames, in the blind and the guides a VH and a Fox. About 0800, 7 or 8 gadwalls dropped in and we took 3. Another one snuck in an hour later and I gave it a go but ony managed to cut off a one inch thick cypress branch directly over head. Another group of 15-18 grey ducks worked us hard but pulled up and fled...Ol' Ho'ace would have had a easy day today...mo' tomorrow. A little recce mission this afternoon near Arkabutla Lake found thousands of snows and blues feeding in the fields but precious few ducks. Normally, every other pothole you drive by around here has a few ducks in it...I blame Al Gore...

boys the temp is dropping so maybe things will change tommorrow...hopethem barrels get warm....charlie

We finished up our Mississippi trip with a total of 27 ducks over 3 days including a bluebill drake and a spoonie hen shot over some catfish ponds that we shot on one afternoon. These ponds were filled with ruddies even they proved quite "eloosive fowls" in Ho'ace's parlance. There were lots of snows around but no real way to get at them. There were gadwalls, too, in the air high over Beaver Dam on Sunday mawnin' but they just would not cooperate. We made the 1100 mile return trip without incident. Now I have to figure out when I can get done to my club in the Upper Chesapeake for somemore duck hunting below the Mason-Dixon Line.

Monday's Beaver dam report was 6 teal and 5 mal'larts.

How did the new #3 frame 12 34"er perform?

Well, John I am pretty sure I shot one mallard drake with it on the first day and then using Hevi-shot, a bluebill the second afternoon. A 34" 10 lb 3" 12 gauge was not really needed for either shot! Our "big day" was the second day when Russ and I limited out on mallards, gads and baldpate. We were both shooting "infernal contraptions". His was a Model 11D straight grip and mine a very early Grade 6 Remington Autoloading Shotgun.