One of our club members killed a huge honker out of one of our field pits in a snowstorm in the frigid winter of 1977 on our lease near Wye Island. When he brought it back to the clubhouse the fun began - everyone proclaimed in was this many / that many pounds, etc. One of us had to run into Easton for something so we ran it into the pickers, who had a good scale. It topped out at 14 pounds but looked like it weighed about 25 what with all the down and huge wingspread. Just goes to show you that "reality bites!"
For those that remember, that was the winter the Chesapeake completely froze over, from the Susquehanna Flats clear down to below Tangier Island VA. Stick-ups and silhouette decoys were useless, you couldn't get them in the ground, which froze like granite. We used then-legal full body taxidermy mounts which we did ourselves, and full-body shells if the wind wasn't too bad. We quit hunting the farm the second week in December; the bay never fully thawed until nearly Valentine's Day.
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