Let the duck games begin!

[Richard Flanders]

Made it out for the duck opener this weekend. Shooting was incredibly slow but I had the cherry spot with my hunting partner Nancy, an 84 yr old retired doctor from Anchorage and a serious hunter he entire life who was taught to hunt and fish by her mother. She has flown her Cessna 185 all over Alaska and finally sold her nice Super Cub, which she used on floats primarily for pothole duck hunting and running her trap line in south central Ak, to my neighbor when she quit flying it at 75 yrs old. This lady has lived the life I tell you. It was an honor to help her shoot ducks for her aged dog to retrieve. She wore the barrel out on her vintage Ithaca 37 and got it replaced somehow with one with screw in chokes. It's a deluxe model with stunning wood and a vent rib. We hunted together for 2.5 days and had the best shooting of the bunch. We got more ducks each day than the other 4 hunters combined. We got mostly spoonbills, but also got teal, pintails, a widgeon, and a ring bill. My dux are shown hanging in camp yesterday. I used my 32" 1883 hammer gun and my nice 2-frame 30" VH12 and have to confess to breaking the butt plate on the boat seat. Two large pcs about 1.5" total length broke off the side. Broke my heart to do that! I'll take any advice on how to get the pcs glued back in that folks have. It's a nice thick plate with a spur and is in excellent condition otherwise. If the pcs will glue back in there will be nothing missing. That hammer gun will sure kill ducks a long ways out!