duck hunt

[charlie cleveland]

began the day by getting up at 3.45 am..a man s gota love duck hunting to get up in the wee hours...i met my hunting partner on at the end of the tombigbee waterway bridge.. was not long he arrived and we took off down the trail that he had flag out for us yesterday evening...after a brisk 15 minute walk we chose our hunting places boy what a beautiful old slew..it is filled with tupelo gum trees and cypress trees what a site...we had about 15 minutes till shooting time then i look up and a squirl is running in a tree just above me boy he s out early...i let him pass and not long after the wood ducks began squeling...wish i hada carried a few decoys...ducks began to pour in from every where my first shot a clean miss i guess he was to high just then my hunting partner jamie fires at two he hit one and down it went in the slew...just then i fire the left barrel of the old smith and down came one of the two...next 3 woodies come over me i m telling you straight up i almost fell down trying to aim straight up never got a shot off...jamie fired just then and again but never drew a feather... i then shot at 2 ducks hitting one but it kept going then down it went but two far to reclaim because of deep water...then came 2 more woodies feathers fly from one that duck took a lot of steel but kept flying...then as sudden as it began the ducks quit flying we waited for 30 minutes only a coupla lone ducks came by and were very high...jamie had shot 9 times in all and i shot 8 times...only got one duck in hand that i had killed dead dead and we never recovered any of the cripples i guess this is were we needed a dog...we then started back to the trucks heard a shot and run into a coupla deer hunters one of them said he had shot at a big 9 point but had missed it....finally got to the trucks...this was the end of todays duck hunt...i then went home helped the grandson on his pickup a bit then we went to my dads house he had a rifle he wanted to give to my grandson his great grandson...my dad gave cole a heavy barreled 22-250 with scope and a set trigger also had a stainless 308 barrel that went with the gun...wow cole sure was surprized....we chatted a while then i went home and cole went to bed he had worked all night and had hunted deer till we went to my dads...when i looked at the clock it was straight up 12 i made me a big peanut and bannana sandwhich..gobbled this down quickly and jumped into the pivkup and went to a friends house to get the rear half of a real early t model car about a 1910...it was rough rough but heh were you gona get a 1/2 of a 1910 t model give to you......i then took it home grabbed my sons diseal ford truck and a big trailer and went back and got a fair old 36 ford 5 window coupe brought it to the house grabbed the other truck and went back and loaded up moter and tranny for the old 36..as i was there the guy showed me a coupla old pickups one a 52 ford pickupthe other a 49 chev panel truck i traded him out of both of these old trucks..i went home jumped out of the truck i covered up the moterand then went in and got my rifle and shells and went to my grandpa s old fields and got up in my shooting house.no i did not see a monster deer but did see a mighty nice jake turkey only had a 3 inch beard but in body he shoulda had a beard dragging the ground..stayed up that old house till dark...got home the wife had supper cooked.....what a day it has been...life is good..... .....charlie