Jump shooting ducks 2020

[Tom Flanigan]

Charlie,

The hunting was incredible in my area of Saskatchewan. The ducks and geese cause problems for the farmers up there. They welcome hunters. I was introduced to all the farmers in my area, some of whom became close friends of mine. Many would invite me to dinner. I didn’t need Aboriginal lands to hunt on but I’d go there for moose.

A friend’s job was to dump a load of grain every morning on a reservoir where hunting was not allowed. The government fed the ducks and geese to try to draw as many as possible from the farmer’s fields. I’d go with him in the morning and we would fill a dump truck, loaded from a silo on the banks of the reservoir. We would then drive around in circles on the “duck pad” to distribute the feed. As soon as we got up the hill the ducks and geese would crowd into the duck pad to feed. It was a wonderful sight, thousands of ducks and geese came in to get their share of the grain.

Feeding the ducks might have helped the farmers a bit, but I didn’t notice it while hunting. I saw fields literally covered with thousands of mallards and the sloughs were always full of ducks. It was grand shooting, but more important was the sight of so many waterfowl. I took a non hunting friend up there once just to experience it. He loved to watch ducks and so I never shot any on his property in Pawling, NY. The memory of what he saw will remain with him for life.