I gave you four concrete examples - my two friends in Jersey, my friend in Maine, myself.

More to the point, though, is how diehard those hunters were. The one Jersey guy, had so many decoys he had no room for oher decor in his house. We hunted brant and sea ducks over his spread of cedar decoys. I assume you know you don't just toss a dozen dekes out there when you hunt brant or sea ducks. Loading those out barely made a dent in the piles in the room he had set aside for decoys (BTW - cedar decoys are much more lifelike than plastic or cork in the way they float.) He had a share in a duck shack - a cabin on stilts out in the marsh. He'd go out there and spend the late season - most of December and January - hunting ducks every day and live there, coming in only for shells, gas, beer and food. (His business was slow in the winter, so he wasn't missing out by living in the marsh all winter.) The other Jersey guy was there when he had a chance, which he made a lot of. They'd go out there in some of the worst weather - sideways snow, fog, waves and wind that threatened to swamp the boat (a Garvey) - and lived for duck season.

Both those guys have quit, in large part because of steel but also because of cost and "all this for one duck" limits.

My friend in Maine I haven't known as long, but he is an avid hunter. He gave up ducks long ago - steel was the issue that pushed him over the edge to quit.

None of these guys' kids have ever hunted ducks, to my knowledge.

So, it's not only the guys who quit. It's the future generations that never start.

Around here, a watchword relative to range safety and neighbor manners is that we are not just worried about our own shooting, but we want our kids and grandkids to be able to shoot, too. The same principle should be applied to waterfowling and, more generally, the whole lead shot issue. The antis failed to take away the guns. But they will not stop trying to end the shooting sports, figuring that if they make it too expensive by requiring expensive ammunition only, they'll turn the guns into expensive paperweights.

Don't help them.

fiery, dependable, occasionally transcendent